(BlackDoctor.org) –I have people come up to me all the time asking “Hey Jackie, I’ve been doing five hundred sit-ups every night for the past month and my stomach looks big. Why don’t I have a six pack?” This person I’m talking about may even be you. While it’s great to be consistent with an abdominal routine, it’s just as important to have that same consistency when it comes to diet and cardio. Truth is, everyone has a six-pack, it’s the fat on top of that six-pack that needs to be eliminated.
A combination of cardiovascular exercise; whether it be brisk walking, running, aerobics, biking, and watching what you eat; will shrink the fat on top of your six pack, making your abs more noticeable. Don’t think when I say cardio that it means to kill yourself sweating in the gym hours everyday; 30-45 minutes of continuous cardio will get results. Cardio exercise three times a week is a great way to start, but if you want to see more and faster results, bring it up to five times a week.
We are not done yet! Now that you have the cardio out the way, you’ll need to work on your diet. Always know what you’re putting into your mouth before you put it in your mouth. And how to do that? Prepare all of your meals at home. It will make it a lot easier to preplan healthy meals and snacks. That’s it! Nothing more, nothing less! I bet you thought I was going to put you on a celery and carrot stick diet, huh? NO! Lastly, try to eat every three to four hours. This will speed up your metabolism and help you burn fat, which will ultimately help bring out your six-pack. Water is a very important part of your diet and a key to weight loss, so don’t forget that either. Try to get half of your body weight in ounces of water. That means if you weigh 120 pounds, then you only need 60 ounces of water. Not bad, huh?
Last but not least: abdominal training. There is no need for you to train your abs everyday. Abs need a recovery period of at least 48 hours. 48 hours being the time it takes to repair the muscle fibers broken down when you exercise. I recommend that you train your abs two to three times a week, after your cardio workout. And there is no need to do 500 sit-ups, not even 100! All you need are a couple of different abdominal exercises and to perform them in three to five sets of 10-15 reps.
That’s it! If you do just that, in a couple months you’ll notice a smaller, flatter tummy and your six-pack will start showing up sooner than later.