Shawn asked:
Ive started doing many sit-ups lately, but how do I go about getting 6-pack abs if I’m a little chunky by the waste? Do the abs grow under the fat and going to push my stomach out even further? Do I go from fat to skinny to muscle? I’m not really sure how the process works, but I know I want cut muscles instead of big bulching blobs.
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Ive started doing many sit-ups lately, but how do I go about getting 6-pack abs if I’m a little chunky by the waste? Do the abs grow under the fat and going to push my stomach out even further? Do I go from fat to skinny to muscle? I’m not really sure how the process works, but I know I want cut muscles instead of big bulching blobs.
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February 6th, 2009 at 6:11 am
each persons abs are going to have their own shape… you need to burn off some of the fat, the more fat you have, the longer it will be before you can see your abs
February 8th, 2009 at 6:08 am
Sit-ups won’t make your ab muscles grow. They’ll only make them stronger. If you wanna make your ab muscles grow, you need to stress them more like with a machine at the gym, or any exercise that really stresses your muscles. Basically sit-ups will do nothing but make your abs stronger. It will change your appearance very little. If you do cardio and lose the fat that’s covering the ab muscles, there’s your six-pack. You get a six-pack by losing fat, trying to get a six-pack only by building muscle is pointless.
February 10th, 2009 at 11:26 am
When (If) you see your abs depends on three main factors:
Skeletal structure
Level of Body Fat
Muscle Mass
IMHO you’d be better off trying for overall fitness though. I have good abs and obliques but under the clothing most of us wear most of the the time you simply couldn’t tell.
February 12th, 2009 at 1:48 am
People often confuse the ‘low-fat torso’ (twenty-four pack) with an ‘eggbox midriff’ (built-up abs).
You’re right, a sixpack can often be seen on bulgey bellies, and it’s not a good look.
For well-functioning abs, you need to do lots of work that flexes your waist about (in all directions) and ‘wiggles’ your hips. This work will tighten your whole ‘CORE’, so that these muscles ‘pinch’ your waist inwards and compress your internal organs. Increased abdominal pressure supports your spine, helps you to breathe more effectively, and improves your digestion.
Good ‘core’ work (and a large ‘range of movement’ in your waist) will build broad, flat sheets of abdominal muscle. The ’separations’ (cuts) between these muscles are shallow, and will only show if you work off a lot of bodyfat. This will reveal ALL of the muscles on your torso, not just the front of your abdomen.
A ’six-pack’ appears when the ‘rectus ab’ muscle gets bulky, and its segments poke through the fat stored in the skin on the front of your belly. Building bulk in this muscle is exactly like ‘bulking up’ a bicep, or any other muscle. You need short, exhausting bursts of very heavy work. Situps and crunches, especially performed against resistance (by pulling on elastic straps, or by holding a weight disc on your chest or above your head), will overload this muscle, causing ‘hypertrophy’ (bulk).
For effective abs, and gradual fat reduction, you need activities that involve a lot of the twisting and wiggling movements I described earlier, performed in an upright position, or as many positions as you can achieve. Capoeira is an excellent way to make this happen regularly, and it can improve the performance and appearance of your waist VERY dramatically.