Getting Ripped Abs - Six Pack? What's That?

Before diving in, I'd like to introduce you to the basics of the construction and functions of the core. The core is a pretty complicated thing, and it's beautiful. It's probably my favorite part of the body, or at least one of them. Probably my second favorite. Anyway. The core is a lot more complicated than most people will ever realize. It consists of the transverse abdominus, rectus abdominus, internal obliques, external obliques, lumbar multifidus, spinor erectae, and, some might say, also the glutes, and perhaps a few other things. But generally, when someone says "ripped abs", you think of the "six pack" or "eight pack" and all that, so that'll be the focus of this. And while I don't want to ignore the fact that my own primary interest is in core functionality rather than aesthetics, when I say that I will tell you how to get ripped abs, I will deliver. Just bear with me for but a few moments longer. Lucy's got some splain' to do.

The rectus abdominus is what you'll think of when you hear "six pack". It's the front part of the abs. It's really neato. The transverse abdominus is directly behind that. It's a flat sheet of muscle that doesn't get much attention at all, but it's vital for posture, trunk stability, and more. Also, when it's very strong, it'll help your rectus abdominus "pop", and that's always neat. So these are two big things we'll be focusing on.

The internal obliques and the external obliques are on the sides of the rectus adbominus and the transverse abdominus, and they are responsible for flexion of the core. That is to say, when you're turning, twisting, or bending side to side, these are the muscles that are responsible for that. The lumbar multifidus and spinor erectae are essentially the lower back muscles. They are extremely important. Having strong ones enhances your posture and helps you lift heavy things. The lumbar multifidus and spinor erectae are typically what someone's complaining about when they say they've pulled their back. It hurts.

You'll want to note that the core responds like other muscles; it needs rest, it needs to be worked, and it hypertrophies around 15 reps at sufficient percentage of the one-rep max.

That's out of the way. Now to the whole, "So, uh, what the heck do I do with this information?" Well, that's largely up to you.

A couple very good movements for the rectus abdominus include weighted barbell situps and hanging leg lifts. For the hanging leg lifts, you may want to invest in some ankle weights to make them harder. Or, if you're feeling bold, you can run some rope through a couple weight plates and loop that around your feet as you do the movement, though I have to say, I advise against that. Liability, you understand. But you'll want to do between ten and twenty reps of this with as much weight as you can manage, and leave a couple reps in the tank. That is to say, don't keep repping until you can't do any more. Stop when you feel you can only do one or two more.

A couple very good movements for the obliques are the full contact twist and the twisting situps. For the full contact twist, you'll want to learn how to do it. It's really a great movement, and I think you'll find it useful in your oblique development. What you do is this: Take a dumbbell, and put weight plates on one side of it. Put no weight plates on the other side. Now, lift up the weighted side of the barbell, and, as you stand, without moving your feet, bring your arms straight out around the side of you, so that the weighted side of the barbell is on the opposite side it started on. Now bring it back to the other side of you. You'll notice the tension in your core. It also works the shoulders a bit, so that's nice. Follow the same repping protocol with this as you do with the weighted barbell situps.

For the lumbar multifidus and spinor erectae, I'm going to utter a word that strikes fear into the hearts of many. Deadlift. Seriously. Deadlifts are amazing for lower back development, and, as an extra bonus, they're wonderful for the rectus abdominus. Do them. They are good for your soul. There are, of course, other exercises for your lower back that I will recommend. To recommend only deadlifting would be stupid and irresponsible of me. You may hurt yourself if the only lower back work you do is deadlifting, as the deadlift is a highly strenuous movement.

For the transverse abdominus, work on rollouts and planks. Rollouts are pretty advanced; they're also referred to as "ab wheels" or "evil wheels", but either way. Planks are pretty great, and if you weight them, they can be quite a brutal transverse abdominus exercise. For those of you not familiar with the plank, you get into the pushup position, but instead of on your hands, you're on your elbows and forearms. And you just hold that for a while. You can put a backpack with weight plates in it to make it harder, or alternate lifting your legs and arms or having someone jostle you as a means of intensifying the exercise. You'll probably want to do planks for time. When you can do more than a couple of minutes, make it harder in some way. Building up to standing rollouts would be a very wise move; they're truly a great transverse abdominus movement, and they also hit the lower back muscles. However, they're very strenuous, and it takes most people quite a while to get them down. You'll want to look into rollout progressions-- that is to say, easier variations of the rollout that you can use and swap out to be progressively harder as you get progressively stronger until you are able to able to do a full standing rollout repetition. If you can do 10-15 standing rollouts, you're doing something right. Seriously. Beyond that, you may choose to weight your rollouts. Just be careful. Don't say I didn't warn you.

You'll want to up your calories so you can hypertrophy. Be sure to work the rest of your body as well, or you'll look really weird without a shirt on. And really weird in general. Anyway. Swap out exercises every so often, experiment with different set-rep protocols so you don't plateau.

In addition, be sure to incorporate some high-intensity interval training to accelerate fat loss while preserving muscle. I have to advise against long-distance running as cardio if you want ripped abs. When was the last time you saw a ripped marathon runner? It doesn't work. You'll want to run sprints, sprint intervals, Fartlek runs, and similar things. Keep it short and intense.

With the right training, you can get ripped abs and a great body in a short time.