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Ab shortcuts: these easy-to-implement strategies will put you on the road to a summer-worthy six-pack - Final Four

Men's Fitness, May, 2003 by Allan Donnelly

1. Count your calories

Neglect your calorie intake and you'll never sculpt the abs of your dreams--not to mention your girlfriend's. "An easy way to estimate your caloric intake is to multiply your body weight by 13,' says exercise physiologist Jim Stoppani, Ph.D. "The number you come up with is the minimum number of calories you need to maintain your current weight." For example, if you're a 170-pound guy, you need to consume 2,210 calories per day just to remain at 170 pounds. "If you're fairly active, you probably want to add about three or four hundred calories in order to maintain that weight," says Stoppani.

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For the active guy trying to lose weight, though, caloric intake on workout days should stay close to the maintenance number. On nonworkout days, since you won't be burning as many calories, take in between 400 and 500 fewer. And if leaning out is your goal, no more than 20 percent of those calories should come from fat.

2. Control workout frequency

Like any muscle group, abs need rest between training sessions--there's no need to work them more than three times per week. Combine that approach with proper nutrition and you'll soon see your desired results. Remember, anytime you lift weight, you're tightening your core, So whether you're focusing directly on them or not, the abdominals are getting trained to some degree along with the rest of your body, even when you're not doing crunches or hanging leg raises.

3. Practice exercise variety

An effective routine hits the abdominals from all angles, so don't be afraid to use anything and everything at your disposal: stability balls, incline benches, Roman chairs, cables. Each can be used to target a different section of the abs. Combine exercises that target the lower abs (hanging leg raises, reverse stability-ball crunches), upper abs (rope crunches), obliques (twisting crunches) and entire abdominal region (stability-ball crunches) for complete midsection development.

4. Perform catabolic cardio

You hate doing it--heck, we even hate saying it--but there's no way around it if you're looking to melt that meat off your midsection. Problem is, there's a fine line between losing fat and losing hard-earned muscle. Both the manner in which you perform your cardiovascular activity and the time you need to perform it can determine how effective your routine is at burning off that unwanted layer of fat.

Regardless of what activity you choose, research has shown that interval training--alternating between levels of high and low intensity--is unmatched in terms of fat-burning potential. (By "high" intensity we mean performing an activity at 80 to 90 percent of one's maximum heart rate; "low" intensity is less than 60 percent of MHR.)

It's also been proven that the optimal time to perform your cardio is in the morning, when glycogen levels are lower than at other times of the day. "Your body is basically in a catabolic state," says Stoppani. "It's at this time that the muscles have switched almost exclusively to fat for fuel in an effort to reserve glucose for the brain. To keep this fat-burning furnace going at an accelerated pace, jump right into cardio before you eat. To save your muscle mass you may want to eat an all-protein meal first, something like egg whites or a low-carb whey-protein drink. This will stop your muscle from using its own protein for additional fuel."

Ab shortcuts: these easy-to-implement strategies will put you on the road to a summer-worthy six-pack - Final Four

Men's Fitness, May, 2003 by Allan Donnelly

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