YES, I’m talking about six-pack abs. We all want to look ripped for summer. I mean they look great on Facebook, so why not? In this article I will detail what it takes to get good-looking abdominal muscles ready for the summer.
Size.
You have to grow your abs first. In order for the abs to be visible later on and to have a great shape, you need to make them bigger. This is especially true for guys. For the ladies, this might not be so much of an issue. So targeted ab work designed to make the abs grow bigger and hypertrophize like the biceps should be in order.
Lose the belly fat.
For men, abs get visible at a body fat percentage of around six to eight percent, while for the ladies that happens at an area of 12 to 17 percent give or take depending on where you store your fat. We all have abs, but all of us just have them covered in fat. So get on a fat loss program both in exercise and nutrition and expect to lose around .5 to one percent of body fat per week depending on your starting levels.
Is it realistic to walk around with abs all-year-round?
Yes, it’s possible but it’s difficult. In order to maintain those body fat percentages, one must be exercising fairly intensely and be eating well 80 percent of the time.
Why do a lot of people have abs in pictures?
A lot of it is lighting, angling and flexing, most of the time. Professional models also go through a whole lot of interventions to tighten up their skin, to make sure that there aren’t fluids in the body, all in order to give a more “defined” appearance. My friend Mark Limbaga shared his photo with me to show us what a simple trick of posturing up, and angling and flexing can do to help those abs “appear.”
So train smart, train hard, and eat smart so you get to show off your abs this summer.