How to Get Six Pack Abs With Weighted Machines

The biggest mistake people do when training abs is failing to do the right kinds of workouts for abs. When you walk in the gym and you hear people whine about why their abs don't show, it's either because they are neglecting their abs/cardio/diet completely or they simply go about it the wrong way...

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. You have to realize that the most important part in the path to a six pack is in your diet. No matter how hard or frequent you train abs, you will never get the results you want without a strict diet. You don't need to eat perfectly to get a great stomach but enough to get your body fat well under 10%. Once your body fat is under 10% your abs should start showing. But only once you shred your midsection of almost all of its bodyfat will your abs begin to ripple. You could have the best set of abs around, but they could be covered under a layer of fat, never giving your abs the chance to show itself to the world. You need to train your abs hard to develop the muscle, but more importantly cut the fat.

2. In order to make your abs stick out like you want them to, you need to perform weighted movements. Your abs need stimulation just like your other bodyparts do. You wouldn't just do push ups for chest or just pull ups for back or just bodyweight squats for legs. While those are all great substitutes and can be incorporated into your routine, they should never constitute the foundation of your workout. Weighted movements are the best way to make your abs stick out and to "pop out."

3. The best way to train abs is to do them 3 times a week at no more than 20 minutes each time. Just like any other muscle, you don't want to overtrain your abs to the point of breaking down muscle and hindering its growth. Abdominals tend to have a faster time of recovery and can be done more than once a week (as opposed to the other bodyparts), but they don't require heavy stimulation like your legs do in a single bout to grow. 20 minutes is plenty long, provided you rest minimally in between sets. Your abs are a small muscle group that recover quick in terms of resting after a workout and quick in terms of resting in between sets. Take that into account, so you should be only resting 10-30 seconds in between sets of abs.

4. There are many great weighted ab workouts to choose from, the one that I have found to work the best is the machine crunch where you are able to adjust the weight to contract your abs to. This workout builds tremendous strength in your abs and helps it to "pop" out of the midsection. Another important factor is that this workout puts virtually no stress on the legs, something many people find bothering them when doing certain ab workouts. Often times, people stop doing an ab workout because their legs are too fatigued. As a result you should find a workout that puts maximal stress on the abs with virtually no stress on any other muscle group. The weighted crunch machine is often times a great way to eliminate unneeded stress and resistance on other parts of the body. Although the abs are one muscle group (not split into upper and lower abdominals), the weighted crunch does tend to emphasize the upper and middle portion of the abdominals. Therefore, complement this with a floor wiper, where you lie flat on the ground and a hold a bar up in the air, bringing your legs to each side of the plate.