1. Diet – Eat the right foods, and right amount of calories
You had to have known this was going to be the first tip. Diet is so important that it nearly surpasses all other tips on this list. Yes, by doing this one thing alone can greatly improve your physique. However, notice how I didn’t write “DIETING”, it is DIET for a reason. Simply put, diet means what you usually eat; a grizzly bear’s diet consists of salmon. We humans have a much broader diet, and it is this that can get you into trouble. A good rule of thumb is to avoid processed foods. Each meal should consist of a good carbohydrate source, like: Rolled Oats, Quinoa, Brown Rice, Potatoes (White, and Sweet), and beans. A good protein source, like: Eggs, Fish (Sardines, Salmon, Mackerel), Chicken (Organic Farm raised), and Beef (Organic Grass Fed). A good fat source, like: Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, Avocados, and Grass Fed Butter. The quantity of each of these will depend on your calorie requirements.
When your goal is to see abs your calorie intake should be slightly less than the calories your burn. Being in a calorie deficit is indicative of losing weight; the key is slightly. You don’t want to be eating considerably less than what you need, that can be considered anorexia. There are good online calorie calculators like Calorie Calculator that ask your current weight, your goal weight, your age (and all that other good stuff), and shoots out what calories you need. Once you have this number you can use an app like MyFitnessPal to track the calories of everything you eat in a day. Pro Tip: Eat the same stuff everyday and you’ll only have to do this step once! Monitoring and controlling your diet will lead to a lower body fat percentage. A lower body fat percentage (less than about 12%) is when you start to see abs! Get yourself a body fat percentage calculator and monitor your levels daily!
2. Water – Get plenty of water in per day
We are mostly water; if you starve yourself of water then what are you? It is this reason that you can survive 2 weeks without food but only 2 days without water. So, drink water. Drink plenty of water, because so much depends on it. Drink a glass of water before meals to feel fuller sooner, in other words you’ll be eating less. Generally the recommended amount is one gallon per day, but that depends on the individual but around there is a good place to start (try to get more). Too much water is just as bad though, it dilutes your pH which can throw your whole body out of whack! Keep it around or just above one gallon.
3. Exercise – Remember: Intense and Challenging
Being active is very important. Whether you’re doing sports, weight training, or some other physical activity, remember to keep that session intense and challenging. If you need a good workout routine head to our workout generator, we have over 150 trillion workouts you can choose from!
In terms of the gym: Intense means that you’re keeping rest between sets minimal (around 2 minutes between sets) and Challenging means that you’re using a heavy enough weight to properly perform the specific reps per set with difficulty. Keep the same mentality with the next tip as well.
4. Cardio – Start or end your workouts with 30 min of this
Keeping your cardio intense and challenging offers your body a different kind of stimulus to weight training. It is more intended to cause you to use up your stored energy (sugars from the liver at first, but fat too!) Performing for 30 minutes before or 30 minutes at the end (you choose) will increase the amount of calories you burn. I’m not saying you need to do this all the time, but if bathing suit season is drawing near…this would be a good idea.
5. Rest – Give your body time to recover, around 16 hours; more when you age
You’re putting your body through a lot of stress. Get enough sleep; around 8 hours (10 if you can, but no more!). Sleep is crucial, this is when your body does a lot of repairing to the damage you’ve done (a good thing). Try to have at least a 12 hour window between each gym session, and certainly don’t overdo it by focusing on the same muscle group twice or more within 24 hours (every day is not chest day). A good approach is working out one muscle group per day of the work week (Legs, Back, Chest, Arms, and Shoulders) and rest on the weekends. Check out our workout generator, it has workouts broken down just in that fashion! Convenient !
6. Hormones – Good hormonal health is essential
If you understand and follow along with everything up to this point then your hormone health (unless a genetic predisposition affects your hormonal health) should be heading in the right direction. Why is this important? Our hormonal chemistry dictates who we are, and our sensitivity to the most important hormone (in this case), insulin, determines how we process what we eat and how it gets stored (fat). Improve on tips 1 – 5 and you should be on your way to good hormonal health.
7. Cheat Day – Reward yourself to stay on track…Treat Day!
Everyone needs a day to say “to hell with dieting!” I like to designate my Sundays as my cheat day; it gives me the whole work week to burn it off. Take this time to relinquish all cravings - pizza, donuts, hot dogs, cookies, garlic bread…the list goes on and on! In my opinion, a successful cheat day is when you can’t wait to go back on your normal diet! Enjoy this day, because 6 days in the right direction with one day back still puts you at net positive! Notice how I wrote DAY, don’t get in the habit of it. This brings me to my next tip.
8. Consistent/Disciplined – A sure route for progress
In other words, stick to the plan. It may be tough at first, and you may not be noticing any progress, but trust me stick with it! It takes about 40 days to make something into a habit. If you are consistent- make it part of your daily routine, and disciplined- strict with your intentions, you will begin to see changes shortly! Trust the process!
9. Intermittent Fasting –Manipulates your body to burn fat
You are already doing this! The time between going to bed and your first meal of the day is a fasting period. Granted, if you go to bed late and eat breakfast right when you wake up, it’s a short one. However, if you can push your first meal until around 16 hours after your last meal you’re in the beneficial zone. Intermittent fasting is great because you’re still going to be burning calories during this window but because you don’t have any fuel in the tank your body is going to have to resort to stored energy (sugar from the liver and body fat!). Get your body trained on using fat as fuel; get your calories more from good fats than from carbohydrates!
10. Believe – Have the vision in your mind of where you want to be, not how you’ll get there
This last tip is more of a motivational one. Focusing on all of the previous tips can be overwhelming. Thinking about all that is involved can be intimidating and just put you in the wrong state of mind. So I suggest making these changes for a week to get an idea of what you’ll need to do and from that point after go through the motions without focusing on what you have to do, just focus on why you’re doing it and what you’re goal is! Feel good about your body now! Praise your body and bless the way it is now, this will get you feeling good about yourself and the body you want! Stay positive, and be happy in your own skin. You’ll be surprised that this alone may get you to your six-pack self.
So, that’s it. Follow these 10 tips. You have the power within to do whatever you set your mind to, and if so many people before you have done it then so can you. Believe in what you want and know that it is possible!
We are advocates of your goals!
-Brian
- Motivation
- Muscle Size
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