Combine diet and exercise
Have you been dreaming of a flat stomach for years? Start a diet now and do the right abdominal exercises and steal the show this summer with your flat stomach!
Most people have highly developed abs. But this is not visible, because the muscles are often covered by a layer of fat.
Fat percentage
Sit-ups alone cannot burn the fat that lies on top of the abdominal muscle. To achieve this, you need to do a combination of regular fitness exercise and strength training and eat a healthy diet.
For visible abs, your body fat percentage should be quite low: about 12 percent. To put this in perspective, healthy body fat percentages are 15-20 percent for men and 25-30 percent for women. This varies by age, as you can see in the table below.
Age | Healthy fat percentage men | Healthy fat percentage women |
---|---|---|
20-24 | 10-17 | 22-29 |
25-29 | 11-18 | 23-30 |
30-34 | 12-19 | 24-31 |
35-39 | 13-20 | 25-32 |
40-44 | 14-21 | 26-33 |
45-49 | 15-22 | 27-34 |
50-59 | 17-24 | 29-36 |
< 60 | 19-26 | 31-38 |
It may be impossible for some people to achieve very low percentages. Accept this and don’t try to achieve it by going extreme lines. Also remember that women are genetically predisposed to store more fat around the abdomen. You have to decide for yourself whether ‘a washboard’ is worth going to the extreme.
Train your abs
An abdominal workout usually consists of 1 to 3 sets of 8 to 15 repetitions per exercise.
If you do the exercises correctly, it will only take 8-15 reps to get the muscles working, feeling them and achieving results.
Click on the links for effective abdominal exercises:
Abdominal muscle creator
Side Body Lift
Stretched arm crunch
The basic crunch
Reverse Crunch
The bicycle
the obliques
The right execution
The key is to focus on the right execution. Engage the deep abs throughout the movement. This is often described as ‘pull the navel towards the spine’ or ’empty your belly’.
Pulling the abs in and up will help train more muscle fiber (especially the transverse abs), making each rep more effective.
Vary your program
You need to keep variety in the exercises to challenge the body and achieve results. Try to change exercises at least every 4-6 weeks. This will help prevent boredom and make it easier for you to do more advanced exercises as you become stronger.
Peace
Rest 1 to 2 days between abdominal exercises. Your abs need time to rest to recover and to build up and get stronger. Therefore, do not do more than 3 to 4 abs workouts per week.