Flat Abs

Getting six-pack abs has been one of the most difficult goals for me to achieve. I am not there yet, but I believe i'm slowly (very slowly) getting there. According to my research, there are three things that we must work at in order to get the flat abdomen and definition we regularly see in magazines and television.

1) Get rid of the fat on top of the muscles

This is the fat just under the skin on top of the rectus abdominus and obliques. Most people know this, what some people do not know is that it abdominal exercises do not get rid of the fat on top of your ab muscles. To get rid of this layer of fat you have to get to a single digit body fat percentage. The only way that I know how to do this is trough dieting.

2) Definition

According to some experts including Frank Zane, the only way to get defined abs is to work them out as much as 6 days a week starting with 100 leg raises and 100 crunches. After you can do these two exercises easily, then you need to do them for a month. After a month, you can add more advanced exercises.

3) Flatten your belly

In order to get a truly flat belly you also need to workout a muscle that is beneath the obliques and rectus abdominus. This muscle is called the transversus abdominis muscle. The TVA muscle runs horizontal around your mid-section. The TVA muscle also has the effect of pulling in what would otherwise be a protruding abdomen (hence its nickname, the “corset muscle”). The most well known method of strengthening the TVA is the vacuum exercise.

Transversus abdominis and stomach vacums