How to Get Six Pack Abs

Intro: How to Get Six Pack Abs

Looking to impress some ladies this summer or just want to be able to open a can of beans with your gluts (buttocks)? Well... i can't promise anything (especially the can cracking) but I do have some earnest methods that can develop your abdomens, thighs, and of course, the gluteus maximus!

STEP 1: Warmup

First and foremost, DO A WARMUP! I see people all the time walk into the gym and just start lifting... if you are one of these people, you deserve a slap. Cold muscles don't stretch, cold rubber doesn't stretch, cold rubber snaps, muscles can snap too...

Even a 7 minute slow jog is better than nothing, but if you've got time then get a good 15 minute jog in. Your muscles will thank you in the morning and your heart will be pumping blood faster which makes every body part sing in harmony!

As far as stretching goes, I'm sure theres plenty intructables already out there on the subject. personally, I prefer stretching after my workout, but it's not too necessary as long as you stretch once every 2 or 3 workouts.

STEP 2: List of Drills

Now for the actual lesson...

It's called S(h)even and hell. No fancy contraptions, no balls, no weights. Just gravity and preserverance. Find a nice open area, lay on your back in classic crunch position, and set your watch for 7 minutes.

For every minute, switch to a different ab drill (below).

It's not about how many you can do. It's about being able to keep a steady speed and work through all 7 minutes.

In the next steps I will briefly explain each drill and rank them on difficulty/burn.

List of Drills (mix them up so that way you don't get too repetitive of any one list)

legs down (classic)
legs up (Don't cross legs)
plank upright
plank left
plank right
six inches
six inches to crunch
six to thirty six
swimmers
scissors
bicycles
penguins
toe toucher's
left to right
rockies


Are there more? Yes, many more, but this is more than enough for the average chimp.

STEP 3: Classic Crunch

Burn Scale (5 being the highest) = 2, Anaheim pepper

Classic Crunch

Feet and back level with ground, knees bend upward and arms folded around Chest. Arms behind head cause the use of arm muscles so fold them at the chest. Starting slow and steady is best always, you want to be able to feel your abs actually pulling you through and up. To create a good burn usually you only have to go half way up to your knees, anything higher and you can assume your using other muscles, so keep it low.

Classic Crunch Feet up
Burn Scale = 2.5, Anaheim pepper

Same as Classic crunch but keep your feet level with your knee caps, perpendicular to the ground.

STEP 4: Planks

Planks require you to concentrate on remaining still, and they may seem easy but a minute will seem a lot longer during this exercise. Try to include one or two of these in every seven minutes.

Plank Upright
Burn scale = 3, jalapeño pepper

Switch position so to have stomach facing ground. Lift yourself with your toes and forearm, keep body as straight as possible and KEEP YOUR BUTT DOWN. Within 30 seconds most people start involuntarily shacking and thats how you know its working!

Plank Right
Burn Scale = 2.5 Anaheim pepper

Switch position so to have right side on body facing ground. Lift your self with your right forearm and keep left arm perpendicular with body. Again your body should form a straight line, or plank.

Plank Left
Burn Scale = 2.6...... I'm not so symmetrical....

Same as Plank Right but on your left side.

STEP 5: Six Inches

All these drills are heavy on the legs, doing all six would be the ultimate glut work out

Six Inches
Burn Scale = 4 Thai Pepper

Position yourself with back facing ground and hands underneath your butt. raise your legs so that way your heels hover roughly 6 inches from the ground. Similar to the planks, withen 30 seconds your legs with start involuntary spasms.

Six inches to crunch
Burn Scale = 5 Red Habanero!

Same position as six inches to crunch, but fold your arms around your chest, and simultaneously raise your kneecaps to your chest while you crunch and as you go back down push your legs back out so that they hover 6 inches to the ground. Correctly done your feet should never touch the ground.

Six to thirty six
Burn Scale = 4 Thai Pepper

Same position as six inches. throughout the minute slowly raise your legs so to have your feet hover from six inches to 36 inches above the ground, and then slowly lower them back to six and repeat.

Swimmers
Burn Scale = 4 Thai Pepper

Start off in six inch position and raise each leg at a time upwards and as one leg comes down the other should be going up. This exercise should be done faster than the other leg raises. ( more kicks per minute)

Scissors
Burn Scale = 4 Thai Pepper

Same as Swimmers but instead of going verticle, your legs should be going horizontal and criss-crossing each other in a fluid motion. Also a fast pace exercise.

Bicycles
Burn Scale = 4 Thai Pepper

Start off in classical crunch position with feet up. Start pumping each leg mimicking the rotation of pedaling a bicycle. With opposite elbow to kneecap, side crunch so that they just barley touch. again a fast paced exercise but start off slow to get the grasp of the motion.

STEP 6: Last Four Exercises

Ok, heres the last three for now.

Penguins, these are good for a good break in the middle of the 7 minutes
Burn Scale = 1 Bell Pepper

Start off in classic position and keep heels just far enough away from finger tips so as to stretch a little to touch them. Move from left heel to right heel, feel the slight burn in your sides.

Rockies
Burn Scale = 4 Thai Pepper

Start in classic position except put your hand behind your head so your elbows extend forward. Thrust your body upright and touch each kneecap with adjacent elbow before going back down. This drill is pretty tough so not too many reps can be accomplished in one minute.

Touch touchers
Burn Scale = 4 Thai Pepper

Once again start in classic position, but lift legs completely up, 90 degrees to body. Try to reach and touch each toe with adjacent hand without bending knees. This should be a relatively fast drill.

Ok, Thats it! Theres plenty of drills here to pick and choose which ones to load your seven minutes with. Within a month of doing seven minutes every day I had defined abs... not to gloat or anything. Well, I hoped you liked this instructable, especially my awesome pictures, and yes it is my first, but I do have more information i can share with you in more instructables to come.

Please leave me any comments or suggestions, and if you want to improve my pictures I would totally welcome them with a big embrace! Thanks!

Comments

[C-R-E-8]

Cool another opsion is swimming trust me it has instant effect i swim competitions so trust me

[caylen2528]

Hahaha open beans with buttocks ;)

[DannytheGreat]

ive always called six inches to crunches "lemonsqueezes"

[robertjames]

we do this athletics every week for ten minutes

[Cr4zy_Dud3_0n_F1r3]

I've been doing some research:

But to burn the fat to make the six pack visible, you need to do aerobic exercises. I learned about glycogen, its what the body uses for exercise, for energy. This usually lasts about 30-45 minutes, there are a lot of factors that affect this, but this is usually how much time it takes for the average person to use up all of their glycogen. After all of the glycogen is used up, then the body starts to use the fat supply. So you need to exercise for at least an hour.

This is why some people exercise in the morning, because its been 7-10 hours since the person last ate, the supply of glycogen is lower (since we burn calories in our sleep). You have less glycogen which means that you will turn to fat supplies sooner.

[artlife1]

A pregnant man on the last photo. He must work hardly to get six pack abs.

[steve_tupper2010]

This is an excellent routine, thank you for putting it in Instructables. There is far too much hype (and far too much sales rhetoric) in this area of health: it is a great pleasure to see something practical, effective and - dare I say it - inexpensive for me to use.

Only suggestion is that I tend to add something for a twist in the waist as well, but that's maybe because at my age (nearing 60) it is isn't just my abs I am fighting to preserve, but my general mobility and flexibility as well.

[imapimp]

these are hard to do for a minute!!

[Cr4zy_Dud3_0n_F1r3]

Ditto! Just did my first 7-minute workout, and the only thing I can think of is: THIS IS WORKING!!!

[Cr4zy_Dud3_0n_F1r3]

Question:
Should I make a calendar listing body parts to exercise and list them randomly so I use muscle confusion? This way I don't tolerate the drills as fast and build muscle faster?

Thanks in advance, Cr42y Dud3.

[KottonKandy]

O nice! I did plank for a little over 5 min ( i timed it) and when I was done I was all shaky lol didnt rlly hurt the next day tho.

[JohnJY]

Pictures.

[borges0105]

Can any body tell me what I should be doing cause, I really want to have a better body now, I am 6'2 168lbs skinny looking, but I just dont know where to start from, the article gave alot of tips and I wanted to find out what I could do more(like exercises, and how many per set)...THX

[SimonLearnsNewThings]

which way do you face your hands when doing six inches? palms to the floor or palms on your butt?

[riiod]

First of all, thanks for the great explanations!

I'm trying to get into shape, and this method does look pretty convicing, However, I was wondering - usually in strength training, the advice is not to work the same muscle group two days in a row; should I really do these every day?

[Yesterday, I felt the burn, today, doing the exercises, I feel the pain...]

[AwesomeOpossum]

You should alternate between things to give them a day of rest every time in case you tore muscles, and to let them rebuild. It's also not good to only work certain muscles because it unbalances your body. I would reccommend alternating between abs, and leg muscles, and pecs, triceps, and biceps. You could do upper body one day and lowerbody the next.

[TheBookie]

The problem with this, as with all ab workouts, is that you have to lose the fat from around your waist in order to see ab definition. This cannot be done simply by working out your abs. You will never "burn" away fat from a certain area by working the muscles surrounding it. This is done through cardio and other aerobic workouts, and aided by weight training. Additionally, a more efficient way for abs to "pop" is by doing weighted ab exercises. The Ab and oblique muscles are no different to any other muscle, and their growth will be stimulated more effectively by breakdown and rebuilding via heavy weight training, than through repetition of movements. With that said, your workout is great for people who want to increase the endurance of their ab muscle. I just want to ensure that people realize if you have even a little extra fat around your waist, this workout alone will not get you six pack abs.

[RED^WINGED^PEGASUS]

That is so true TheBookie. You definitely need to BURN the fat with cardio or other exercises. My question is when you mention ab workouts with "breakdown and rebuilding via heavy weight training" what do you mean by break down and how cna we use weights with these abs workouts??

[bg1987]

Since muscles increase when they get teared and regenerated themselves to be larger (adapting to the new strain they are exposed to), weighted training is a very effective way to increase muscle mass.
If you find these exercises easy (your abs don't feel on fire after them), you could use weights, in the classic crunches, you can hold weights on your chest to increase the weight you are lifting with your stomach. 
also, doing these crunches on a negative incline training bed (the kind where your head is lower than your legs) increases their effectiveness.

Remember that training with weights should be supervised, and its best to consult a professional trainer and create a training program suitable for you.

[AwesomeOpossum]

Muscles don't just build when they tear. It's called adaptation, like tanning. If you strain your muscles and make them work, they'll get bigger to accomodate. You don't have to tear them. It's like tanning, you don't have to get burned to get a tan. Plus, if you have some body fat, and ab and leg workout is good because the most important thing is your core. Also, a lot of fat is stored on top of the core and legs. Mixing this with aerobic exercise like running would be best instead of weightlifting because your arms don't tend to collect fat as much. Plus, with this, you don't need a gym or anything.