Summer is just around the corner. It is time to put the finishing touches to your six-pack. But wait? ‘I only have a four-pack,’ you say with a sigh. Okay, we can work with that, as you are probably missing a few key elements to your training—like, I don’t know… LOWER ABS!
A lot of guys forget that the abs are made of two sections, the upper and lower. If you’re only working hard on one section, you will be destined to a two or four-pack forever. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s what you do:
Fill Your plate about one-fourth less full than usual
They say that fitness is about 80 percent approach and nutrition—and they are wrong. It is more like 90 percent. If you are eating too much, you will never get your lower abdominal wall to show, as this is where most guys tend to store their layers of fat. You could always count calories and eat about 500 less than normal, but I find it works just as well to pay attention to proportions, and eat about one-fourth less than you would otherwise be inclined to.
Minimize Simple Carbohydrates
Carbs give you energy and help you to burn fat. However, too much of this good thing will only urge your body to store the excess around your lower abs, which is counter-productive. There are several ways to go about this. You can either monitor your carbohydrate intake when you are not due for a gym session, or you can eliminate the majority of simple carbohydrates (bread, pasta, etc.) in exchange for more complex ones, such as oatmeal, brown rice and quinoa. And vegetables serve as a great source of carbohydrates if you eat enough of them (as we all know you’re supposed to be doing anyway, right?).
Pack on the Weight (on the barbells, of course)
There is a lot of talk about testosterone replacement therapy these days. And since we’re focused on your lower abs, the important thing to know is that your testosterone is linked to your metabolism. In other words, the more you have, the leaner your physique has the potential to be. One way to boost your testosterone without a doctors prescription is to lift heavy and build a solid foundation of mass. We offer some great tips here.
The Ab Routine
We took the long way around to get to the actual lower ab routine on purpose. This is to reaffirm our previous statement that great abs are about 90 percent your approach and nutrition. Making sure you are eating the right amount of protein and carbs when you need them, getting plenty of vitamins through natural sources like vegetables, and keeping an eye on the amount of sugar and junk food your ingesting (it creeps up on you).
Once you have your nutrition requirements under control, you can finally begin to really make your lower abs shine. Here is the routine we recommend to do the polishing with:
Reverse Crunch
Hanging Leg Raises
And that was just the warm-up. Now we visit Six Pack Shortcuts to isolate those lower abs until they are screaming for mercy.
Let’s go:
Read More
Four Tips to Building Better Abs
4 Worst Foods for Ripped Abs
6 Exercises for Home-Made Six Pack Abs
About Dr. Eric J. Leech
Eric has written for over a decade. Then one day he created Urbasm.com, a site for every guy.
About Dr. Eric J. Leech