A Six Pack Ab and Muscle Tone Tip That is Never Discussed

Jonneh,

You are still a young guy, so it won't take you very long for your skin to tighten up around your abs. Maybe just a month or two.

Keep hitting that HIIT on an empty stomach to shoot up your natural HGH levels and that fat on your stomach will have no choice but to get burned for energy.

You will get a six pack, but you have to stick at it for a while…it may take a few months, but once you get ripped abs they aren't too hard to maintain.

Hope that helps!

Rusty

It does help, a lot! Thanks again, Rusty!
That's really what I wish I had to do - just try to maintain my abs. I've also heard that that's not very difficult to do; I just can never seem to get them with my crunches! The next time I ate a meal, my stomach would look just like it did before! Haha, but hopefully this HIIT with plank's will work out much better.

As always, thanks for all the helpful advice!

I found the below categories useful for figuring out how much body fat is essential, and how men and women differ when it comes to an acceptable amount of fat.

If "what gets measured gets managed", then knowing one's body fat percentage can be a great tool in setting goals to decrease fat and increase definition. I want to buy a body fat scale, but I wonder how accurate they are (they send an electrical impulse through the body).

I always find that when I exercise to lose weight rather than diet alone, my skin does tends to tighten up faster! Thanks for the great comments Rusty.

Men Women
Essential Fat* 2-4% 10-12%
Athletic Range 6-13% 14-20%
Fitness Range 14-17% 21-24%
Acceptable Range 18-25% 25-31%

*Essential fat is the amount needed for optimal health.

Jennifer,

Thanks for contributing by adding more great info! I'm glad you have the comparison between men and women…most of the articles I write, I refer to a man's body fat percentage and this table helps people see what the equivalent is for women.

Great Stuff!

Rusty

Another great article Rusty..people don't talk about it much either..
i got down to 144lbs 3 months ago. I'm the same weight since but i'm much more defined now altough i'm the same weight.
You have to give some time to your body to change it's composition.
Do you think staying 144-140 for a year will make make really ripped?

Tyler,

Yeah…if you can hold that weight for a year…I guarantee you that you will become more defined.

I've been around 185 for 3 years straight and I get more definition each year. Same body fat percentage, but much better tone. Just when I think a muscle is as toned as it is going to get…it looks more toned the following year.

You will look transformed if you can hold that weight until next summer.

Rusty

"When you lose body fat, the size of your body becomes smaller overall"- i don't know if you had this problem but it means you can't wear a lot of your old clothes anymore…old jeans, jackets, shirts…i can change my wardrobe now and it sucks
i know it's not a big deal but still i can't wear a lot of my "old"(bought within a year) clothes.
2years ago i wore L,XL sizes, now my size is M,S.
Leaning down is a big financial investment:))

Tyler,

I know what you mean…I maily wear large and medium shirts and I used to wear XL. Completely worth it to buy a new clothes, if you wind up looking better!

Rusty

hey, i came across your blog for the very first time today and i find it is amazing! i used to go on bodybuilding.com but i don't really want to look like a BB so it wasn't all that useful for me.

I am 21, 5'6 and weigh 128 lbs (I'm a girl btw). I read your article on eating one big meal a day and not snacking and i generally eat one large meal at night and have a light lunch and even lighter breakfast (i jsut cannot stomach food first thing in the morning).

I go to the gym 3-5 times a week and do HIIT training for around 30 mins each time along with weight training. I am generally pretty happy with my body but my only problem is my stomach. When i tighter my muscles i can see some definition but otherwise my stomach comes out when i eat…its not a very big stomach but i would kill for flat abs. I am ready to do whatever it takes to get a toned flat stomach. I already do leg raises, ball tucks and the plank.

I'm just wondering what else i could possibly do to achieve a perfect stomach. i've been working out on and off all summer but ive really gotten into it for the past month. how long willl it take for me to see results on my stomach? please help.

R,

They don't like my blog over at Bodybuilding.com. How dare I want to look good and teach others how to look good! We should all just get as massvie as possible…LOL!

Thanks for coming over to this site instead. I have a post that may help with your stomach problem a bit. You seem to be doing the right thing with HIIT. Make sure you do it after weights for maximum impact.

I wrote a post called "Bruce Lee's Secret Six Pack Ab Exercise", which was pretty good…but a reader posted a comment below that named Laura Kelleher.

Laura describes how the exercise called Vaccuums can actually shrink the size of your mid-secton a bit. It is a really informative post. I may even write an article about it with a video.

For now…why don't you go over and read the post along with the comment by Laura: Bruce Lee's Secret Six Pack Ab Exercise

Thanks for commenting by the way. I love it when people add their experiences to the blog…it has a community feel that way.

Cheers!

Rusty Moore

Fascinating stuff here. I have in the past just gotten lean for the summer. Maybe I'm cheating myself here out of some serious muscle tone, if only I had been maintaining my lean body year round. I learn something new from this site everyday!
By the way, I appologize for responding to so many of these articles and always asking questions. I just love this site and I enjoy learning more and more about being lean and in shape. Thanks man!

Brad

Brad,

No worries…keep the comments coming. People who spend a lot of time posting info on their blogs, love to know that people are getting something out of them. It is what keeps us motivated.

Rusty

Hey Rusty, killer site! I just randomly stumbled upon your blog today while googling "brad pitt fight club abs". Here is my thang: I'm naturally skinny. I weigh in about 147 lbs and I'm 6'0 tall and I'm 28 yrs old. I don't lift THAT many weights, but when I do, I notice any muscle that I get, is pretty noticable. I want to be completely toned and LEAN without hulking around embarrassing amounts of Lue Ferrigno'ness. I fished around your past blogs and have found some really helpful stuff..thanks! Now..finally..for the question.
I do ab workouts everyother day, or at least try to. 300 situps, and about 200 crunches. I do cardio everyother day for about 30 minutes at a time at a jogging pace, and have NEVER done HIIT(which I will start doing now to shave off the stubborn layer of fat that is blanketing my abs from showing)
Anyway, I have noticed that my abs are becoming rather 'blocky' in a weird bloated look. I definitely don't have a 6 pack, but the silouette is there, as well as certain patches of ab muscle coming through. I want the flat board 'fight club' ab look. ::sigh:: I know, I KNOW, it's typical, but I think I can pull it off with the right kind of workout.
Now…am I doing too many ab exercises? I've been endlessly searching all over the web for some sort of idea on how Brad acheived that 'ripped' look. I know his body fat % was down to about 5, so I got an idea in that realm, but any and all help/sugesstions would be great!!!
–Magic

Ernesto,

You will benefit greatly from two things:

1) High intensity interval training
2) Low volume strength training with heavy weights

What you are doing now is building mass in your abs, by having too much volume (too many reps). I have two posts you should read. These two exercises are exactly what you will need to build muscle density in the abs…which will give your rock hard definition, not that puffy look.

Six Pack Ab Video

Breath of Dragon Exercise

This will help for sure!

Rusty

Very cool. Thanks a bunch!!

I have just recently lost 17 lbs with the one sometimes two meal(s) a day diet. HOORAH! But I am afraid of possible sagging in my abdomen. Do you think since I've been overweight for a long time and have lost the weight rather quickly will my skin ever shrink to my new body mass? Also I never did crunches, should I tone my abs more? Thanks.

Tasha,

How old are you if you don't mind me asking. If you are still somewhat young, this shouldn't be an issue. Unless you had to drop 100+ pounds.

Rusty

I am 24 years old and I still need to lose another 30lbs to get within the healthy BMI range. I weigh 173 now.

This article makes so much sense. As I used to follow the old school bodybuilding type method of bulking and cutting each year, I never gave my skin the chance to catch up with the rest of my body. I always wondered why I didn't look more ripped. I had good muscle tone but not that ripped look I was looking for. It makes sense that skin takes a while to shrink to the rest of the body.
I can't wait to see if this makes a difference with how I look this summer and from now on. I plan to get to my goal weight in the next 10 weeks or so. I'm hoping by mid summer to the end of the summer I will have been at my desired bodyfat and weight for at least 4-5 months. Do you think that will have been a sufficient amount of time for my skin to shrink wrap to the rest of my body?
Also, is there any scientific evidence of this that you know of? Just curious. Regardless I believe what you're saying 100% and I can't wait to try it.
No doubt, getting to a low body fat and keeping it there year round will be so much better then bulking and cutting. I'd rather just be lean year round.
Take care, keep up the good work!

Tasha,

You are still young with not that much weight to lose. Your skin will completely tighten up around your stomach if you hold that lower weight for a period of time.

Brad,

Nobody has done a scientific study on this, but believe me it makes a huge difference. It really is just common sense if you think about it as well.

Rusty

Hello there,

I stumbled across this articles, its great!! Very true! I personally try to bulk up in the winter, because I can hide the fat [via layers of clothing] and around Feb I start cardio so by May when summer starts [we're talkin the UK here :(] I look nice and lean.

Have you heard of www.darchy.com, they have a cool section on Health/Fitness, post your articles there, it'll give you massive amounts of exposure..

William

www.darchy.com

Hey Rusty,

Love your website man and totally agree with you about what is attractive and what is not. I do have some questions, however. I'm a 33yo, 188lb, 5'9 male. I have some muscle, but it does not make up for all that weight. I would be happy in the 160s, I think.

When in high school I was always heavy, weighing 230lbs at my heaviest. I weighed 155-164 for years, losing weight with diet and walking (not running, isn't that funny?). I was a skinny 155lb too, with no muscle. So, it still was not the look I wanted. I wanted to be fit, not just skinny . . . but definitely never wanted to be huge. So, I started weight lifting and have been doing so for 10 years now. I have muscle, like I said, but I think I just gain muscle slowly because I would expect to be perfectly fit after 10 years of exercise and eating right.

When I hit my 30s, it went down hill though. I got back up to 210. So, I started hitting the eliptical hard every day and lost 20lbs. Then, I gained 10lbs back. Then I lost 20lbs again. Then, I gained 10lbs back. Do you see where I am going? I was at 180lbs in December, and am now at 188lbs.

So, I totally believe that cardio, not weights, is the best solution for fat loss as I have been there over and over. I also was on an extremely low calorie (1200/day at my lowest), when I lost the 20lbs. I'm told my metabolism might be a mess. I still do weights, which is supposed to help with that, I guess.

Then I see Christian Bale lose 60lbs by eating a can of tuna and an apple a day and I start to think the slower metabolism stuff is crap.

Anyway, is there any advice you could give me to lose the weight, keep it off for good, and fix my screwed-up metabolism? How much cardio a day is too much (I have extra time on my hands)? How low can you go with calories?

Thank You,

Dax

Hi Rusty,

Thanks for the great stuff….i culdnt resist myself and sat for almost 4 hrs straight trying to finish all the blogs….
Well I am 26 and with 155 lbs and my waist is 30.. my body fat % is approx 16….
What i am looking and have been trying for last couple of years is great looking abs but i m no where near to that….
I try doing lot of abs and can feel the tight abs below my skin…what should i do to loose the last from my upper skin…
I mean i have seen ur posts about HIIT, and HIIT with lifitng weights should i follow them to loose the fat from my lower belly area…
I do lot of running jogging and after which i feel my ab area getting tighter but once done its the same again….
Also it will be great if u can point me to some diet related blogs of urs so that i can lower my body fat % and maintain my weight..
Thanks a ton….
I have never seen a website more helpful than this….Thanks a lot agian for doing such great job….

Sandiee