How Long Does It Take to Get Six Pack Abs? Shortcuts that Work

By Mark / a couple of months ago

Discover how to get impressive six-pack abs super fast using proven tactics that get results quickly and easily. Burn belly fat and build admirable muscles in a hurry.


How Long Does it Take?

One of the signs of bodybuilding success is a six pack. You see guys at the beach, in the gym or just walking around town with their t-shirt raised just enough to show off those abdominal muscles and you can’t help but stop and stare. You might be wondering how they got their six pack, how long it took them to get it and how you can get can get a six pack, too.

Before getting into how long it will take for you to get six pack abs or visible abdominal muscles, you have to understand the process behind it. Your abdominal muscles are always there. What makes them visible is core training and low body fat. There are then two components that need to be addressed in order for you to get those coveted six pack abs. Those components are weight training and diet.

Weight Training for Six Pack Abs

As with any other muscle in your body, your abdominal muscles need to be trained. To do that, you will have to incorporate lots of ab work into your workout routine. There are also other bodyweight exercises that will help you strengthen your core muscles. Doing these exercises along with targeted abdominal exercises will help you get six pack abs faster

Some core exercises that you will need to focus on are squats and exercises that involve kettlebells. While squats primarily work the leg muscles, all of the muscles in the body are required to properly execute this exercise and that includes the core muscles. Kettlebell exercises can be done in a lot of ways to help you build up and stabilize core muscle.

Although kettlebells and exercises like squats will go a long way to helping you achieve six pack abs, you will still need to do targeted abdominal exercises. Planks, leg lifts and crunches on a stabilizing ball are a good start. In addition to this, you will need to do weighted ab work. You can use machines that target your core muscles or do crunches with free weights.

Unlike other muscles, ab muscles recover quickly so you can do ab work up to 3 times a week. Lastly, when you are training abs you need to focus on transverse abdominals (front) and the obliques (sides).

Diet and Cardio Work

You can do all the core exercises and targeted ab training that you want, but if your diet isn’t up to par your abdominal muscles will not be visible. In order to get visible abs, your body fat has to be down to 10%.

There are no ifs, ands or buts to this equation. Some might even have to get their body fat lower than that in order to see a six pack. Lowering body fat is achieved through diet and some cardio work. If you’re still having trouble seeing your abs, then you need to change what you are eating.

Protein is always important and you should keep your protein intake high, but you can cut down on the amount of carbohydrates and fats that you eat. Total elimination of carbohydrates and fats isn’t the goal, but you will need to reduce the amount of calories you consume. A good way to keep a feeling of fullness without a lot of calories is to eat vegetables.

Focus on Nutrition

Vegetables are fibrous and help fill you up without adding unnecessary calories. You’ll get nutrition, but not calories. Another good idea is to drink lots of water. This will help you feel full as well and will help your body with digestion.

Building six pack abs is not just about building up your abdominal muscles. You also need to work on cutting belly fat so that your new muscles can shine through. So you need to pay at least as much attention to your nutrition as to your workout routine.


Cardio Workouts

The best cardio you can do to help lower your body fat is HIIT. High-intensity interval training will give you a quick cardio workout that will burn fat while saving as much lean mass as possible.

It’s as simple as alternating between periods of working out hard and fast and periods of rest. If you do this on a consistent basis, you will see your body weight decrease and your abs will be visible for all the world to see.

Shortcuts that Really Work

Getting a six-pack is going to take some work, that’s for sure. You can’t expect to take a magic pill and see the results appear before your eyes. You will have to focus firmly on your nutrition, and on getting down to the gym to work out.

However, the good news is that there are some real shortcuts you can take to accelerate your progress. When you implement all of these, you will be able to get the results you want much faster, and more easily overall.

First of all, ensure that your abdominal workouts focus on lifting heavier weights, not maximizing repetitions. Increasing the number of reps you do will not help you build bigger muscles. You need to focus on lifting on heavier weights for a smaller number of reps.

Secondly, remember that progressive overload is the key. That means you have to be continually pushing yourself to lift heavier weights. If a weight starts to feel comfortable, it’s time to move things up another notch – you have to overload your muscles to achieve continued growth.

Be sure to allow yourself plenty of recovery time between abdominal workouts. Remember that muscle growth occurs outside the gym, so do abs workouts on alternate days, and get plenty of sound sleep.

Abdominal workouts don't have to take up much of your day. If you are really pressed for time, you can do a very effective workout in as little as two minutes. Here's how to do it:

Fat loss is critical to making your abs visible, and you can take some shortcuts here, too. Use intermittent to accelerate your fat loss, and combine this with High Intensity Interval Training to ‘cheat’ you way to a faster metabolism.

When you combine these two techniques, you will truly be able to lose belly fat faster – and showcase your growing six-pack faster.

How Long? The Answer is Down to You…

It will take time for you to get a six pack. Some people will be at an advantage because they are already starting with low body weight so for them it might take as little as a month.

Others might be struggling with losing weight and for those individuals it will take a longer time. But, when you get your body fat to around 10%, you will see them and you can feel good knowing that all your hard work paid off.

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About the author

Mark

Hello, I'm Mark. I'm a bodybuilding champion and have been active in the industry for over 10 years. I created this website to provide fellow bodybuilders with useful information to help them achieve their dream physique.