This six pack abs workout is perfect if your goal is to get a lean and ripped stomach. Getting six pack abs can be very difficult, especially if you don’t have the genetics or have a fast metabolism to burn off body fat easily. You will need to really dedicate yourself and be very strict with your nutritional plan along with keeping up with your cardio workouts. Cardio is critical because it allows you to burn extra calories every day which helps decrease your overall calories and hopefully create a calorie deficit. You need to burn more calories than you consume in order to burn fat off.
When it comes to nutrition, the food you eat is paramount when it comes to getting six pack abs. Remember the old saying, “You can’t out exercise a bad diet”. A great example of this is if it takes you 10 minutes to eat five slices of pepperoni pizza, it will take about 2-3 hours of cardio exercise to burn it all off. This basically means that it’s almost impossible to burn off the amount of calories you consume when you eat unhealthy junk food.
Since body fat comes off from all over your body, its important to add resistance abdominal exercises to stress your stomach muscles and develop them. When you combine all three factors (cardio, diet, ab exercises), you have the perfect plan to achieve a lean and ripped stomach.
This six pack abs workout consists of 3 different exercises that target different areas of the abdominal region. These exercises include the parallel bar knee raises, lying medicine ball leg raise crunches and lying leg raises with an exercise ball.
Parallel Bar Knee Raises
Position yourself on some parallel bars, holding yourself up with your elbows and forearms with your legs hanging straight down. Use your abdominals to pull your legs up toward your chest. As your knees come to your chest, ever so slightly roll your upper body down toward your knees. Be sure to squeeze your abs at the top of the movement for a one-count. You want to focus on doing 20-30 reps per set for a total of 3 sets.
Lying Medicine Ball Leg Raise Crunches
Lie flat on your back on a mat with your feet flat on the ground and your knees bent. Grab a medicine ball with both hands and hold it on your chest. Push the small of your back down to the floor to isolate your AB muscles. Begin to roll your shoulders off the floor. Continue to push down with your lower back. Your shoulders should come up off the floor only about four inches, and your lower back should always remain on the floor. As you crunch up while holding the ball, raise your knees to your chest at the same time in order to place maximum tension on your abs. As always, make sure you let your abs do the work in a slow and controlled fashion! You want to focus on doing 20-30 reps per set for a total of 3 sets.
Lying Leg Raises with Exercise Ball
While laying on the floor, position the exercise ball between your feet and squeeze to hold the ball while you lift the ball up above your stomach. Try to keep all the tension on your abs throughout the movement. You want to focus on doing 20-30 reps per set for a total of 3 sets.
