Most people who have great-looking abs follow a proven 3-pronged attack that just about always works. It doesn't involve any silly ab gadgets or magic fat loss supplements. It's also not necessarily 'easy' but it is extremely effective. Here are the 3 steps:
1. Shed bodyfat
If you want great-looking abs you have to get most of the extra fat off of your body. It's as simple as that. You may have the strongest, most well-sculpted ab muscles in the world. But if they're covered by a layer of blubber no one will ever know.
In order to really 'see' your abs you'll need to get your overall bodyfat levels down to about 7-8% (for men) or 13-14% (for women).
The most effective - and fastest way - to shed bodyfat is to eat a very 'clean' diet, strength train at least 3 times per week, and perform some type of cardio at least 4 times per week.
A 'clean' diet is one based around lean proteins, vegetables, legumes, some whole grains, some fruits, a little healthy fat and LOTS of water. All refined sugar and fried foods should be completely avoided.
Tom Venuto provides a great fat-burning, muscle-building eating plan in his Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle program.
In terms of exercise for fat loss, here are the most important things to keep in mind:
-weight training workouts should be brief and intense (40 minutes or less)
-keep reps/set in the 8-15 range
-perform no more than 4 sets per body part and 15 sets total
-use basic, 'compound' movements (not 'isolation' exercises!) -- the best choices are squats, deadlifts, bench presses, pullups, barbell rows, dips, barbell curls, etc.
-effective fat-burning cardio is either short & intense (like interval training) or long and low-to-moderate intensity (like jogging)
2. Build strong abs
Here's a little secret: if you already work out with weights (especially if you perform full-body free-weight exercises like squats, deadlifts, pullups, powercleans, etc.) you probably have very good abdominal muscles! Most 'big' free-weight exercises require you to utilize 'stabilizer' muscles, many of which are in your lower back and abdominal region. In fact, many pro bodybuilders and fitness models do little or no ab-specific exercise because their abs do so much work just helping them lift heavy weights (or their own bodies) into the air.
But, since you want to learn how to get a six pack fast, you should probably be performing a good amount of ab-specific exercise. Forget about useless movements that target upper abs, lower abs, inner abs, outer abs, etc. You really only need to do 3 movements to work your entire ab region:
-The Bicycle Maneuver
-Hanging Leg Raises
-Forearm Plank
Of course normal crunches are great too but the bicycle maneuver incorporates the basic crunch movement and recruits even more abdominal muscles. Many fitness experts agree that the above are the best ab exercises -- both for creating nice-looking abs and also for developing functional core body strength.
3. Bring out the detail
Once you get your bodyfat down and your ab strength up, now you just need to make your abs more 'visible.' Lots of people actually have a six pack AND low bodyfat levels yet still don't have the typical 'washboard' stomach. Why? Because for very light-skinned people and people with lots of body hair, the details in their well-defined ab muscles are just too hard to see.
How do you fix this? Two things: tanning and body hair removal. Think about it. Fitness models almost always have a great-looking abs. But they also almost always have great tans and little or no body hair. So, if you really want to learn how to get a six pack, just use the pro's secrets:
1. Use a high-quality self-tanning product
2. Use a safe hair-removal product
The truth is that very few fitness pro's spend hours in dangerous tanning beds or suffer through the process of regularly shaving their bodies. They use the magic of science, which has provided us with some very good skin-care, self-tanning, and hair-removal products.
By the way, if you have a problem with cellulite and/or stretch marks, you might also want to try a good cellulite and stretch mark reducer.
Special Note: How to Get a Six Pack the Wrong Way
If you use any of the following methods in an effort to get better-looking abs you'll be very disappointed with your results - and you may even hurt yourself:
extreme dieting (especially ultra low calorie diets that last more than a day or two)
'electro-stim' ab belts: these just don't work.....ever!
high-volume ab training: doing 30 sets of crunches per day will not help you get a six pack any faster
