So, what on earth is a “six pack?”. Ask anyone and he will tell you that they are the six muscles you see around the stomach area or they refer to it as the stomach muscles. But the stomach and the abdominal muscles are two different things.
The human stomach is a muscular, elastic, pear-shaped bag, lying crosswise in the abdominal cavity. It changes size and shape according to its position of the body and the amount of food inside it.
Clinically speaking, the abdominal muscles are a group of six muscles, but those are not the “six pack”, the boys refer to. The “six pack” is what you see on the outside or the most superficial of the abdominal group of muscles. That muscle is called the “Rectus Abdominis” and they are anything but six in number.
The rectus abdominis muscles are long and flat, and runs the length of your torso, starting just above your pubic bone and ending in your lower ribs.. The muscle is crossed by three tendinous intersections called the “linae transversae” and those groove like formation usually gets interpreted as a group of muscles, commonly referred to as the “six pack”.
The other muscles in the group of six abdominal muscles are Transversus Abdominis,External Oblique, and the Internal Oblique.
A short description of all these muscles and we shall move to how to create the “six pack” effect.
Transversus Abdominis – The deepest-set stomach muscle that runs horizontally underneath the Rectus Abdominis. It contributes to you having a good posture, balance and stability. This muscle wraps around the torso, creating an effect similar to a back support belt.
External Oblique – The External Oblique is a broad, thin, muscle that runs in a diagonal line from your ribs to your hips. The external obliques, one on each side of the torso, are involved in, among other things, rotation and lateral flexion of the spine.
Internal Oblique – The Internal Oblique is a broad, thin, muscle beneath the External Oblique that runs at right angle to it. Like the external obliques, the internal obliques, are involved in, among other things, rotation and lateral flexion of the spine.
People spend hours each week, doing all sorts of exercise for the abdominal muscles, but funniest aspect of the story is that you do not need to exercise the abdominal muscles to get the “six pack”.
“Are you kidding? You really mean that you can get a “six pack” without effort? Is it really that easy? ”
Yes, it is true. But I did not say “without effort”. With effort in the right direction, getting a six pack is as easy as breathing itself.
The first thing you need to know about the “six pack” is that, everyone has it. You do not create it out of the blue, like “Gawd Almighty” does. You never get to see it on the outside, like “John Abraham’s washboard abs”, because a layer of fat covers the “six pack” like a veil. And exercising that area does not lift that veil nor does it burn the fat.
The fat around the abdominal region and the rest of the body are actually one unit. Look at this way. You have a bucket full of water and you start to remove water from one corner of the bucket. It is not from where you remove the water that the level goes down, but the entire water level in the bucket. Same is the case with fat content of the body.
Any exercise, whether it be for the abdomen or legs or hands, the fat goes off first from the shoulder area.
And usually, the last place to give up fat is the abdomen.
“Jeeezzz!! And you tell me this is easy?!! I have to wait for the entire body to give up fat before I start to see results on my abdomen?”
It is easy and it is always possible for anyone to get a “six pack” if only they would follow the guidelines. Try it out and you will be surprised to see such fast results.
It is a simple combination of aerobic exercise and easy to follow diet.
Before you start to follow the diet recipe given below, you should learn to differntiate between hunger pangs born out of hunger and mere food craving. You should also learn to eat to your stomach’s fill and not your heart’s fill.
1] Start your day with three glasses of water and try to drink one glass of water every hour.
2] Then eat some fruits about fifteen minutes later
3] Try to eat at least six small meals a day, with a space of about 2.5 – 3 hours between two meals.
4] Make sure it is a combination of protein and carbohydrate. For eg. 1-2 chappathi & any meat curry or one glass of milk & 1-2 slice of bread or a cup of sprouts [it contains both carbs and protein].
5] When you eat the likes of chapatti or bread or dosa or iddlis , eat only 1-2 number or just 1-2 slice of it, but eat as much as you can, the protein part of the meal like meat or egg or fish .
Ideally women should stop with one number of chapatti or dosa or anything equivalent and men, just two. The body weight does not count at all, because most obese people have about 40% of their body weight as fat. You do not have to feed the fat, but only the muscle.
6] Eat a veg salad with every meal. Vegetable salad serves as an efficient fat loss tool. Ideally the veg salad should contain the following.
Tomato, onion, carrot, cucumber, snake gourd, ladies finger, beans and it is best to eat them raw. Do not remove or peel of the skin of the vegetables as the nutrients are just under the skin and on the skin. Just wash well and eat them raw. You may also make a soup out of it and drink it without sieving and filtering off the skin and the pulp
7].Avoid all sweets, sweetened drinks, sugar, curd, yogurt, chocolates, biscuits, samosa, chips, bakery food, fried food, dried fruits, soft drinks, rusk, pizza, burger, jam, sauce, cheese, paneer, samosa, butter, alcohol, beer, wine, bournvita, horlicks, boost, and such other products and all junk food
8] Do not miss any meal or go hungry. If you do, the body may see perceive it as “threat to survival” and preserve the fat. And also, it will burn the muscle for energy in process called catabolism. The less muscle you have, the less the energy needed to survive and this is how the body behaves on a low calorie diet. But give the body just enough and it utilizes the food for energy and does not store any as fat.
Yes, fat is stored energy. Exercise and an elevated metabolic rate can utilise this fat for energy and bring down its levels. When this happens on one side, you stop supplying the body with extra energy [with a diet] which it can store as fat. And that is how the diet and exercise combination works.
9] You also have to do some exercises like high repetition weight training or running up stairs or cycling or playing shuttle along with diet to lose fat . Make sure that you workout for about 30-45 minutes, almost non stop.
10] Very soon, the fat levels drop considerably from the abdominal region, revealing that preciously beautiful set of muscles called “six pack”.
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