Getting a six-pack

[Antor]

I see long hair. Cut that off... Hippy.

;-; I'm planning on donating it to Locks of Love sometime in the near future. And sorry, Aelkyrst, I don't own a camera. :\

Jojojo, I can't accurately say how much I eat, but try asking Willian how much I eat and how fast I eat. It's not exactly a whole lot, but it's not really all that quick either. I eat somewhat healthy, too, but carrots are a much better snack in my opinion than potato chips. A lot of people argue that mayonnaise doesn't really effect your diet enough to take it completely out, but if you can live without it that's definitely something I'd consider cutting out (I personally think mayo is GROSS). 4-6 meals a day is definitely what you're going to want to be aiming for as opposed to 2-3 large meals, as Mistra stated. If you're drinking protein shakes remember that they are meal supplements, but it's not a bad idea to pair it with a fruit.

You can do sit-ups with your hands behind your head, it's just that you might be tempted to pull yourself up with them. I generally either do it all Rocky style with my fists near the side of my head or just leave your hands by your side. If you're trying to do this all indoors and do not have access to a treadmill there are tons of different abdominal exercises you can try doing, and even adding some 5-pound weights to your workout routine can immensely help. Here's a couple I do (which I conveniently don't know the names of because my old PT and I referred to everything in perverse terms; such as the "virgin" and the "whore" which were leg exercises - you can probably guess what both of them are and that they're pretty much the opposite of each other):

Type 1:
-Get in standard crunch position
-Put left hand behind your head
-Cross right leg over left knee
-Now move your left elbow towards your right knee

Obviously switch for the opposite. What this does is gets the sides of your abs somewhat of a workout.

Type 2:
-Lay flat on the ground with your arms flat on the ground
-Extend both logs into the air until they are perpendicular to the ground (try to keep them straight)
-Lower your legs until they are about an inch off of the ground

These hurt like a mother bitch, and I hate doing them. But you can definitely feel the burn and can tell they work.

Type 3:
-Get in regular crunch position
-Put your hands in a position you would use to give someone CPR or something
-Push your hands between yours legs
-Pull your hands back

These are easy and I generally do them after the second type. They seem to make your body not feel like it's hurting, but it also works out the upper region of your abs.

Like I said, these things definitely have real names, but I couldn't name more than three exercises in the gym. When I tell people what to do I'm usually like "yeah, it's the one where you hold the dumbell over your head and raise it up and down behind your back." That probably means nothing to nearly everyone, but hopefully that helps a bit more. Possibly do them in this order:

Normal crunches x10
Type 1 x10 (actually x20 because you switch)
Type 2 x10
Type 3 x10

I usually mix in at least 10 push ups after this. Repeat about three times. That's effectively the same as doing 160 sit-ups. After this starts feeling easy (probably a week later) increase each set by one or two so that it looks like this:

Normal crunches x11
Type 1 x11 (22)
Type 2 x11
Type 3 x11

Also keep in mind that I regularly lift weights in combination with this, so perhaps you might not be worn out after just doing 160 sit-ups.

EDIT: Yeah, there's also this one I did where you laid on your side and propped yourself up with the elbow of whichever arm you're laying on. Don't touch the ground with the other arm. Try to hold this position for at least one minute. Switch sides afterwards. That and body balls are REALLY FUN. Find a workout partner if you can, too; that just makes the experience that much more awesome. If you keep a log of the weights and stuff you lift in your own handwriting you'll feel that much more accomplished. The massively inflated numbers from doing calf-raises (everyone can calf-raise about 3 billion pounds) kind of makes your irl-peen feel bigger.

 

[Jojojo]

Thanks everyone!

Just ran for the first time today and hurt the fuck out of the muscle behind my knees. I think swimming's where it's at for me.

Since I started the Abs Diet, here's what my meals are like:

Breakfast: Protein Shake, maybe some yogurt

Lunch: Some type of sandwich with a fair amount of lean meat and fat-free cheese on whole wheat; usually grilled chicken

Dinner: Burgers made with lean meat on a whole wheat bun, or fish, or something similar

Snacks: Cottage Cheese, fresh fruit, all-natural peanut butter sandwiches, nuts


Exercise is weights MWF, Cardio TR, Abs MWS, sunday rest.


Hopefully this goes well. I'm gonna stop eating at night, thanks to the sumo reference.

 

[Antor]

Updated my post, too. That diet seems perfectly fine. If you're going out don't feel bad for taking a "cheat day," though. No point in living if you don't enjoy yourself sometimes. My cousin's cheat days were basically when we'd go to Ryan's Buffet.

If you absolutely have to eat fast food because of work or some other situation I would strongly recommend Chick-fil-A. In Triple H's book "Making the Game" he also mentions how he has to eat on the road constantly (he also says mayo is okay, which it is) so he's constantly in fast food places. He recommended ordering two of the closest thing they have to a grilled chicken sandwich, removing the bun from one, and combining the two.

Also, don't jump right into running. I seriously would just stick to walking on a treadmill at the highest incline with a setting around 1.5 mph or something for around thirty minutes before working out, especially if you haven't been running a lot. Just increase the speed as time moves on. It might seem slow now but when you're walking at 3.2 mph in a couple of weeks it won't feel nowhere near as rough as it does now. You have to ease into things slowly.

When I invited Artem to the gym with me he tried to match my weight because he's quite honestly a much bigger person than I am, but I've been used to lifting weights, and although I could tell that he was somewhat shocked that I was easily lifting the same weight he was struggling with I just had to tell him how I, and pretty much everyone else, started, and this is honestly how I start every new exercise, regardless of how easy it feels -- use the smallest amount of weight until you have the form down and feel comfortable doing the exercise. Although it might seem embarrassing, the community of a gym (or the working out world in general) is there to help you out and to make sure that you're on the right track, even if you're just bench pressing the bar with no additional weights. I promise you that nobody will laugh at you because getting in shape is a very respectable decision to make, and a lot of people don't even have what it takes to even attempt to do what you're starting to do.

I strongly recommend at least some light cardio before working out each day. A quick game of basketball or 15 minutes on a treadmill would suffice just fine. In high school my PT told me that pure cardio days was actually a waste of time for people with my body type (lean, basically) because I'd be burning muscle due to not having any fat to really burn off. Whether he was joking or not I do not know, but either way you can see his point just fine. If that fits your body type at all then I'd cut back on the number of cardio days.

My old workout routine (when I had access to a gym) looked like this:

Day 1: 30 mins cardio, upper body (focus on chest), abdominal
Day 2: 30 mins cardio, lower body (focus on calf), abdominal
Day 3: 30 mins cardio, upper body (focus on arms), abdominal
Day 4: 30 mins cardio, general mix of everything, heavy abdominal (machines + normal)
Day 5: Power day
Day 6: Off, abdominal if I felt like it
Day 7: Off, abdominal if I felt like it

Power days basically entailed three sets of ten deadlifts. You laugh at this but Day 5 was the hardest of all five work days, and after my first ever power day I still felt it by about Day 4 of the next week.

 

[Mistra]

Thanks everyone!

Just ran for the first time today and hurt the fuck out of the muscle behind my knees. I think swimming's where it's at for me.

Since I started the Abs Diet, here's what my meals are like:

Breakfast: Protein Shake, maybe some yogurt

Lunch: Some type of sandwich with a fair amount of lean meat and fat-free cheese on whole wheat; usually grilled chicken

Dinner: Burgers made with lean meat on a whole wheat bun, or fish, or something similar

Snacks: Cottage Cheese, fresh fruit, all-natural peanut butter sandwiches, nuts


Exercise is weights MWF, Cardio TR, Abs MWS, sunday rest.


Hopefully this goes well. I'm gonna stop eating at night, thanks to the sumo reference.

Try some tuna sandwhiches for lunch too. Also, it won't hurt to beef up your breakfast a bit. Eggs, toast, and a good, glass of milk will do you some splendid good. It's the other two meals you need to think about eating light. While the protein shake for breakfast is good, try it as a replacement for lunch instead.

 

[Andreva]

I see long hair. Cut that off... Hippy.

Dont knock long hair. The ladies love it. Also, why does everyone imediately associate long hair with being a hippy? Why can't they match it with something like, a love of cake? Seriously.


.........



It's sad he's dead now. Those of you know who I mean know what I mean.

 

[Ween311]

And don't forget the most important exercise of all....Cock Pushups.

 

[Arctyrael]

Try some tuna sandwhiches for lunch too. Also, it won't hurt to beef up your breakfast a bit. Eggs, toast, and a good, glass of milk will do you some splendid good. It's the other two meals you need to think about eating light. While the protein shake for breakfast is good, try it as a replacement for lunch instead.

Omega-3 fatty acids. You want them.

 

[Ryuhei]

I'm about 5'9 or 5'10 and weigh 140-145lbs. I don't have such a planned workout and meal schedule, but I do try to do different abdominal cardio exercises mixed up with pushups and pullups every day. I'm also easing into running.

I recently set up the Abs Diet online to give me a more formal schedule to follow, and I have dumbells, but not a bench to do flies and other exercises on. I think that's the minimum equipment you can have it allows you to have. lol So, for example, I substitute flies for pushups. (They're tedious to me, though.) Overall it seems like a good program.

 

[Jojojo]

I'm kind of pissed. It's the end of the third week, and while I'm seeing a lot of muscle all over my body where it wasn't before, my stomach still looks the same. My sister says it's genetic, that in our family we will always have a bit of stomach fat.

I'm gonna keep with it, though, just to see what'll happen by week 6. At the very least, I'll have big-ass biceps and pecs.

 

[Antor]

Keep working at it. Abs require pretty much no fat in that area and a high level of definition. Hell, I can't actually see mine (well, completely) unless I flex or tighten up that area. I'm not sure of your skin color, either, but with a nice tan you'll see them a lot easier.

 

[Romper]

Jojo you should be doing abs everyday because your torso is the core of the body if that's weak everything else will be in poor shape.

Another good ab worker are jack knives lay flat on the floor, for the first few times go without a plate then go with a 10, 25, 35, and finally a 45, you'll want to hold your legs about 5 inches off the ground and never touch the floor with them. What you'll do is move your legs up via the hips while you raise your arms/upper body to touch your knees/thighs. If you feel your lower back arch up when your legs are going back down go to a point where your back doesn't arch as this can hurt you (trust me this was one way that i pulled a muscle in my back). Another thing is don't move your knees when you're doing this it's all about your hips when you move your legs this tends to help your hamstrings and quads get stronger. Eventually your back will stop arching as you can bring your legs lower back to the starting position from getting stronger. I got about a quarter of an inch of starting position by the end of the year because I was a jack knife rookie when I started and my back would arch a lot.

I cannot emphasize how much this will work your body as you're raising a plate above your head then lowering it back down as your lifting/lowering your legs. Just don't hit your head with the plate. Also the goal is to get your shoulder blades off of the ground.

Squats I can say will give you a good work out if you drop your butt parallel with your knees keep your back straight (another reason why I had a pulled muscle in my back was not keeping my chest out and my back not straight) you'll want to naturally push up with your heels and keep your feet flat do not let them go up on the balls of your feet.

As for the diet I went 2-3 meals (never time to eat breakfast in the morning for me). Never ever go to lift if you haven't had any form of nutrition I speak from experience as I nearly past out while lifting from not eating one day. Your diet should consist of like everyone has said small snacks in between meals, veggie fruit or diary product is usually best route to go, then chicken/seafood for dinner over beef and pork like you have been doing.

It's ok to indulge in fatty foods every once in awhile as long as you work hard to burn it off hell sometimes it can help in the muscle building process because most fat is just a liquid like substance. It's really not hard to burn off as a guy. Hell I am still losing weight and I haven't lifted since mid-May because of the increased metabolism from working out, cutting down fatty foods, and cutting down to 1 pop (normally a coke/pepsi as caffeine doesn't wake me up unless with sugar) because I can't stomach coffee at all.

Just remember drink water over pop/coffee/alcohol. If you have to have pop with food, because some food just doesn't work well with water imo, make it a diet (insert w/e brand). Like I said it's never a bad thing to indulge once in a while just don't make it frequent and stick to your goals.

Otherwise (insert what everyone else has said).

 

[Jojojo]

Keep working at it. Abs require pretty much no fat in that area and a high level of definition. Hell, I can't actually see mine (well, completely) unless I flex or tighten up that area. I'm not sure of your skin color, either, but with a nice tan you'll see them a lot easier.

I'm so white I have numbers tattooed on my bald head. I don't wanna tan, either, because cancer runs in my family.

I'm gonna start eating less, though. I think my meals have been too large.

 

[Blackchaoshero]

Omega-3 fatty acids. You want them.

good point. the omega 3's perform very well in pill form for people who don't like/are allergic to fish as well.

I'd recommend staying away from pop, diet or not. but if you're going to drink pop drink the real deal. otherwise the craving won't go away :wink: you'll notice all those massively obese people drink diet pop like it will make the difference between 450 and 500 lbs...

 

[Antor]

Soda doesn't really matter if you drink it in moderation. You'd have to be drinking a liter of Mountain Dew for that to have as much of an effect as you probably think it does.

 

[Arctyrael]

I'm so white I have numbers tattooed on my bald head. I don't wanna tan, either, because cancer runs in my family.

I'm gonna start eating less, though. I think my meals have been too large.

You don't wanna dip below 1800 cal if you've been doing any activity at all towards excecise/weight training.

 

[Romper]

Soda doesn't really matter if you drink it in moderation. You'd have to be drinking a liter of Mountain Dew for that to have as much of an effect as you probably think it does.

But the amount of calories does. Like I said I limited myself to one pop a day and have kept that and it's cut down sugar and calorie in take. It makes a difference even compared to Gatorade

pepsi

coke

POWERade

I was honestly surprised how much sugar was in a 12 oz gatorade when I saw the facts. The only info I could find for 12 oz POWERade was from Sonic, but honestly who gets POWERade at fast food joints.

 

[Jojojo]

Jojo you should be doing abs everyday because your torso is the core of the body if that's weak everything else will be in poor shape.

I'm starting to agree with this. The Abs Diet says not to work your abs two days in a row, the logic being that you must give them time to repair, but all I've noticed on my day off is my abs getting weaker.

 

[Romper]

I'm starting to agree with this. The Abs Diet says not to work your abs two days in a row, the logic being that you must give them time to repair, but all I've noticed on my day off is my abs getting weaker.

Not so much weaker the day after it's because of how you worked your abs you felt it right after. I never felt my stomach hurt the day after working out. Yes I would feel whatever I worked out the day after, but never the stomach. But if you keep ab work you strengthen them up faster and allows for more muscle to be built because you're pushing yourself yes you will hurt afterwards, but you'll feel better later because while doing abs you also allow your other body parts to cool down for the most part while working abs.

The end of the session was normally stuff just to condition the body a little crunches jack knives reverse crunches the oblique crunch holding a squat position push ups table top (elbows and toes w/e you wish to call it) and the thing antor mentioned where you lay on the side and push your body up so your hips are off the ground. It all feels great to do because you're burning fat and gaining muscle.

You seem to have the determination to achieve your goal which is even better. I have had buddies that stopped lifting because they couldn't commit to the point that they stopped lifting all together. So I was making friends with the other guys/girls that worked out in the school's weight room. One of the best ways to make friends is just by working out.