4 Pack Abs 101 (Help)

[ROB]

Don't want to put a big downer on your quest for a six pack, I understand at age 17 its a desirable thing to have along with 18" arms & 28" thighs.

But if at 5 ft 8" and 150 lbs you are bearly showing a 2 pack, your going to have to drop may 10 lbs of body weight or more.

And to be honest at 17 you should be building up not cutting down.

Don't worry about specific ab routines, just work very very hard at your martial arts on a regular basis, eat a good clean diet most of the time, and as your body matures i'm sure your ab's will appear.

[cheeks]

Don't want to put a big downer on your quest for a six pack, I understand at age 17 its a desirable thing to have along with 18" arms & 28" thighs.

But if at 5 ft 8" and 150 lbs you are bearly showing a 2 pack, your going to have to drop may 10 lbs of body weight or more.

And to be honest at 17 you should be building up not cutting down.

Don't worry about specific ab routines, just work very very hard at your martial arts on a regular basis, eat a good clean diet most of the time, and as your body matures i'm sure your ab's will appear.

thats a point worth mentioning, in any other sport (football, athletics) you wont reach your full physical potential untill you late 20s

"Old style" situps are not that useful for building abs. If your torso isn't curling into a ball, you aren't really hitting the upper abdominals at all. Old style situps will minorly work the lower abs, but they mostly work the upper quads, since bending at the hip is a function of the quadriceps.

I like to either lay on a swiss ball and curl up, or lay on my back with my legs on a chair and curl up. (If you bend your hips and knees, you cannot use your quads. They cross both joints, so if you bend at both joints, they can't function except for some stabilization.) Basically anything that curls your upper body into a ball and/or rotates your torso side to side will work the abs and obliques (Side of the waist, makes those cool diagonal muscles)

Aodhan

thanks for the info, it has been a great help.

[Aodhan]

Don't want to put a big downer on your quest for a six pack, I understand at age 17 its a desirable thing to have along with 18" arms & 28" thighs.

But if at 5 ft 8" and 150 lbs you are bearly showing a 2 pack, your going to have to drop may 10 lbs of body weight or more.

And to be honest at 17 you should be building up not cutting down.

Don't worry about specific ab routines, just work very very hard at your martial arts on a regular basis, eat a good clean diet most of the time, and as your body matures i'm sure your ab's will appear.

Uhm...at 5'8" and 150, he is hardly needing to drop any weight at all. If anything, he might need to exchange fat for muscle (Which will actually increase weight). I am 3" taller and 30 lbs heavier, and I only have about 12% fat. I would agree with you on the part that he hasn't come anywhere near his full muscle development though.

Aodhan

[CapitalKarate]

I just skipped most posts cause it was mostly repetitive stuff. If I'm repeating something someone said, my bad..

First off, the whole 4 pack 6 pack 8 pack deal (no such thing as a 2 pack) ... it's all a deal about your body fat %, if you have an average % then you'll have a 4 pack, less than average 6 pack, low % 8 pack.

Everyone has abs, it's all about the amount of fat over the abs, and the fat WILL NOT go away from doing weights, that will only strengthen the abs, not make your BF% (body fat %) go down. The only way you can lower your BF% is through diet and cardio (aerobic and anaerobic). Weights, WILL NOT get it down, they'll work to get the body building looking abs once the BF% is below at least 10% but by its self weights won't work.

As for diet, google 'zone diet' and read what you get. As for cardio, for right now work on running and sprinting. If you want more info on good cardio workouts go to crossfit.com and ask how to get your BF% down on the forums.

[Psilokan]

Its all about genetics. Some people only have 7 abs, most have 8. Usually the top 2 dont show though, due to fat covering it or the fact that they're much smaller.

Everyones different, we all store fat different, we all have different bone and muscle structures...

[CapitalKarate]

Psilokan, everyone has 8 abs, it's not a matter of genetics, how your abs look when they finally show from having very low BF% is about genetics, not whether or not they show. That's all about BF%. And the top abs are really not that much smaller than any of the other ones except the lowest abs.