The Old School Approach To Six Pack Abs

An article by Tris    No Comments

Ladies & Gentlemen – I wanted to discuss today the topic of six pack abs or a lean tight midsection for ladies .  And specifically the approach people need to take to actually see results and not get frustrated, sidetracked and heaven-forbid – tempted by the late night ‘Ab-Gadgets’ etc…

When I say six pack abs I want to be clear I’m not focusing solely on the male perspective of this and just on the predominant male desire of ripped or cut abs, I’m also talking about the female outlook on ab training that aims to create lean and tight waistlines.  The search for ‘six pack abs’ is one both men and women should and will strive for in a proper fitness program.

We Train For Results…

I train people.  I’ve always enjoyed it and I’ve always done it wherever I was in the world – whatever country.  I love seeing people get results in their training.

Now truth be told 99% of the people I work with are not going to say they don’t want to lose fat and see a tighter more aesthetic looking core or midsection.  It’s the number 1 area people want to see results in when they start a fitness program.  I hear the same from all the other trainers I know and have met or worked with.

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not like every person who enters a gym has six pack abs as their only priority all the time.  I have numerous friends who are primarily focused on gaining muscle.  Friends of mine have competed at both pro and amateur levels in bodybuilding in the past and obviously their focus is predominantly on gaining that extra muscle.

I also have friends who are into MMA or martial arts, others who are mountain bikers, others still who compete in triathlons and of course many of my clients just want to lose some weight, get fit and healthy.

But I can confirm here that no matter if six pack abs are the priority or as with my other clients and friends – an expected ‘side effect’ of their current training goals, the truth is that six pack abs and a correctly balanced and functional midsection that looks great as well, is always part of your full body transformation package.

So with that being cleared up I am going to discuss something which is really the backbone to both my fitness training programs and also the main way I’ve trained both my abs and my clients abs over the years I’ve been in this  industry.

Knowing The Right Way To Train Is The Only Way To Results.

When I first began training at around 17 years of age I was luckily and quickly taken under the wing of a group of people who clearly knew what they were talking about.  (I won’t go into too much detail) but this group of guys were pro bodybuilders, triathletes and also one was a martial artists.  Anyhow, long story short, these men became great friends but also helped me dismiss 90% of the misinformation I was saturating myself in during my early training years.  They basically helped me see the light and focus on what they knew and had proven to work.

This was in all areas, but especially in the area of abdominal training.

I had the magazines and the books and was right in the middle of a phase of training my abs ‘EVERY NIGHT’ with sit ups galore and my feet jammed under my bed…  I can only thank ‘the man upstairs’ that I met these fellow trainees who stopped my foolishness and taught me serious methods to achieve real results.

The approaches they taught are what I used and then taught others – with modifications for new exercise and structure I learnt over the years in my travels.

Essentially we are talking about training our abs like muscles. Not just relying on a nice ‘side-effect’ training syndrome of your current training program.

What I mean is I’m a firm believer in the ‘old school’ mentality of training your abs mostly alone and in workouts after our main training.  I call them ‘plug and play ab workouts’.

You see today a lot of focus in the fitness training world is aimed at full body workouts (fine! – I agree) that can mean a person does not need to necessarily train their abs alone as the full body workouts will illicit enough response from their core muscles to alleviate any need for extra abs work. (No – I don’t agree)

I will say that full body workouts are superb: I use them a lot in my bootcamps and also for clients as a serious change of pace form body split workouts.  But I do not advocate that by doing some ‘compound exercises all grouped together’ there is never a need to focus solely on abs.

I was shown by people who had obvious results that doing ab workouts will always prove better in terms of results than telling yourself that your main training program will take care of your abs.  IT won’t.

Yes, a good compound heavy training program is great for calorie burn – and to assist in burning off the fat that covers our abs.  (compound exercise is basically one that requires multiple muscle to work, stabilize and assist in a move as opposed to an isolation exercise like a bicep curl where mainly the bicep is working) But in unison I have clients also doing ab focused workouts that will do exactly that: focus on their abs and core.

These workouts I recommend as 10-15 min insertion workouts maybe 2-3 times a week after the persons main training program.  This approach was what I learnt at the age of 17 and it saved me a lot of wasted effort and lack of results.

So it’s considered an ‘old school’ approach, yes but it is still standing the test of time.  I have finely tuned it and use a selection of abdominal specific compound exercises in unique circuits and programs that I myself and my clients simply add into their current workouts to target their midsection as it should be trained.

I love to focus on all aspects of training and do serious resistance exercise and workouts myself – that won’t change, but what I am saying and what I hope you now understand to assist you in your fitness training, is basically to let you main training take care of lean muscle gain, fat burning /calorie burning / elite conditioning and joint flexibility, range of motion, cardio improvement and so on….

But let a separate approach work for your ‘six pack abs’ (women read: lean tight midsection) results.

There is a place in a proven fitness program for many unique protocols.  But please don’t let anyone tell you that trying to ‘slip abs into your main program’ or ‘not to worry about ab workouts’ is ok.

It’s not.  Sometimes we should learn from what’s gone before. And importantly what’s been proven to work.  If you want results lets do it right, it will be done before you know and the results will stack on top of the previous session to quickly give you a midsection and abs you can be really proud of.

So the Ab-gadgets can be sold on ebay now or returned for a refund as you don’t need them to get six pack abs.

You just need to return to the old school proven ways with new and exciting twists in exercise choice, timing pattern and workout structure.  Abdominal Insertion Workouts – WORK.  Period.

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