How to Get Sexy Abs

Follow these tips to get on your way to defined, sleek and sexy abs.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. 

   THE CARDIO COMPONENT: The key component for defined, sexy abs is to minimize the amount of fat covering up the stomach muscles. To achieve a true six pack, men would need to attain a body fat percentage of around 10%, while women would need a body fat percentage around 15% (exact percentage will vary depending on how an individuals body distributes body fat). So, while you’ll want to incorporate muscle building exercises (try pilates, yoga, balance ball exercises and calisthenics), a strong cardio workout of 40 minutes to one hour in duration is key.

2. 

   MEASURING YOUR PROGRESS: Sexy, defined abs won’t come overnight. You can help maintain your motivation by tracking your progress on many different levels. Here’s a few indicators to pay attention to:
   
   (1) DAILY: Take note of changes in how well your clothes fit, improvements in your physical endurance, and increased energy levels. While getting those sexy abs may be your driving goal, you’ll be amazed at how many other benefits you’ll encounter if you’re going about it right.
   
   (2) WEEKLY: Take your body measurements. Since you will likely be building muscle mass while losing fat, the scale may flatline even as you continue to lose inches. You can keep track of your measurements in a journal, or sign up for a free online exercise forum like SparkPeople or Gyminee, which will allow you to enter your body measurements and even presents your progress in charts so you can see how far you’ve come.
   
   (3) MONTHLY: Take a “before” picture, and about once a month take another photograph to view your progression.

3. 

   HOW LONG SHOULD IT TAKE?: The tough truth: genetics can mean it is simply not possible for some individuals to achieve six pack abs. However, anyone can improve their physique through physical exercise. For a reality check, take a look at photographs of athletes, actors or models whose bodies you admire (take into account that photos you find in the glossy magazines are likely airbrushed). You’ll likely find that most of them don’t have six pack abs, per se. What they do have is a healthy body fat percentage and enough muscle mass to produce a subtle, sexy contour. The degree of ab definition varies from a sexy flat stomach (try google imaging Kerri Walsh for an example) to an emerging six pack (look up Keira Knightley). To get a sense of how long it should take to achieve abs in this league, first take into account how much body fat you need to lose. An aggressive but healthy rate of weight loss would be 2-3 pounds per week, while one pound per week would allow you to set a more moderate pace. Try eating 4-6 small meals a day to keep your metabolism revving. As long as you continue to maintain and build muscle mass while shedding fat, you should be able to anticipate how far away you are from your sexy abs goal by dividing the amount of weight you need to loose by your weekly weight loss goal.

4. 
   Exercise with friends

   STAYING COMMITTED: If you’ve done the math and determined that sexy abs are more than a stone’s throw away, it may be time to come up with a support plan to help you commit to and achieve your goal. Make a list of exercise activities you enjoy --or that you’ve always wanted to try. Choose at least one activity that requires you to exercise at least once a week with a group (e.g. sign up for a yoga class, join an intramural sport, or enroll in martial arts training). Committing to an exercise activity in which others will expect you to show up can be the difference between cycling through a series of ‘I wish I had sexy abs” phases and truly achieving a meaningful health and fitness goal.

Tips & Warnings

• Losing weight ‘the right way’ is essential if you want sexy abs. While fad dieting and overtraining may result in weight loss, the result will be flabby, untoned ab that will look more sickly than sexy.

[Kilogramm]

on 4/16/2009 Great info, thanks for this!