Your 6 pack guide

Everyone wants a six pack and to get it there is no point just doing endless crunches. They won't get your anywhere. To get your 6 pack you need to first remove the layer of fat sitting over the top of your abs. Then you need to stimulate the muscles with complex core busting moves. Your 6 pack is made up of mainly your transverse abdominis, rectus abdominis, external obliques and internal obliques.

Transverse abdominis are major players in getting a lean and ripped looking 6 pack is to train the TA. This muscle sits behind your rectus abdominis and acts as a corset which holds your organs in and when trained gives you a leaner looking gut. It also protects your spine at the same time and strengthening the muscle will improve your strength in not just abdominal moves but also big lifts like the squat, deadlift and bench press. To train your TA use the plank and dragon flyes to really work that core and use big moves like the squat and deadlift too because when your core supports you in these moves the TA is trained at the same time.

The rectus abdominis is the bit everyone wants to see. This is your 6 pack muscle that runs from your rib cage to your pelvis. It isn't actually seperate muscle but just a single muscle seperated by tendons. To get this to show your need to reduce your body-fat % and also train the muscle with a variety of moves. A key more is the barbell rollout. This moves stretches the muscle and put it into a weak position so it will have to grow back stronger to support your next time.

The external obliques handle any movement of twisting, rotation etc like swinging a racket or bat or throwing a punch. Keeping these lean, in men especially can be crucial to getting the abs your want as men tend to store fat around this area. Get yours into shape with wood-choppers and cable rotations.

To finish the internal obliques are a diamond in the rough. These act as shock absorbers and protect your spine and core when you twist too quick. They also help raise your diaphragm up and down to help with breathing so training these are crucial. They will be hit with rotations and wood-choppers but add some side planks in their too to nail them hard then leave them to rest. Otherwise breathing for the next few days might be a bit achy.