Six Pack Abs 365 - How To Get And Keep Your Six Pack Abs All Year Long
Author: Neupert, Geoff
Date: 2012-03-27T17:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Nutrition; Workout; Abs; Health; Fitness; Excersize
Description: Imagine waking up every morning and seeing your abs - your six pack in the mirror and how confident that would make you feel. You would exude strength and control - a man who's truly got his stuff together. After all, if you can't control yourself, what can you control...? Now imagine how fast you could be that man if you had a step-by-step guide showing you exactly what to do to not only get but keep your six pack abs for the rest of your life. Inside "Six Pack Abs 365 - How To Get And Keep Your Six Pack Abs All Year Long" you'll learn the true secrets that very few know about getting your si

Table of Contents

Six-Pack Abs 365:

All Rights Reserved

DISCLAIMER

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

The Ideal

PHILOSOPHY

SECTION I.

SECTION II.

System 1: Your Nervous System

System 2: Your Digestive System

System 3: Your Immune System

System 4: Your Endocrine System

System 5: Your Musculoskeletal System

System 6: Your Cardio-Respiratory System

So Why The Heck Does All This Science Stuff Matter?

SECTION III.

Master Key #1: Nutrition

The Ultimate Fat Loss Blueprint

The Blueprint

The UFLB Daily Plan

The Mechanics Of The UFLB

Comments, Questions, Concerns on the UFLB

UFLB On A Budget

Master Key #2: Strength Training

What Is The “Six-Pack” Really?

Direct Or Indirect Abdominal Work?

Abdominal Exercises — From Basic To Advanced

Lower Ab Rocking

Windshield Wiper Series — A and B

Windshield Wipers — B

Dead Bugs and Variations

Bird Dogs On Knees

Bird Dogs From Hands and Feet

Planks

Rocky Sit Ups

Supported Knee Raises

Hanging Knee Raises

Supported Leg Raises

Hanging Leg Raises

Crawling

Carries

Chops

Drags

Compound Your Six-Pack Getting Results With These Strength Training Exercises

Total Body

Deadlift

Clean

Snatch

Total Body Combo Lifts

Clean & Press

Clean & Push Press

Clean & Jerk

Squat & Press

Squat & Push Press

Squat & Jerk

Upper Body Pushing

Bench Press

Parallel Dips: dip stands, rings

Military Press

Push Press

Jerk

Upper Body Pulling

Chins: bar, rings

Pull ups: bar, rings

Horizontal:

1 Arm Bent Over Row

2 Arm Bent Over Row

Rows — Renegade

Lower Body Hip Dominant (Deadlift Pattern)

Deadlift and variations

RDL

Single Leg DL

Good Morning

Kettlebell Swings

Lower Body Knee Dominant (Squat Pattern)

Squat

Front Squat

Goblet Squat

Zercher Squat

Lunging

Static Lunge

Bulgarian Split Squat

Reverse Lunge

Forward Lunge

Sample Six-Pack Abs 365 Programs

Bonus Section — Home Gym Training

Master Key #3: Recovery

So, What Is The “Right Amount Of Stress?”

Use Of Recovery Methods

SECTION IV.

Troubleshooting

CONCLUSION:KEEPING YOUR SIX-PACK

REFERENCES

Six-Pack Abs 365:

How To Get And Keep Your Six-Pack 365 Days Of The Year

By

Geoff Neupert, CSCS, MRKC

All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2012 — Geoff Neupert. All rights are reserved. You may not distribute this report in any way. You may not sell it, or reprint any part of it without written consent from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

DISCLAIMER

You must get your physician’s approval before beginning this exercise program.

These recommendations are not medical guidelines but are for educational purposes only. You must consult your physician prior to starting this program or if you have any medical condition or injury that contraindicates physical activity. This program is designed for healthy individuals 18 years and older only.

See your physician before starting any exercise or nutrition program. If you are taking any medications, you must talk to your physician before starting any exercise program, including Six-Pack Abs 365. If you experience any lightheadedness, dizziness, or shortness of breath while exercising, stop the movement and consult a physician.

It is strongly recommended that have a complete physical examination if you are sedentary, if you have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or diabetes, if you are overweight, or if you are over 30 years old. Please discuss all nutritional changes with your physician or a registered dietician. If your physician recommends that you not use the Six-Pack Abs 365 program, please follow your Doctor’s orders.

All forms of exercise pose some inherent risks. The editors and publishers advise readers to take full responsibility for their safety and know their limits. Before practicing the exercises in this workout, be sure that your equipment is well maintained, and do not take risks beyond your level of experience, aptitude, training and fitness. The exercises and dietary programs in this program are not intended as a substitute for any exercise routine or treatment or dietary regimen that may have been prescribed by your physician.

Don’t lift heavy weights if you are alone, inexperienced, injured, or fatigued. Don’t perform any exercise without proper instruction. Always perform a warm-up prior to all forms of training.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Everything I have or am is because God gave it to me or made me that way. Thank you, Jesus.

Most of what I know about the training and the adaptation of the human body is because of my weightlifting coach, Alfonso Duran, who mentored me at length. I never would have succeeded without him. Thanks, Al. I owe you big.

The rest of it, I learned from innovators and pioneers and free-thinkers, men like Pavel Tsatsouline, Dan John, Brad Pilon, Martin Berkhan, Ori Hofmekler, and Joel Marion.

And of course, last, but certainly not least, my wife Courtney, who always stands beside me no matter how hair-brained my schemes appear.

Thank you all.

PREFACE

There’s a simple reason that most people don’t have a set of six-pack abs.

It’s because you have to be really lean in order to have a six-pack, and being super lean is WAY different than just “losing some weight.” And the strategies, although they have some similarities, are very different.

Losing weight is as simple as eating less food than your body needs. But that’s not good enough to get, let alone keep, your six-pack.

The Truth is that there are many components that determine whether you will or won’t achieve your goal of six-pack abs, which is why people can drop 100 pounds and still have the same shape — they still look flabby. They’re now just smaller, less flabby versions of their previous selves.

And the reason you haven’t gotten your six-pack (even though you may have lost weight in the past), is simply because you haven’t addressed all the necessary components. And in fairness to you, you probably didn’t know what all those components were, because most of these components are not common knowledge or “sexy” enough to be discussed in the fitness magazines or websites.

For example, what if I told you that you can actually reduce your body fat — the key to seeing your abs in the first place — by sleeping more.

Or, how about this one — some people actually do need to do specialized abdominal exercises to see their abs — and some don’t. How do you know which category you fall into?

Or what if I told you that you can actually use just your bodyweight for resistance and see your abs? Don’t believe me? Well gymnasts do it all the time. Take a page from their book and step back in wonder my friend…

At the end of the day, the Truth is that there are only two things you need to do in order to see your six-pack:

1.   Realize that you already have a six-pack, you just can’t see it right now because it’s buried under a layer of fat.

2.   Align your behaviors in such a way to burn off that layer of fat so you can see your six-pack.

That’s it. Then and only then will that set of six-pack abs appear.

The first truth is just mindset — a mind game if you will. When you get that right, the behaviors will fall into place. (I have already written about “mindset” in a book called The Permanent Weight Loss Solution, so we won’t discuss it further in this book. You can find The Permanent Weight Loss Solution on amazon.com in the Kindle section.)

This book deals with the second truth - the behaviors and how they affect your whole body, specifically, six different systems within your body, each of which plays a major role in you getting and keeping your six-pack.

These six systems are so important that when you fail to properly address just one, you will be banging your head against a wall in frustration for years to come.

In this book, you will learn about these six systems, how each system interacts with each other, and how by focusing on just one or two systems, you can make spectacular changes in your body.

How do I know?

Because I’ve done it.

Three times. (The first two times I didn’t keep it.)

The first was while I was wrestling in high school and into my freshman year in college. But that doesn’t really count, because when you’re 17 and you’re hormones are raging, you really do have an “unfair” advantage.

The second time was in 1996, at age 23, I got down to 3.3% body fat, training for an Olympic Weightlifting meet. (Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures — that was B.D. — before digital — and I was just a poor post-grad college student.) I had tipped the scales at about 252lbs in mid-1994 and being stupid, and thinking I was too heavy, dieted down and ultimately settled in to around 210lbs. So I know what it’s like to actually drop a bunch of fat.

And this past year, 2011, at age 38, I got down to and am currently sitting at a rough guesstimate of 9% body fat — a feat I’m particularly proud of, because it was achieved and I’m currently maintaining it in spite of being a brand new dad. Those of you who have been there know exactly what I mean. (Here’s a quick pic I snapped with my cell phone.)

To achieve both, I used completely different programs, but the principles remained the same. I’ll show you how you can do the same thing.

So when you’re ready to get and keep your six-pack, your abs, your washboard stomach, just turn the page and hang on for the ride. It’ll be a blast!

Geoff Neupert

Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist, Master Kettlebell Instructor

INTRODUCTION

Towering over the normal individual, David stands 6 feet 10 inches tall. A former college basketball player, he weighed in at a relatively “small” 300 pounds. Sure, he had some chub on him, but he certainly didn’t look “overweight.”

We were discussing nutrition for athletes, specifically his daughter, who I was training so she could go off to play soccer at college.

Then he asked this bombshell —

“What do you think is the ideal BMI or bodyweight?”

It was a very simple question really.

I responded reflexively,

“One where you can see your abs — your six-pack.”

The answer hung in the air as David slowly nodded in agreement.

“Yeah…” he paused, “That makes perfect sense.”

And when you think about it for a minute, it really does.

Looking in the mirror and seeing your six-pack is really nothing more than the outward manifestation of what’s going on internally.

And when everything internally is working correctly, getting — and more importantly — keeping your six-pack becomes relatively easy.

And that’s what this book is about — how to get and keep your six-pack abs 365 days of the year.

The Ideal

When you take a look throughout history, a six-pack, or at least definition in the abdominals has always been associated with strength, virility, personal power, and success.

From the Greeks to the Renaissance, to today’s movies, we intuitively understand and embrace the idea that people who have defined abs are attractive and appealing, and those who don’t are not.

And when no one’s looking, part of us wants to be like them. Heck, that’s why the ideal has lasted for so long.

Unfortunately, many of us try and fail and try again only to keep on failing, ultimately giving up. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

So, how then, do we achieve this “ideal?”

Simple.

1.   Understand it’s a process, not a one-time event.

2.   Commit to the process.

3.   Start the process.

4.   Reap the rewards — your very own six-pack.

And that’s what this book is all about.

So wave goodbye to the old you, and say hello to the new vision of yourself — one that’s lean, trim, strong, athletic, and has a six-pack. It’s possible at any age; you just have to follow the steps.

PHILOSOPHY

At the end of the day, most people think that getting lean enough to see your six-pack comes down to eating less — less calories, less food.

That’s not entirely true.

It’s just not as simple as that.

If it were, anorexics and concentration camp victims would all have six-pack abs. They don’t.

So, what’s going on? Why isn’t it just as simple as “eat less food?”

Because although low on caloric consumption, their bodies truly are in “survival mode,” which is the last place you want your body to be in if you want a six-pack.

So that means there has to be more to getting a six-pack it than just “not eating,” or just “eating less.”

And there is.

In the simplest of terms, getting and keeping your six-pack is about losing as much fat from your body as possible, while keeping, and even gaining as much muscle as you think reasonable.

If only it were that easy…

Getting a six-pack is a complex interplay between the major systems in your body that regulate its operation behind the scenes.

Understanding how each of these systems contribute to rock hard abs, and then aligning critical variables in these systems, are the keys to getting and keeping your abs.

A great analogy for how these systems work together is to think of a tumbler on a combination lock. You know, the ones with the numbers on them that you turn and can set yourself — kind of like the ones on the briefcases in spy movies. Get the numbers correct, and the lock pops open, giving you access to the contents of the briefcase. Get them wrong, and the briefcase remains shut. The interplay between the systems of your body is very similar to that.

Tell me if this sounds familiar: You’ve gone to the gym in the past and busted your butt only to frustrated with the lack of results. Yet maybe you know some other guys or have heard stories about guys who barely seem to do anything and have a six-pack.

Why is that? Because they were able to get the combination correct for their bodies and you weren’t. That’s all.

But you’re about to.

Here’s a quick story from my life to prove my point. In 2003, after working almost 2 years straight without a vacation, training clients 14 hours a day and then trying to lift heavy stuff over my head four to five days per week, my wife and I took a 10 day vacation to the Caribbean to celebrate her graduation from physical therapy school. I slept 8 to 12 hours a day instead of my usual 5 to 6, and lounged around by the pool and beach and let my diet go pretty lax — a cheeseburger and fries a day was the norm. I returned home 3 pounds heavier, but my body fat had dropped by 2%.

What happened? I got the balance between all my body’s systems right.

Like I said, you’re going to learn how to do this for yourself. I’m going to show you how to avoid the critical mistakes that kept me from getting and keeping my own six-pack and that literally cost me tens of thousands of dollars to “discover.”

So let’s get started.

Here’s what we’re going to do:

First, we’re going to identify and explore the three most important variables — the 3 Master Keys For Six-pack Abs — in getting your six-pack.

Second, we’ll identify the six body systems I mentioned earlier, and take a close look at the role they play in you getting and keeping your six-pack.

Third, you’ll learn how these systems interact with each other and how to unlock and restore the intended functions of these systems by using the 3 Master Keys so you can actually get your six-pack. This includes an easy-to-use, easy-to-follow nutrition program as well as weight training programs.

And finally, you’ll learn how to troubleshoot these six systems by using the 3 Master Keys so you can make course corrections to getting your six-pack and then keep it forever.

SECTION I.

The 3 Master Keys To Six-Pack Abs

There are 3 Master Keys you must know how to use in order to see your abs. Here they are in their order of importance.

1.   Master Key #1: Nutrition

2.   Master Key #2: Strength Training

3.   Master Key #3: Recovery

Learn how to use these to your advantage, and the fat will literally melt off your body at a rate so fast, not only is it startling, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do this sooner.

Master Key #1: Nutrition

I’ve always loved food, not only the taste, but the physical changes I could create in my body with it. For example, I used food combined with heavy weight training to pack on almost 100 pounds in the first 4 years I was in college. However, I didn’t fully understand its power to transform my body until I met Dr. Tom Bilella, a chiropractor and functional nutrition specialist in New Jersey, who helped me get to 3.3% body fat in record time — roughly 3 weeks. He had this quote on his wall —

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.”

Thomas A. Edison, Inventor (1847-1931)

After extensive conversations with him I adopted his belief that the human body can be manipulated for good or bad through food. And that’s because, food, like medicine, causes specific and predictable chemical changes in your body that lead to predictable results.

For example, when you eat sugar, your body releases the hormone insulin to take that sugar and store it in your muscle cells. Eat too much sugar, and your body not only stores it in your muscle cells, but also as body fat. Eat too much sugar for too long, and your body will over-release insulin, and you’ll end up with Type 2 Diabetes — the inability of your body to regulate the release of that insulin and the storage of blood sugar.

By contrast, eat extra protein and you’ll increase the amount of calories your body burns, because it needs extra energy to digest the protein. (The current estimate is that your body has to use 20-35% more energy to break down, digest, and absorb protein^1. That means for every 100 calories of protein you eat, you body spends between 20 to 35 calories to assimilate it.) Your body will also release the neurotransmitter L-dopamine, which makes you more alert and increases your attention and productivity. Protein consumption has also been shown to increase testosterone levels^2, which creates and maintains muscle tissue and reduces body fat levels.

Of course there are many other chemical interactions that occur in your body from eating food. To remove the fat from your stomach to get to your six-pack, we will take advantage of as many of those positive reactions as possible. This is actually an easy process because your body is designed to operate this way naturally.

So it’s really just a matter of restoring lost function and getting your body back to “normal.”

Reread that statement again because what you really need to own is that being lean and seeing your six-pack is normal and natural — the way you were designed to be.

Own that thought and this process becomes much easier. You begin to see it as inevitability rather than a challenge.

In fact, Nutrition is so important that it is responsible for 80% of your results, maybe even more. That means most of your attention and energy should be focused here.

Don’t fall for the common mistake and of working out more thinking you can out-work poor nutrition. Your greatest changes in appearance are found in mastering your eating.

Master Key #2: Strength Training

There has been A TON of information on strength training written over the last 100 years or so. Not much of it is new. What is “new” is the rediscovery by the mainstream marketers and media on the role of strength training for “health” and “weight loss.”

But here’s the deal: You will get your six-pack when you focus the majority of your energy on strength training instead of other forms of exercise, specifically, cardio.

Strength training burns more calories, puts muscle on your body, and increases your natural levels of testosterone and growth hormone, both of which decrease your body fat. That means you will see your abs much sooner if you lift weights than if you don’t.

Not only that, but by manipulating key variables in our strength training routines such as rest periods, exercise selection, reps and sets, we can positively influence our body to do some really cool things — like release fat-burning hormones that will help us get our six-packs much faster.

You should spend 10-15% of your energy and focus on strength training.

Here’s why:

Not only have we seen that nutrition accounts for 80% of your results, but from a pure time investment perspective, if you’re only working out 3 out of 168 hours a week, that’s less than 2% of your week. Do you honestly think that a 2% investment of your time is going to make massive changes in your body and appearance?

You’d be crazy to think so. And yet so many people hinge the transformation of their bodies on workouts alone, and neglect nutrition.

So strength training will indeed make changes, but again, the magnitude of those changes is determined by how well your nutrition supports that activity. Eat to support the changes, and you’ll see them.

Master Key #3: Recovery

This is the most under-rated, overlooked method for achieving six-pack abs around. The dirty secret is that it’s not how much work you can do, but how much work you can recover from.

Recovery is a very big deal. We live in a society that seems hell-bent on making everything bigger, doing everything faster, and having as much as possible. That attitude takes a major toll on us in the form of STRESS.

Stress is one of those “double-edged sword” types of things. You need stress for adaptation. Stress is what makes your muscles bigger and stronger. Stress is what melts off body fat.

Yet, if left unchecked and unmanaged, stress is a very, very big deal. Among other things, it creates stomach fat, ulcers, depression, divorce, and addictions.

So if there’s too much stress in your life, your body won’t respond the way you want it to — with a set of six-pack abs. Therefore, managing stress through proper recovery, like eating the right foods, getting enough sleep, and enjoying life, have a major impact on your body fat levels. And body fat, or the lack thereof, determines whether or not you see your abs.

SECTION II.

Systemic Synchronization — Managing The Six Body Systems Controlling Your Six-Pack Success

Your body is an absolutely amazing creation. According to ancient philosophers, it is essentially a shell in which your soul (mind) and spirit live. But oh what a shell it is! For the most part it operates without any effort by you.

Think about it — you breathe, digest your food, and walk around without having to think about it at all. And the reason you can do that is because your body is partitioned into multiple systems that do all this stuff for you.

Each system interacts with the other and each system is influenced, for better or worse, by external stimuli, like stress.

A simple example is the shaky leg feeling you get if you’ve ever narrowly escaped a car accident. That feeling was the result of an adrenaline release — a shot of a chemical designed to give you instant energy. That was an example of the “fight or flight” response embedded in your DNA to keep you alive. It was your Central Nervous System that initiated and your Endocrine System that mediated that adrenaline release.

Let’s take a closer look at these systems…

System 1: Your Nervous System

Your Nervous System (NS) is the one system that ultimately dictates how your body operates — how ALL of your body operates. It’s the one system that governs all the others.

Your brain receives signals from your environment and body, processes them, and sends a series of electrical impulses down your spinal cord and nerves to all the areas of your body (i.e.: muscles, glands, organs…) to produce a response. Some responses you cognitively control (lift this weight) and some you don’t (digest this food).

Now the cool thing is that you can influence your NS to make rapid changes in the rest of your body, including losing fat. And you do that by changing the input from the other 5 systems.

Before we get into that, let’s take a closer look at how the NS works and what that means for your fat loss, which is ultimately how you’ll see your six-pack.

Your NS is divided into 2 parts — the Central and the Peripheral.

The Central Nervous System (CNS) is your brain and your spinal cord. It is the “central processing center” (kind of like a giant mailroom) and controls all the workings of your body.

All body changes effectively start and end here, including getting your abs. Why? Because it’s your brain that ultimately receives and processes all information about what’s going on inside your body. It’s your brain that ultimately directs and determines all changes (such as mobilizing fat cells, ramping up metabolism, growing muscle) that will occur in your body, based on the feedback it gets from all the body’s other systems.

Your Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) consists of all the nerves and associated receptors that send signals to your body from the CNS and back to the CNS from your body. This is also very important to remember, because parts of your body like your stomach/gut have a lot of nerve endings and have the ability to send powerful messages to other parts of your body, (such as inhibition of your abdominal muscles), or to your brain (like alterations in emotional response).

Your PNS is divided into two parts as well, your Sensory-Somatic Nervous System (SSNS) and your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS).

The SSNS is responsible for controlling your senses and your muscles — basically it interprets all external stimuli, like food, weightlifting, cardio, and stuff like that and the responses to those stimuli — like how much fat you’ll lose or how much muscle you’ll grow.

The ANS is responsible for controlling your organs like your heart, lungs, viscera, and glands. It’s all the stuff that’s automatic — that you don’t have to think about, like breathing and your heart beating.

And finally, the ANS is divided into 2 parts — the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS).

Here’s where it gets really important, so pay close attention. In the simplest of terms, the SNS essentially prepares your body for “fight or flight”. Refer back to the “shaky leg” example earlier — that was your SNS in full control of your body at that moment. You’ve probably also experienced this phenomenon when you’ve gotten “psyched up” for a sporting event or workout.

And in the simplest of terms, the PNS does basically the opposite. It is essentially responsible for “resting and digesting.” This is one of the most important parts of your NS for getting and keeping your six-pack. It is the most overlooked component in I’d estimate 99% of all “Abs” programs and is the one thing that keeps most people from ever seeing their abs.

Here are some examples of how the SNS and PNS directly affect your six-pack:

1.   If you don’t sleep, (causing an imbalance between your SNS and PNS activity) you can’t recover from the daily stresses in life nor your exercise program.

2.   If you can’t digest your food well, (because your SNS is chronically over-stimulated and PNS inhibited) you won’t absorb valuable nutrients needed for that restoration. So your body can’t maintain and repair itself. Therefore you won’t fully benefit from strength training and it can actually work against you.

3.   When you can’t digest well, you can’t eliminate (go to the bathroom) well. And poor elimination (constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating, etc.) causes your body to store those waste products — which the body now views as toxins — as fat. And it stores that fat as far away from your vital organs as possible — the outside of your body in your gut and your lovehandles.

So Why Does All This Matter?

Because everything you do to your body — from what you put in your mouth to the type of workout you do — is interpreted by your brain to produce a response, which will either help or hinder your ability to get and keep your six-pack.

System 2: Your Digestive System

Your Digestive System (DS) is the second most important part of your body apart from the Nervous System, and remember, it is controlled by the Parasympathetic Nervous System.

It delivers all the nutrients your body needs to run and repair its self.

Most people are unaware that the human gut has more synaptic connections (nerve endings) than any other part of the body other than the brain. (Hence the terms “gut feeling” or “going with your gut.”) Many neurologists refer to the gut as the second brain because of this. This multitude of connections send a ton of information to brain about how your body is doing and whether it is ok to shed some fat, or whether other things are more important… like dealing with this really irritating food…

And your DS directly impacts your Nervous System. You ever have a rough day and grab a beer to help you “relax?” You have your beer and pretty soon all the cares of the day seem to fade away. What’s going on? The alcohol and the carbs in the beer triggered a very specific chemical and hormonal process.

Therefore, what goes on in your gut therefore will either take you a couple of steps closer to your six-pack or a couple of steps further away from it.

Let’s take a closer look at food and what it does to your body in the long term and how it, is keeping you from seeing your six-pack.

1.   When you routinely eat highly processed and refined foods, like pasta or your typical fast food meal, you rob the body of many of the essential nutrients such as copper, manganese, zinc and magnesium.

2.   These essential nutrients are necessary for normal functioning of the DS, aiding in carbohydrate digestion.

3.   Once these minerals are depleted, the DS can no longer process and digest carbohydrates as well as it’s designed to.

4.   These poorly digested carbs then ferment, turning into alcohol and simple sugars, which in turn provide food for yeast and unhealthy bacteria, and lead to indigestion, bloating, and gas, and even ulcers.

5.   (Alcohol is metabolized in your liver as acetone, which your body burns for fuel instead of fat.)

Hold on there, Champ, cause we’re not done yet. It gets “better.”

6. These processed / fast foods also alter the balance of healthy bacteria in your gut, called “gut flora.” Doesn’t sound like a big deal until you realize that this gut flora is responsible for giving your body essential nutrients and vitamins, like biotin — which helps your body properly use sugar for energy.

7.   Biotin also promotes proper fat storage, and keeps energy going to your nerve cells, both of which are necessary for energy production and muscle contraction.

8.   And let’s not forget Vitamin K, which is important in your body’s ability to digest protein and clot blood.

And that’s just scratching the surface. There are many other complex interactions that occur in your body that are affected by the food you eat.

The Bottom Line here is this: The Digestive System’s function — its role in the operation and maintenance of your body — is directly impacted by the foods you eat. And taking care of the Digestive System is imperative in getting and keeping your six-pack. (Eat junk foods, look and feel like junk.)

And here’s something else most people don’t know:

A healthy Digestive System is vital for a healthy and fully functioning Immune System^3.

That’s one of the reasons overweight people are always getting sick — their guts don’t work right, and as a result they have suppressed Immune Systems. Your gut (the DS) truly is the gateway to great health, as well as a great looking body.

Speaking of the Immune System, let’s take a closer look…

System 3: Your Immune System

Your Immune System (IS) is the defensive system that works to keep your body functioning as intended — normal and healthy. This is a complex system that includes specialized blood cells, the lymph system, your blood, and a variety of other things, such as your skin.

It’s important to fortify and keep your IS running smoothly in order to see your abs.

If your body is chronically sick, the last thing it cares about is showing you a washboard set of abs. Remember that picture of the concentration camp victims? One of the reasons they don’t have a six-pack is because their Immune Systems are so compromised.

Having a weakened IS means that you will most likely have increased levels of inflammation in your body. Inflammation is a good thing and a necessary process in its proper context — repair of the body’s cells.

But too much inflammation leads to a decreased function of all the body’s processes and manifests itself as hard-to-get-rid-of body fat.

And that means there’s a very good chance that you will never see your six-pack or keep it if you ever get it.

The role inflammation plays and its interaction with the Endocrine system (to be discussed next) in fat loss — or the inability to lose fat — is exemplified in chronic pain patients.

People in chronic pain are almost always carrying extra weight, especially in the stomach area, which is a tell-tale sign of excess cortisol production. Here’s why:

1.   Cortisol is one of the hormones your body releases to fight inflammation, which occurs in many chronic pain patients. Unfortunately, when your inflammation levels are high, so are your cortisol levels.

2.   Cortisol is one of the hormones that mobilizes stored carbohydrate (sugar) for a perceived immediate energy need.

3.   And when cortisol levels are high, your body releases sugar from its cells to circulate in the blood, thus creating excess levels of blood sugar.

4.   This means your body must release extra insulin normalize your blood sugar if the sugar is not immediately needed for energy production.

5.   Cortisol is also responsible for stimulating the conversion of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins and muscles) to blood sugar, which unfortunately means that high levels of cortisol also destroy muscle tissue.

6.   Not only that, but because of increased insulin production due to elevated cortisol levels, growth hormone levels decrease, (since insulin directly inhibits the release of growth hormone). Therefore, leading to the inability to increase muscle mass.

7.   Worse yet, testosterone levels in men decrease in the presence of too much cortisol.

8.   This also affects lean muscle mass — both the ability to keep it and grow new muscle.

9.   Therefore, it is very hard for chronic pain patients to lose body fat and gain muscle due to the cortisol-insulin interaction and the other related hormonal responses.

10.   It’s essentially a negative feedback loop: Increase cortisol, increase insulin, and increase body fat*.

(*DISCLAIMER: I am not a licensed medical professional and the cortisol responses and conditions in chronic pain patients vary greatly from being chronically high to being chronically low. This is one interpretation based on my study of some of the available research.)

For example, one of my friends just had his hip replaced. He had been walking around in pain for years. One of the first things that happened after the surgery was that he lost 15 pounds of fat. (He told me that his doctor had told him that chronic/systemic inflammation was directly linked to excess body fat.)

The inflammation that was associated with the dead joint was affecting him systemically through complex interactions between the Immune System and Endocrine System. Once he got rid of it, his body’s healing processes, including the relationship between cortisol and insulin started to normalize. And he is now very proud to lift up his shirt and show off his abs!

Therefore, you’ll need to actively fortify your Immune System both externally and internally — by the things you do for yourself, like working out, stress management, and so on, and internally by the foods you eat or don’t eat.

When you have a fully fortified IS, it becomes much, much easier to get, and keep your abs.

When your Immune System is functioning properly, it makes ALL the chemicals and processes in your body operate more efficiently and more effectively.

Speaking of chemical processes, let’s take a look at some of those and how they impact whether or not you get your six-pack by looking at…

What Is “Inflammation” Really?

Inflammation is a natural response your body uses to destroy intruders. It is your Immune System at work to protect your body from any perceived threat, such as bacteria and viruses and anything else that might cause disease.

Usually it is a short-term response that involves the destruction and removal of these threats by specialized white blood cells.

Unfortunately, sometimes these responses aren’t short lived. Diseases like arthritis and heart disease are often permanent and cause permanent (chronic) inflammation and eventually lead to loss of function of the affected areas.

Chronic inflammation can lead to increased insulin resistance, increased fat around the waist, and even heart disease. The Bottom line: Get rid of inflammation as fast as possible not only for your health but for your abs.

System 4: Your Endocrine System

Your Endocrine System (ES) is the system that regulates growth, mood, sexual function, reproduction, and metabolism. Its foundation is your hormones and glands. Your ES essentially sends chemical messages (also called “hormones”) for changing and regulating the body. Your ES is controlled directly by the NS and also via local chemical messaging feedback loops in specialized cells and glands.

Let’s take a closer look at the primary hormones responsible for you seeing your six-pack.

Testosterone — This is the main male sex hormone.

•   Among other things, it’s responsible for muscle growth, fat loss, a positive attitude, and aggression.

•   It decreases during times of stress and in response to increased levels of cortisol in the body.

•   It can also be elevated through the “right stress” such as heavy strength training.

•   It can also be elevated through eating saturated fats and lower carbohydrate dieting.

Estrogen — The main female sex hormone that should be minimized in men. Unfortunately with the large prevalence of “manboobs” in our society, its role is highly visible.

•   Diets high in carbohydrates and saturated fat (and soy), like fast food diets, can decrease testosterone and increase estrogen.

•   This is because these foods lead to a magnesium deficiency, which has been shown to increase estrogen levels.

Insulin — Released by the pancreas, this is responsible for shuttling the sugar you eat, after its absorbed and released into your blood stream, into your liver, muscles, and even fat cells.

•   When you eat too much sugar, your body releases a lot of insulin to control that sugar.

•   Over time, too much insulin results in “insulin resistance,” where your body has to release more insulin than it used to in order to be able to store the sugar in your blood stream.

•   This can lead to Type 2 Diabetes.

•   It also results in that spare tire around your midsection.

•   Insulin is also a powerful muscle builder when harnessed correctly.

•   Not enough insulin leads to muscle wasting.

Glucagon — Also released by the pancreas, this works in conjunction with insulin and is released when your blood sugar is low.

•   It sends a signal to your muscle cells to release sugar to be used for energy.

•   The other cool thing is that when glucagon is released it triggers a series of enzymatic reactions that tell your body to burn fat for fuel.

•   Too much glucagon results in muscle wasting.

Cortisol — Although it’s gotten lots of bad press in the last 10 years or so, cortisol is vital for controlling the usage of protein, carbohydrates, and fats in your body.

•   It also reduces inflammation in the body, critical for cell reproduction and restoration (like after a heavy bout of weight training).

•   However, too much cortisol results in the storage of stomach fat.

•   Too much cortisol also makes you lose muscle, due to a process called gluconeogenesis — where the body makes sugar from non-carbohydrate sources, including amino acids, necessary for protein synthesis and muscle growth.

•   Elevated cortisol levels also result in elevated insulin levels because cortisol signals the release of sugar stored in your body’s cells for energy. Insulin is then released to reduce the amount of sugar in your bloodstream. This becomes a vicious cycle.

Growth Hormone — Is, as its name suggests, responsible for cell growth.

•   It plays a strong role in both gaining muscle and in losing fat. High levels of GH signal the body to stop burning sugar for fuel and preferentially use fat stores.

•   GH is stimulated three ways: 1) through sleep, 2) high intensity exercise, and 3) periods of fasting.

•   GH production is suppressed by high levels of insulin and cortisol.

Leptin— Is a hormone responsible for appetite control.

•   When leptin levels are low from undereating, your brain tells you you’re hungry and when leptin levels are high, your brain receives signals that you’re not.

•   It’s released from your body’s fat cells and people with higher body fat levels have higher leptin levels.

•   When leptin levels drop, so do your thyroid levels (T3 and T4), which then slow down your metabolic rate — the rate at which you use energy on a daily basis.

•   Cortisol levels also increase when leptin levels drop. And too much cortisol means you’ll be adding fat instead of losing it.

Ghrelin — Works as the counterpart to leptin — it stimulates appetite.

•   Because it does, it you tend to eat more than you need, especially when dieting, leading to increased fat mass.

•   It also stimulates the release of growth hormone, which means, if you have large levels of ghrelin in your bloodstream, your body is going to be pumping out higher levels of growth hormone.

•   (And higher levels of GH mean you can burn more fat for fuel.)

There are many more complex interactions between these hormones and other hormones in your body that dictate sixpack success, but these are the primary ones we need to be aware of and keep in balance. When we do, the others will be taken care of.

The Bottom Line here is we want the Endocrine System to produce high levels of testosterone and growth hormone. And we use the other hormones to help manage that process.

The best part about your ES is that it responds to external stimuli and can be controlled and manipulated through eating, working out, and rest/recovery. Of course this can be either good or bad, depending on the stimuli.

For example, research has demonstrated that lifting heavy weights increases testosterone levels^4. That means by lifting heavy weights, you can increase your muscle mass and decrease your body fat.

The good news then is that through heavy weight lifting you can actually eat more food to build more muscle, or eat the same amount of food to burn fat.

Research has also demonstrated that doing too much cardio will decrease your testosterone levels^5 and increase your cortisol levels^6 (and consequently insulin levels). This means you will lose muscle, your sex drive will diminish, and your metabolic rate will drop, therefore you will burn fewer calories at rest. And worse yet, you will have an increased propensity to store fat. This explains why endurance athletes like marathon runners look “stringy” — they have little muscle mass and low levels of testosterone. This is also why you see so many “skinny-fat” people — people who have dieted and used cardio as their primary means of weight loss. They are just smaller versions of themselves, rather than the lean hard body that is associated with a six-pack.

So, if you’re doing a ton of cardio thinking you’ll see your abs, you are sadly mistaken!

The take away here, is that what you do to your body dictates how your ES operates and whether your ES will help or hinder your six-pack.

Speaking of doing things to and with your body, let’s take a closer look at the system that allows you to actually “do” those things…

System 5: Your Musculoskeletal System

When people think of getting a nice set of six-pack abs, this is pretty much always the first place they start — their muscles.

Your musculoskeletal system (MS) is your body as most people think of it — it’s your muscles, bones, joints, and connective tissue. It is controlled directly by your Nervous System. Muscle contractions are the result of electrical and chemical transmissions. These dictate the amount of weight you lift. The cool thing is that the MS can also influence the NS. When you lift a heavy weight, you force your body to contract very powerful muscle fibers. Those muscle fibers (called Type 2A and Type 2B) require a lot of energy. So the more frequently you can make them contract, the more energy you’ll burn off. That energy is stored in excess as body fat.

Obviously then, the MS plays a huge role in seeing your abs.

In fact, your abs themselves are a part of this system.

Work the Musculoskeletal System correctly, while respecting and maintaining the other systems of your body, and your abs are almost sure to be seen.

And that’s where there is so much contradictory information in the fitness world.

“Should I work your abs directly or indirectly?”

“Which exercises specifically will help me see my abs?”

“How much time do I need to spend working out?”

And the questions keep on rolling. Fortunately there are definitive answers. We’ll get to them when we get to the exercise section.

The important thing for you to understand right now is that behind the Digestive System (eating for six-pack abs), the Musculoskeletal System is probably the quickest route to direct changes in your Nervous System, either good or bad.

And it’s important for you to remember that all changes in your body, including seeing your abs, are directed and controlled by your brain.

So, the clearer and more aligned the signals are to your brain — that is, that they are all saying pretty much the same thing — “I want to see my six-pack” — the faster that outcome will happen.

Therefore, we ultimately want to send the same messages to our brain from all our systems — our Digestive, Immune, Endocrine, and Musculoskeletal systems — that all systems are working as smoothly as possible — giving it an “all systems are go” signal so it can direct your body to work as efficiently as possible.

Only when your brain receives this “all systems go” signal will it give you exactly what you’re looking for — six-pack abs.

Therefore, the faster you can align your body’s systems, and the longer you can keep them aligned, the faster you’ll achieve your six-pack and the longer you’ll keep it once you have it.

Make sense so far?

Good.

Let’s take a quick peek at the last system that impacts our ability to achieve a six-pack. It’s probably the most misunderstood and most abused system in our bodies…

System 6: Your Cardio-Respiratory System

When most people think about seeing their abs, they think predominantly three things:

1.   I gotta go on a diet.

2.   I gotta do a bunch of ab work.

3.   I gotta do a bunch of cardio.

In fact, the prevailing thought today still, is, that other than doing direct ab work, the fastest way to see their six-pack is by doing cardio.

The opposite is in fact true.

In order to understand that, you must understand the purpose of your Cardiovascular, or more importantly, your Cardio-Respiratory System (CRS).

Your CRS is made up of your heart, arteries and veins, blood vessels, blood, your lungs, nose, and pharynx, larynx, and trachea. Its primary purpose is to deliver energy to your brain and your body’s cells in the form of oxygen, glucose, or fat in order to keep you alive.

That’s it.

The harder you work, the harder it works to keep energy going to the brain and the rest of the body’s cells.

That’s the main function.

So why do most people use cardio as their main or secondary way to get their abs?

Because they simply don’t understand how their bodies work or the best way to make changes in them.

So what is the role of the CRS in getting your six-pack?

Minimal.

We use the CRS to burn excess calories stored as fat, but not in the traditional sense. We engage it indirectly as a result of our formula for getting our abs, not as separate work in and of itself. It’s the proverbial cherry on top of the sundae so-to-speak.

Just like a sundae is a sundae with or without the cherry (at least in my book — I don’t like cherries on top of my sundaes), you can get your abs without ever having to do any direct CRS work whatsoever. I’m living proof of that.

So Why The Heck Does All This Science Stuff Matter?

Why did we take the time to review the body’s six major systems that influence and affect your six-pack?

Because most people don’t understand how their bodies work nor do they see the importance of doing so.

And because of this they not only fail to achieve their goals, they fail to understand why they don’t achieve them.

Worse yet, they don’t understand what changes they need to make so the next time they attempt that same goal they will be successful. Instead, they double their efforts in attempting the same process.

This may have happened to you in the past.

I don’t want it to happen to you again.

Got it? Good.

Now let’s move on to the “nuts and bolts” of the Six-pack Abs 365 program…

SECTION III.

Master Key #1: Nutrition

I have spent almost the last 20 years living and making a living by this belief —

The key to fat loss is what you put in your mouth.

That’s really it.

And since your six-pack is hiding under a layer of fat, it’s also the key to seeing your abs.

However, most people just don’t want to believe that.

They live in a constant state of denial. Instead, they do what they perceive to be the “emotionally easier things” like working out.

However, nutrition is so important, that this is where 80% of your time, effort, and energy should be spent.

Go ahead and read that again — I’ll even bold it for you so you don’t miss it and let it sink in:

80% of your time, effort, and energy should be spent on controlling the foods you eat.

Nutrition is where the “magic” happens. As we’ve already touched on, the food you eat controls your body’s hormonal responses and ultimately whether you gain fat, or lose it.

The other 20% of your time, effort, and energy should be spent on stress management and resistance training.

Why Is The Food You Eat So Important To Getting Six-Pack Abs?

We looked earlier at the body’s 6 major systems that determine whether or not you get your six-pack.

We saw that ultimately, the Nervous System determines whether or not you get it. And the other 5 systems influence the NS.

So it makes good sense then to try to optimize the functioning of those other systems.

So for starters, food directly impacts the Digestive System, which is essentially the gateway to prime the NS for change.

The DS ultimately turns your food into energy for immediate use or later use — to store it as fuel in your muscles or fuel in your fat. (Fat by the way, is just fuel for your body to use sometime in the future.)

When you eat the right foods, your body digests them properly and absorbs them at the appropriate rate. When you eat the wrong foods, as we saw before in the section on the Digestive System, bad things happen, like destruction of the good gut flora and the loss of essential vitamins and minerals.

Remember from earlier, for every single food you eat, there is a series of chemical processes all controlled and regulated by enzymes, which ultimately control the release of your body’s hormones. That means your food impacts your Endocrine System. Which also impacts your Immune System, your Musculoskeletal System, and your Nervous System (beer example).

That means we need to eat in such a way to positively impact all the body’s systems.

It’s called…

The Ultimate Fat Loss Blueprint

“Everything works, but nothing works forever.” — Unknown

This very simple quote explains why many, if not all diets work for some people in the short term and fail most in the long term.

Most diets are exclusive — they are based on what you can’t eat, which of course flies in the face of human psychology. (Whatever you do, don’t think of a big ol’ bowl of meatballs and spaghetti. See…)

Most people can give something up for a short period of time, but very few have the monk-like discipline to give up some form of food permanently, unless of course they already don’t like that food.

Most diets are not only restrictive, but also boring. You are forced to eat the same foods over and over and over again. Good for monks and other ascetics, but not for the rest of us.

So then, what if you took the best of all diets — all the effects they produced in the short term and eliminated the negative results found in the long term, and combined them into a plan that you could actually live with — something that was actually enjoyable, provided some variety, allowed you to eat your favorite foods, and yet provided optimal fat-burning?

Welcome to the Ultimate Fat Loss Blueprint. The ultimate “diet” to help you see and keep on seeing your six-pack abs. Forever.

Yes, you can eat carbs.

Yes you can eat fat.

Yup — you can even eat fried chicken, pizza, waffles, and French fries.

And no, it’s not “too good to be true.”

But you can’t just eat these things “willy-nilly” — you have to eat them according to a plan — a blueprint.

Don’t worry though — it’s a very enjoyable plan.

The Blueprint

Pretty much every Saturday for years, from about age 22 to age 27, I’d travel up to see my weightlifting coach, who lives in West New York, New Jersey. I’d literally spend all day hanging out with him, talking shop, picking his brain, and training. We’d talk about everything — weightlifting, bodybuilding, powerlifting, the best way to do this, that, or the other thing. And he knows it all — he was trained by the best — Alexei Medvedev, Olympic Weightlifting Champ, and Soviet Weightlifting Team and World Champion Coach.

But there was one thing I never saw him do: Eat. He would smoke a lot and drink a lot of espresso, but he’d never eat. When I asked him about it, he told me that he only ate once a day — at night, when he got home after work. It was usually a salad and a piece of meat and some pasta.

Of course I wanted to know why. He explained that eating this way was good for growth hormone production, kept him alert during the day, kept him lean, and kept him strong. And strong he was. At his peak, he squatted 832lbs. with just a belt and knee wraps weighing only 235lbs. On his 50th birthday he deadlifted 315lbs for 10 sets of 10 just because he felt like it. I once saw him demonstrate the lat pulldown to one of his clients by stacking it and pausing it at his sternum for reps. The weight stack weighed 240lbs and he weighed 190.

So Alfonso, as usual, was ahead of his time. What he was practicing, which allowed him to stay lean, look young, and have a pencil thin waist, was what is now commonly referred to Intermittent Fasting. And it — Intermittent Fasting — forms the backbone of your ticket to getting ripped abs — the Ultimate Fat Loss Blueprint (UFLB).

(Coincidentally, and unwittingly, I’d used Intermittent Fasting my senior year of high school wrestling. My first meal was usually 14-16 hours after waking up and I typically only ate 3 meals a day — a small snack in the morning, a big lunch before practice, which usually put me to sleep in 4th period English, and a big dinner after practice. If only I’d seen the pattern of success sooner…)

In the UFLB, you will simply cycle different forms of eating and not eating throughout the week, enjoying your favorite foods along the way.

Here’s how the blueprint for any given day will look like:

Wake up:

Coffee, tea, water, beverage of choice (calorie-free beverage of choice — sorry, no lattes)

Lunchtime (between Noon and 2pm):

Light lunch — primarily red meat, chicken, turkey, fish, pork, and a salad or some veggies

Dinner (between 6 and 8pm):

As much food as you want, within reason. (Eat until you feel slightly full, but don’t gorge or stuff yourself.

The UFLB Daily Plan

Day 1 (Saturday is best): Treat Day

Treat yourself to your favorite foods.

Nothing is off limits. Go out for breakfast. Dinner. Enjoy barbeque with your friends. Have a glass of wine or two. (Take it easy there killer…)

Examples:

Breakfast: Waffles and eggs.

Lunch: Double cheeseburger, fries, milkshake.

Dinner: Pizza.

Day 2: Fast Day

Fast. Don’t eat anything. Zero. Zilch. Zip. Nada.

You just pigged out yesterday so you don’t need to eat today. No you don’t. Drink lots of water. Add lemon for taste. It staves off the hunger cravings and aids in detoxifying your liver and improves absorption abilities of the GI tract.

Day 3: Low Carb, Moderate Protein

Low Carb.

But you can eat as many vegetables as you’d like.

Dinner is whatever your favorite meat is — beef, poultry, eggs, fish, whatever. Plus lots of veggies.

Examples:

1pm — Lunch: Spinach salad, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, small piece of salmon

6:30pm — Dinner: Baked chicken, steamed broccoli, steamed carrots, salad.

Day 4: Low Carb, Moderate Protein, Low Calorie

Low Carb. Low calorie.

Same set up as Day 3, but just eat less at dinner — about half as much.

12:30pm — Lunch: Cottage cheese and frozen blueberries.

7pm — Dinner: Pork chops, grilled asparagus, salad.

Day 5: Low Carb, Moderate Protein

Same as Day 3.

2pm — Lunch: Tuna salad on lettuce.

7pm — Dinner: Sirloin steak, green beans, salad.

Day 6: Moderate to High Carb

Lots of Carbs. Low fat.

That’s right, lots of carbs. Tonight is a good night for pasta. Just keep the fats to a minimum. And yes, bread is good too.

And at lunch, you can toss some carbs in there too — a small sandwich is fine.

Examples:

1pm — Lunch: Small turkey sandwich — hold the mayo. Use mustard instead.

7pm — Dinner: Spaghetti with marinara sauce. Bread. (Note: You may be tempted to eat things like lasagna here. Don’t. Not enough carbs, too much fat. Save that for Treat Day.)

Day 7: High Protein, Low Carb, Low Calorie

Low Carb, Low Fat, Low Calorie.

Just eat lightly today. About half as much as you did on Day 3. Don’t worry if you’re hungry. You’ll eat a lot tomorrow. Eat mainly lean protein.

Examples:

1:30pm — Lunch: Tuna salad, w/light mayo. Salad.

7pm — Dinner: Grilled chicken breast or two. Asparagus. Brussel sprouts.

And that’s it.

Simple.

It’s relatively unbreakable.

And it’s definitely easy to follow, easy to implement, and easy to use.

Enjoy!

The Mechanics Of The UFLB

I’ve found that for general weight loss, the UFLB as written will do the trick. It will get you lean, keep you healthy, and help you finally start balancing out your Digestive and Endocrine Systems, which as we saw earlier is critically important.

Unfortunately, in order to get razor sharp abs, you have to take it a step further.

You actually do have to have a good idea of how many calories you’re consuming. This is because at the absolute end of the day in order to lose fat you must be in a caloric deficit over any given period of time. Therefore, you must monitor your food intake.

And when you think about it, this makes sense. We all do this in other areas of our lives. In order to save money, you must spend less than you make. In order to get rich, you must invest some of that saved money wisely. The more wise decisions you make, the more your investments will pay off. At the end of the day, you must spend less than you make, and the difference must be working for you. And you must know these numbers and actively participate in the regular management of these numbers.

Getting a six-pack is done exactly the same way.

Most people do neither — save and invest their money, nor monitor their food intake, which explains why very few people are wealthy and why very few people have a six-pack.

So here’s how you monitor your daily food intake:

First, you must set a baseline.

1.   Find out how much you weigh.

Write that number here: ____________

2.   You must know how many calories you need each day to create a caloric deficit.

A generally accepted number of calories to create a caloric deficit and therefore start the fat loss process is 9 to 13 multiplied by your bodyweight. We’ll multiply your bodyweight by 10— a nice, easy round number to use.

Write that number here. (Your bodyweight * 10): ___________

3.   You’ll also need to take in 1.0-1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.

For convenience sake, we’ll use 1.0 — it’s a nice round number. (This will form the backbone of your UFLB eating plan.)

Write that number here: (Your bodyweight *1.0): ___________

Second, you need to know what kinds of foods you can eat on the UFLB.

Your food sources are broken down into three categories:

Proteins, Carbohydrates, and Fats.

Proteins:

Beef, Chicken, Pork, Fish, Eggs, Turkey, Cottage Cheese

Carbohydrates:

All green vegetables, fruits, berries, potatoes, sweet potatoes, quinoa, rice, oatmeal, bread

Fats:

Butter, olive oil, peanut butter, avocado, coconut oil, nuts

Please notice what’s not on here — anything that’s found in a bag or a box or wrapped in plastic. Unless it’s found in the meat, poultry, fruit or vegetable isles at your grocery store, assume it’s poison for your abs.

That’s for a number of reasons, but mainly it’s because of how those foods are poorly digested and absorbed and how they affect your Endocrine System, and specifically the hormones responsible for fat loss.

Third, you’ll build your meals.

We are going to take a look at the Low Carb Day meal since this will make up the majority of your meals. Four of the days are variations on this theme and one day you’re not eating at all. The other two days are almost “free” days with one being a full-blown Treat Day — where you get to eat whatever you want and not worry about it, and the other is a Carb Day. How hard is it to cook up a box of pasta? (That’s what I do.)

So, the average meal for a 200-pound man will be broken down the following way:

1.   Total Calories = 2000

2.   Total grams of protein = 200

3.   Total calories from protein = 800

4.  Calories remaining = 1200

From this some obvious questions arise, like:

1. “How do I determine what 200 grams of protein looks like?”

Here’s a quick guide that will come in handy for you. It’s set up in the following manner —

Grams of protein source / ounce / pound

So just see how much protein you need and round up or down as necessary.

Chicken

1.   7.7g / ounce

2.   30.8g / 4oz/0.25lbs

3.   61.6g / 8oz/0.50lbs

4.   92.4g / 12oz/0.75lbs

5.   123.2g / 16oz/1.00lbs

Beef & Pork

1.   6.6g/ounce

2.   26.4g / 4oz/0.25lbs

3.   52.8g / 8oz/0.50lbs

4.   79.2g / 12oz/0.75lbs

5.   105.6g / 16oz/1.00lbs

Fish

1.   5.5g/ ounce

2.   22g / 4 oz/0.25lbs

3.   44g / 8 oz/0.50lbs

4.   66g / 12 oz/0.75lbs

5.   88g / 16oz/1.00lbs

Cottage Cheese

15g / 0.5 cup

Eggs — Large

7g / egg

You’re going to be splitting these up between two meals, one smaller one and one larger one. So I eat 40% of my calories in meal 1 and the balance, or 60% in meal 2.

There is no right way just what is ultimately convenient for you.

So for example, in Meal 1, you need 80 grams of protein, so you may choose about 9 ounces of boneless, skinless chicken breasts (approximately 80 grams) and cook up a pound of broccoli sautéed in a nice combo of butter and olive oil. Chopped up mushrooms taste good in here too.

Meal 2 would be 60% of my remaining calories, and is usually after my workout. It might look something like this —

One Pound to a pound-and-a-half of steak (approximately 120g) and more veggies — maybe a pound of asparagus drizzled with liberal amounts of olive oil and roasted in the oven.

As you can see, this is very simple on Low Carb / Low Calorie Days.

And —

2. “Where do I get the remaining 1200 calories?”

Don’t worry about it too much.

Just eat a ton of vegetables on your Low Carb Days and be very liberal with the fats. (By “a ton” I literally mean this — I buy 1 pound bags of frozen spinach and broccoli and cook one up per serving. My wife and I will eat another 1-2 pounds of veggies at dinner.)

This also means, if you want to grab a handful of nuts, knock yourself out. Add avocado to your salad? Absolutely!

Want a big ol’ plate of scrambled eggs with cheese and butter? Go right ahead.

Comments, Questions, Concerns on the UFLB

Denial v. Delayed Gratification

Before we go any further, let’s address the proverbial “elephant in the room” here.

It’s true, you cannot eat “whatever you want when you want it” on the UFLB.

And yes, you do have to “deny” yourself certain foods on certain days. While it’s true you cannot eat “whatever you want, whenever you want to,” on the UFLB you can eat “whatever you want.” You just need to pre-plan and fit it into the template that’s been provided. So in essence you are shifting foods around throughout the week.

This is really just “delayed gratification” and it’s a principle found everywhere else in your life. And by following it you have been successful in the areas you’ve been successful in. You will also be successful in achieving lasting, permanent weight/fat loss by applying the very same thing to your weight loss goals and plans.

To do anything else would be insanity.

Now, let’s get to some concerns you may have about the UFLB.

On Breakfast

“Aren’t I supposed to eat breakfast? I heard that it’s the most important meal of the day.”

Yes, you’ll notice that there is no mandatory breakfast requirement. That’s intentional. Many people skip breakfast. Many who don’t wish they could.

As mentioned earlier, the UFLB is based around the concept of Intermittent Fasting (IF).

I am certainly not the first person to write about its benefits. I’m sure I won’t be the last.

But regardless or your feelings about it, IF works for everybody who follows it. Some people have to tweak it up for them — some prefer longer fasts and some prefer shorter fasts. But it all works. And it works long term — which is what we’re after.

“But what if I like breakfast?”

Look, you’re not really “skipping breakfast.” The word “breakfast” literally means to “break the fast.” So from a technical perspective, the first meal you eat, regardless of whether it’s waffles at 6am or steak at 1pm is “breakfast.” All you’re really doing is pushing it back, and changing up its contents. So don’t let it freak you out.

And as far as it being “the most important meal of the day,” it’s not. That’s just propaganda.

Here’s why:

Your Circadian Rhythms And You

Your circadian rhythm is simply the 24-hour biological and physiological cycle on which your body operates.

Simply put, you are more alert at the beginning of the day and less alert at the end of the day.

That’s primarily because your Autonomic Nervous System, the part of your body that runs all your body’s processes that you don’t control, like heart rate, digestion, etc, is divided into two parts — the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS). (Remember this from the first section? There will be a test later… ;-) )

Your SNS is responsible for the “Fight or Flight” response or reactions in your body. And it is the part of your ANS that is dominant during the day.

Your PNS is responsible for the “Rest and Digest” response or reactions in your body. And it is the part of your body that is dominant during the night.

So it makes good sense then to match your eating patterns to what your body does naturally then, doesn’t it?

Why eat a ton of food during the day when your body is alert and ready to tackle anything you throw at it? That will only divert energy away from your brain and into your stomach and the digestion processes. Thus slowing you down.

You need all your energy during the day to focus on executing tasks at hand, not digesting food!

Not only that, wouldn’t you like to be able to sit down and eat a nice, big meal with your family in the evening and not have to worry about counting calories?

Of course you would.

That’s what we all want to do.

And the reason why is simple: That’s what you’re designed to do.

The evening is a period of the day meant for relaxing, unwinding, and replenishing, not stressing out over calorie counting.

On Hunger

“Won’t I get hungry if I skip breakfast or push it back to lunchtime?”

Maybe, maybe not — at least at first.

And without sounding like a complete jerk — so what if you do?

We have been conditioned in the West to believe that hunger is a bad thing and must be avoided at all costs. And none of us have ever challenged that idea, that “feeling.”

The reality is that if you get hungry, you won’t starve. Not even close. Real hunger is those kids you see on TV in Africa with the distended bellies, skinny legs, and ribs sticking out. That’s real hunger.

What you’re dealing with and are afraid of is just rumblings in your stomach. And that’s not even “true hunger.”

That’s hormonal hunger — a signal that your hormones are slightly out of whack. True hunger doesn’t come on like a flood, it builds slowly, over the course of time.

So the next time you feel like you’re “starving” — take a breath, calm yourself, and relax. It’s no big deal. If it’s not mealtime, drink some water — about ½ a liter. That will calm things down in a hurry. Plus, you’ll stay hydrated.

But don’t worry. The hunger won’t last for long. There’s some indication that IF decreases hunger.

“What if I get hungry between lunch and dinner?”

Simple — grab a small snack that fits with that day’s meal pattern.

On Meal Frequency

“I thought you were supposed to eat 5 to 6 small meals a day for fat loss…”

Yeah, I did too, until I woke up fat one day.

Seriously, after 15 years of taking the right protein supplements and eating 6 meals per day, I woke up with stomach fat and lovehandles and a 38 ½ inch waist. I tried to justify it by saying I was a “power athlete” so it didn’t matter. But the truth is, it did.

I was a professional and didn’t look like one. In fact, at one point, my wife commented that I looked like a guy who used to work out.

Ouch!

Not what you want to hear and certainly not what you should look like as a Fitness Professional.

The reality is that eating frequently is over-rated. In fact, you become a slave to your food. I used to eat six meals each day for almost 15 years.

It was great for a while, but then it got to be tedious. I was always concerned about losing muscle, wild swings in blood sugar, insulin resistance, etc.

I was always worried about when I was going to eat again.

That’s not much of a life is it?

Sure, pro-bodybuilders and physique competitors eat 5 to 8 times each day, but, heck, I’m not one of those. Are you?

Then why mimic what they do?

“But they’re really lean…”

Yeah, so are anorexics, refugees, and concentration camp victims. And I’m not suggesting you starve yourself like those unfortunate individuals.

The Truth, as is more often than not, found somewhere in the middle.

Plus, let’s be honest here, who wants to spend hours in their kitchen on Sunday prepping meals for the week? Or who wants to carry around a cooler filled with Tupperware containing your meals for the day?

No one, that’s who.

It’s much easier to do what’s natural — eat less frequently — two, maybe three times per day.

Here’s something else to consider — it takes your body between 7 and 9 hours to fully digest a meal. So why pile in food every 2 ½ to 3 hours when you haven’t finished absorbing the previous one? That really makes no sense when you sit down and think about it.

What makes more sense is to have a smaller, lighter meal around lunchtime, when you still have work to do just to take the edge off, and then wait until the evening to eat a much larger, and more satisfying meal with family and friends.

On Carbohydrates

“This looks like a low-carb diet — I thought you said I could eat whatever I wanted.”

Here’s the deal:

You don’t need carbs every day.

Carbs are for short-term bursts of energy. Like sprinting 200 meters. Repeatedly.

How many 200-meter sprints are you running each day?

Exactly.

So depleting your body of carbohydrates for a couple of days isn’t going to kill you — in fact it will only help you as your body starts to rely on stored body fat for fuel. And that’s what you want, right?

Darn skippy it is.

Plus, you get a reprieve on Day 6 anyway where you can carb up.

“Why the Carb Day?”

Because there’s some indication in the scientific literature7 8 9 10 that after 72 hours without carbohydrates and/or restricted calories, the body starts to down-regulate your thyroid function, meaning, your metabolic rate decreases and eventually muscle mass decreases as well.

Even though the jury is still out about the pros and cons of low carbohydrate diets, the Carb Day has an amazing psychological benefit that allows you to make it to the end of the week and back to the overeating day without losing your mind.

On Portion Control

“For dinner, you say ‘As much food as you want, within reason…’ How much is that…? Isn’t it possible to overeat and get fat on this — I mean really, as much food as I want…???”

Yeah, I know, I’m taking a risk here, especially with you chronic overeaters. But you have to take a look at something — food quality and food type. Do you know how hard it is to eat 1 pound of ribeye steak? Well did you know that by the time you trim the fat off the edges, you’re looking at about 750 calories? And that’s for a regular, store-bought piece of meat. Organic meats tend to be a little smaller because they’re not pumped full of hormones.

Now imagine sitting down and eating 2 pounds of ribeye… Think you could do it? Probably not — that’s a lot of meat. (I routinely eat 1 ½ to 2 pounds, but that’s just me…)

“So how do I measure my portions then?”

See the guidelines on protein sources above.

Eat 25%-50% of your daily needs at lunch and 50-75% of your daily needs at dinner.

What about starch or carbohydrate portions?

Great question — keep it simple and use the same serving size.

“Can I drink alcohol on UFLB?”

Sure — have a couple of drinks on your Treat Day. Don’t get wasted though. Excess alcohol consumption interferes with fat burning and fat loss. Skip the drinks during the week.

“What about dessert? I don’t see dessert anywhere — should I reserve that for a Cheat Day? What if I can’t make it that long…?!”

Relax… Take a deep breath… I usually have dessert every night and you can too — in moderation. That’s the key word — MODERATION.

So what’s an example?

Well last night I had a teaspoon of Nutella and a mouthful of whipped cream. Sometimes I’ll have about 10 chocolate chips. Other times I’ll have a square of dark chocolate from Trader Joe’s.

See the pattern? Yes, besides there always being chocolate involved, it’s always a small serving. Very small. I’m just going for the taste and the psychological aspect of it.

“How much weight/fat can I expect to lose each week?”

At least 1-2lbs pretty consistently. If you’re really overweight, more is likely. The key here, unlike other “diets” is that this is a long-term, permanent lifestyle change. So you’ll keep losing as long as your body needs to. If you’re carrying a significant amount of fat, then you’ll keep losing for a long time. There is enough variation in the weekly plan to “keep your body guessing,” allowing it to consistently lose body fat.

“Why only 1-2 pounds per week?”

How much would you like to lose? How much are you losing now? How much have you lost in the past 6 months?

The point here is that this is not a diet. It’s a lifestyle. You’ll continue to lose weight (fat) until you no longer need to.

Another point is consistency. Wouldn’t you like to consistently see a little bit of fat loss week-after-week rather than stagnating, getting frustrated, then giving up?

Of course you would. It helps with your motivation.

“What happens if I stall out and no longer see any fat/weight loss?”

First, don’t panic.

Second, don’t panic. Seriously. Weight/Fat loss should be averaged. Look back at the long haul. See how much you lost on average over the last month, two months, or whatever time period you wish.

Third, make sure you’re following the actual Blueprint, not your interpretation of it. Sounds strange, but you’d be surprised what people will do. Make sure you’re actually getting into a caloric deficit. How does that happen? By undereating according to the blueprint.

Fourth, eat less. Make sure you’re not completely stuffing yourself at dinner.

Fifth, increase your activity level. Go for a long walk first thing in the morning. Take your dog if you have one — he’ll enjoy it.

“Organic or “Regular”?”

This is a good one. Two years ago I would have said it didn’t matter — it was all really the same.

Now I know better. For the most part, “organic” is better for you, that is to say, healthier. And by “healthier” I mean it generally has more vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients in it per unit (apple v. apple) than its regular, non-organic counterpart.

This is due mainly to modern farming practices, which include the heavy use of pesticides, fertilizers, and a failure to practice “ancient” methods of crop rotation and land care.

Therefore, I recommend buying organic because it’s just better for your body. Your body can use more with less in the long haul.

UFLB On A Budget

Times are tight for some people, no doubt about it.

How then is the best way for someone (you) to eat when you’re cutting coupons and pinching pennies?

Organic is still the way to go.

Shop your organic food section in your grocery store or shop your local Farmers’ Market.

And yes, you’re right — it is expensive.

But it’s worth every penny.

Here’s why:

1.   Better Quality Food. More nutrients per unit of food, therefore your body will get more from each unit of food. And that means you’ll have to eat less of it to fuel your body and keep it running optimally.

2.   Financial Caloric Restriction. When you spend your money on high quality whole foods, like meat, eggs, poultry, fish, fruit, and vegetables, you will purchase less, therefore, you’re automatically limiting your calories. Therefore you’ll automatically lose weight.

3.   Improved Health And Energy. There’s no way to truly measure this until you actually experience it yourself. You need less sleep, or at the very least, less coffee and feel less fatigued. You’re more productive, which can be measured over time. And because you’re actively improving your health by willing abstaining from large amounts of cheap junk food, you’ll live longer and happier.

My recommendations:

1.   Add up all the money you currently spend on food each month. Include eating out both formally and hitting the drive-thrus.

2.   Put aside 10% for “fun” food — food you’d eat on a Cheat Day.

3.   Divide the remaining 90% by 4. That’s how much money you’ll spend each week at the store. (22.5% of total each week)

4.   Take that 22.5% and divide it in half. Spend it in the following manner:

a.   11% on meat, fish, poultry, eggs

b.   5.5% on vegetables

c.   5.5% on fruit and berries

5.   Divide that up among your family in 2 to 3 meals each day.

Yes, you’ll be eating less food by calories each week — all of you. Which means everyone in your family will drop weight — unhealthy, ugly, stored body fat. Easily. And you’ll all feel better — healthier.

That’s a simple, highly effective way to combat family obesity. So now you and your whole family will be on your way to six-pack abs!

Master Key #2: Strength Training

There is no doubt that exercise plays an important role in fat loss and seeing your abs.

Through exercise we can manipulate our Endocrine System to produce more of the hormones we need to see our six-pack and less of the ones keeping us from seeing it.

But what kind of exercise, that’s the question, isn’t it?

If you watch late night infomercials on TV (and I do), you’d be led to believe many things, including —

•   One piece of exercise equipment is “all” you need

•   Working out 6 days a week for 60-90 minutes in your living room is “all” you need

•   You definitely need the “Ab-Gizmo 3000” to shock and crunch your abs into visibility

•   Or you need some special “fat-trapping” or “hormone-regulating” pill

•   Or you need the “all-in-one” piece of equipment marketed by some former athlete

The reality is you need to focus your exercise efforts first and foremost on strength or resistance training

This is because your body uses energy by contracting your muscles. The more you can contract your muscles against resistance, the more energy you can and will burn.

Why against resistance and not say, just running?

Very good question, hermano…

Your body has different muscle fibers in its muscles. Your body primarily uses Type 1 fibers for easy repetitive efforts, like jogging and most forms of traditional cardio. It also has Type 2 fibers, (Type 2A and 2B) which are used for overcoming heavy resistance. They also happen to use way more energy than the Type 1’s.

Remember, energy is stored either in your muscles or in your fat cells. You want your body to access both in order to see your abs. The fastest way to do that is by strength training.

And by performing strength training exercises, we are also using the Musculoskeletal System to impact the Endocrine Systems, the Immune System, and the Nervous System.

So we can make very rapid changes in our appearance through strength training.

Here’s are the Top 7 ways heavy strength training affects your body’s six systems, and therefore your quest for that six-pack:

1.   It increases Testosterone, which helps build muscle and burn fat. (Endocrine, Musculoskeletal Systems)

2.   It increases the production of growth hormone, which also helps you burn fat, and build muscle. (Endocrine, Musculoskeletal Systems)

3.   The increase in growth hormone in turn increases lipolysis — or fat burning in your body.

4.   By strengthening the muscles of your midsection (core), you relieve the mechanical stress on your intestines (as discussed in the next section), thus decreasing gut inflammation, and allowing them to work properly again. (Digestive System, and therefore Immune System).

5.   Routinely contracting your muscles against resistance improves your body’s ability to store sugar in your muscle cells (Endocrine).

6.   Lifting weights increases endorphin release, which reduces stress. (Immune, Digestive, Endocrine, Nervous, Cardio-Respiratory)

7.   Contracting your muscles against resistance requires energy and makes you breathe harder. That improves your cardiovascular health by reducing blood pressure and resting heart rate. (Nervous system and Cardio-Respiratory).

Now, before we get into the “nitty-gritty” of our strength training program, let’s answer a very important question…

What Is The “Six-Pack” Really?

Your “Six-Pack” is really just one muscle — the Rectus abdominus. But that’s not your only abdominal muscle. In fact, it can be argued that it is the least important of all your abdominal muscles with regards to function.

And failing to work the rest of these abdominal muscles will set you up for failure: Failure to see your six-pack; failure to burn off excess fat; failure to make much progress at all.

So we need to make a pit stop and take a quick look at your entire abdominal musculature (also know as “core” musculature). Because training the entire core will help you get your six-pack much faster than just doing traditional ab work, which focuses primarily on the Rectus abdominus.

Inner Unit v. Outer Unit

There are two “parts” to your abs or core. The first has been categorized as the Inner Unit. Its purpose is to support and stabilize the spine during movement (and help sustain respiration and continence). And it’s supposed to do so reflexively, meaning, without you having to think about it.

Here are the muscles of the Inner Unit:

•   Transverse abdominus

•   Internal obliques

•   Multifidus

•   Pelvic Floor

•   Diaphragm

Here’s what the Inner Unit looks like:

As you can see, it almost looks like a box when viewed from the side. The stronger your Inner Unit muscles, the stronger the box.

For all intents and purposes, the Inner Unit supports the Outer Unit — it’s the foundation upon which the Outer Unit is supposed to operate. The Inner Unit is supposed to fire before the Outer Unit to stabilize the trunk so that the Outer Unit can function properly. Unfortunately, in a vast number of people, the Inner Unit is “shut off” and the Outer Unit operates without it. This is what is called “core dysfunction.” And core dysfunction can lead to big problems, especially lower back injuries.

The Outer Unit not only includes your “six-pack,” but has been categorized by some as much more than just your abdominal musculature. It is a group of muscles that support and drive most of the upright movement in your body, such as walking and running. Hence the name “Core.”

Here are the muscles of the Outer Unit:

•   External obliques

•   Rectus abdominus

•   Adductor muscle group

•   Erector spinae group

•   Gluteal muscle group

•   Quadratus lumborum

•   Latissimus dorsi

•   Hamstrings

Furthermore, these Outer Unit muscles are grouped into four distinct sub-systems, each of which is designed to allow your body to lift heavy stuff and absorb and redirect energy through a variety of different movements. Which is why when we get to the exercise section you’ll see ab exercises you may recognize and some that will leave you scratching your head. Those “head-scratchers” are the ones involving these four sub-systems. Neglect them at your own peril.

These concepts are vitally important to building a set of six-pack abs because the stronger you are in the center of your body, the more energy you can use (calories you can burn) and the more you can positively impact your hormones to make rapid changes in your body’s appearance.

So the key take home points here are:

1. The stronger the Inner Unit, the stronger and better looking the Outer Unit.

2. Training the Outer Unit helps you get your six-pack faster.

And this brings up a very good question:

Direct Or Indirect Abdominal Work?

Depending on which fitness expert you listen to, one will tell you that you only need to do heavy compound exercises, like squats, and deadlifts, chins, and presses and rows to work your abs.

The rationale is simple: It’s because the abdominals function as spinal stabilizers.

And they’re right. But they’re also wrong at the same time. These well meaning coaches fail to realize that although their statement is true, they have missed the proverbial forest for the trees.

They are thinking of the abs performing one job only — isometrically contracting to keep the spinal curves in neutral under load — in other words, keeping your vertebrae aligned the way they would be while standing or walking around.

This is called static spinal stabilization.

Don’t get me wrong, this is important — very important, especially if you’re going to be lifting heavy stuff in your hands, on your back, or over your head.

But the abdominals also have another job — to stabilize the spine through ALL ranges of motion — ones where you bend and twist and turn and get hit, like when playing football or getting rear-ended while in sitting in your car at a traffic light.

This is called dynamic spinal stabilization.

And it has to be trained as well. But the dirty little secret is that it can’t be trained by squatting, deadlifting, pressing, or doing chins. It must be trained using other exercises. Even some exercises that you may have read about as being “bad for you.” (Shudder….)

And what about those of us who have had any sort of back injuries?

Should we train our abs directly or indirectly?

The answer of course depends on who you are and what your background and training and injury histories are.

The Truth is that EVERYONE should be doing some DIRECT abdominal work at some times in their training program — whether your goal is to get a six-pack or squat 1000 pounds.

So Where Do You Start?

At the beginning of course!

Here’s the deal:

Most of us spend all day sitting. We’re desk jockeys.

(Heck, even though I still train clients for a living, I spend a great deal of my time each day writing.)

This means that your entire abdominal wall becomes weakened and the muscles in the front of your hips become tighter. (Not mine of course, because I am a highly skilled, highly trained professional…)

Not only that, but the lower section of your abdominals becomes overly stretched, and science has shown us that when a muscle is placed in a prolonged stretch, it essentially goes to sleep. This is called “sensorimotor amnesia” and means that the particular area of your body experiencing this is no longer integrated correctly with the brain.

Essentially, it’s like having $1000 in the bank, but forgetting that it’s there.

From a Musculoskeletal System perspective, this is not a good situation to start placing heavy loads, like a barbell, across your back or in your hands because this tilts your pelvis and exposes your lower back to dangerous external forces called shearing forces. (Many people who have had back injuries, myself included, failed to address this problem.)

So, before you do any of the “fun” stuff, you need to give your body a fighting chance.

If you don’t, your training to get that six-pack won’t last long.

Why not?

Well if you don’t get injured, your body will perceive the danger to your spine and automatically limit the amount of work you can do. (That’s your Nervous System at work for you.)

If you decide to keep pushing through, you’ll continue to develop what we call in the “biz” as movement compensations.

And that simply means that the wrong muscles are moving the wrong parts at the wrong times.

Remember how we talked about the Endocrine System before and how the Musculoskeletal System directly impacts it?

Well in this case, the ES is negatively affected by movement compensations, and your body will start producing more and more stress hormones, like cortisol, which will help place a nice layer of fat right there on the front of your belly.

But it gets even worse…

When you sit in a chair all day long and fail to do any direct ab work, your abs get weak and lazy. Then your guts start to push into or through your abdominal wall.

This means that your intestines then become irritated from hanging out in an environment they’re not supposed to be in. And the irritation causes inflammation.

This decreases the efficiency of your Digestive System and also leads to a suppressed Immune System.

(This is something I have experienced first hand. There’s nothing like pumping your body full of expensive supplements only to discover that getting your abs working correctly again takes care of the problem. Remember, the gut is your “second brain” for a reason. Take care of it, and it’ll take care of you.)

Plus, if you decide to skip direct ab work and move to the “money exercises” like the “experts” say, your weak and lazy abs will be unsuccessful in supporting heavy loads. This means that, among other potentially disastrous consequences, your intestines will be getting pushed on when they should be safely tucked away behind a nice strong abdominal shield, thus creating even more gut inflammation and Digestive System dysfunction.

Remember earlier when we discussed the interaction between the Immune System, chronic inflammation, and the Endocrine System? The concept bears repeating here: In the presence of chronic inflammation there’s a decrease in testosterone and growth hormone and in increase in cortisol and insulin, making fat gain almost inevitable and gaining and maintaining muscle very difficult. Also remember that a healthy Digestive System means a healthy Immune System, both of which are necessary for getting lean enough to see your abs.

Ok, I think there’s a pretty good case for working your abs directly in order to see them. Don’t be an idiot like me and not work your abs directly for years. Failing to heed this warning will limit your ability to do the necessary work to balance your hormones, maximize your digestion, and finally get your six-pack.

Now, if you’ve already been doing your direct abdominal work, that’s a different story.

You just need to make sure you’ve been doing the right abdominal work.

So, the key then, to getting a six-pack, is to recognize where you’re starting from, accept it, and get moving as fast as your body and schedule will let you.

Now once you’ve achieved a certain level of both static and dynamic spinal stabilization, then you can remove direct abdominal work from your workouts for a little while.

Note I said “a little while.”

You’ll always want to rotate it in and out of your workouts depending on what you’re actually doing at any given time.

Abdominal Exercises — From Basic To Advanced

There are three different types of abdominal exercises we need to include in your six-pack getting regimen.

Coordination Exercises: These help coordinate the Inner and Outer Units and are “reflexive” in nature — meaning they’re designed to make your body use your Inner Unit without you having to think about it. In other words, when you do them, you should feel your abs automatically contract — and from the inside out. Hard to describe on paper, but you’ll know what I mean when you feel it.

Stabilization Exercises: These are designed to help you learn how to protect your spine under load. They really make the abs work hard too. These will help you lift more weight, which in turn will help you do more work, which will help you burn off more body fat. (These are also reflexive in nature.)

Strength Exercises: These are pure abdominal strength exercises. They require a lot of body coordination and control. And they’ll give you strong, hard abs.

The Coordination and Stabilization Exercises can be done at the same time in your program, but should definitely be done before you move onto the Strength Exercises. And that’s because they lay the foundation for the strength exercises. Just like no one would build a house without a strong foundation first, you want to make sure you have your foundation set.

Abdominal Coordination Exercises

Lower Ab Rocking

Depending on who you listen to you either have or don’t have lower abdominals for various reasons. But the name comes from the fact that we start the rocking from the lower portion of the abdominals then move to the upper portion. This is what we call a “reflexive drill” — it’s designed to get your abdominals and diaphragm working without you thinking about it.

•   Lie on your back. Rock your knees back to your chest like the good ol’ fashioned reverse crunch. Your pelvis should tilt back toward your chest.

•   As your back loosens up, try to touch your feet over your head.

•   As you get stronger, allow your legs to extend away from your body almost like a straight leg lift.

•   The key here is to allow your body to naturally pressurize your belly as you rock your legs back.

Click here to see a video explanation of Lower Ab Rocking.

Windshield Wiper Series — A and B

This is another reflexive drill that incorporates your abdominals and obliques. It also starts to “floss” some of the nerves in your body — stretching some of them cause they’re tight. It also integrates the Outer Unit musculature with the Inner Unit musculature.

•   Lie on your back as you would for Lower Ab Rocking. Keeping your knees pulled up to your chest, so your pelvis tilts back to your chest, lower your knees to one side of your body.

•   Pull your knees back to the center of your body by initiating the movement with the knee that’s touching the ground.

•   Cross your body with your knees up and touch the ground with your opposite knee

•   Repeat.

Click here to see a video explanation of Windshield Wipers A

Windshield Wipers — B

•   Lie on your back as you would for Windshield Wipers A. Keeping your knees pulled up to your chest, so your pelvis tilts back to your chest, lower your knees to one side of your body.

•   As you lower your legs, extend the top leg — the one that’s not about to touch the ground, so it’s straight.

•  Try to touch the ground with your foot.

•   Pull your knees back to the center of your body by initiating the movement with the knee that’s touching the ground.

•   Cross your body with your knees up and touch the ground with your opposite knee

•   Repeat.

Click here to see a video explanation of Windshield Wipers B.

Dead Bugs and Variations

Dead Bugs look just like they sound — you lie on your back with your arms and legs in the air. They are a spinal stabilization, reflexive, and abdominal coordination drill all rolled into one. They are great for spine health and will help give you a rock hard six-pack, especially in that fabled “lower abs” area.

Beginner — Use Bent Knees

Advanced — Use Straight Legs

•   Lie on your back with your arms and legs in the air.

•   Lower your left arm over your head and your right leg toward the floor at the same time. Ultimately, you want to be able to keep your arm and leg straight.

•   Keep your lower back pressed into the floor the whole time — this is the key to performing this exercise successfully!

•   Now raise both the arm and the leg and return to the start.

•   You can perform all the reps on one side then move to the other, or alternate reps between each side — right arm and left leg, then left arm and right leg, and so on…

•   You should be able to at least do 1x20 reps each arm and leg, while keeping your lower back pressed into the ground the whole time.

•   For some, their abs will be too weak to do this drill with a straight leg and/or a straight arm, so the variations consist of bending the arm at the elbow and the leg at the knee. Most people will struggle with keeping the leg straight, not the arm.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Dead Bug.

Bird Dogs On Knees

This is a great coordination exercise for your abs, gluts, and the muscle in your lower back, which are vitally important for getting your six-pack.

•   Start on your hands and knees, with your head slightly up, eyes straight ahead. Your legs and arms should both be perpendicular to the ground.

•   Extend your right arm and your left leg at the same time so they are both parallel with the floor.

•   Reach as far as you can with the arm so your hand is in the position it would be if you were shaking someone’s hand and you’re pushing your foot out through your heel, with your toes pulled back.

•   Return to the start position and either complete all the reps for that arm and leg, or alternate between arms and legs — left arm and right leg, then right arm and left leg.

•   Work up to 20 reps on each side

Click here to see a video explanation of the Bird Dog On Knees.

Bird Dogs From Hands and Feet

This is an advanced coordination exercise that you’ll find very challenging. It’s performed exactly the same way as the Bird Dog on Knees, but you start in and remain in a Push Up position.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Bird Dog From Hands And Feet.

Abdominal Stabilization Exercises

Planks

This is a drill that teaches you how to stabilize your spine using your abs and gluts in a coordinated manner.

•   Assume a push-up position.

•   Lower yourself onto your elbows, with your forearms parallel to each other.

•   Tighten your abs and squeeze your gluts together. Keep your legs straight and your head in line with your body — don’t let it drop.

•   Imagine projecting energy out through your heels — this will help you keep tight.

•   Hold this for a prescribed time.

•   Work up to holding the Plank for 60 seconds as a minimum.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Plank.

Side Planks

This is a great exercise to do if you find the Plank to hard. It’s also another great spine stabilization exercise and the world’s premier Spine Biomechanicist, Dr. Stuart McGill, advocates it too. So it’s really good for your spine and will help give you rock hard abs too.

•   Lie on your side and prop yourself up on your elbow.

•   Your upper arm should be perpendicular to the ground and your forearm perpendicular to your body.

•   Tighten your abs and hold yourself up on your forearm and your feet.

•   Keep your body in a straight line; don’t let your head sag forward or down toward your shoulder.

•   Hold this for prescribed time on each side.

•   Work up to holding the Side Plank for 60 seconds each side as a minimum.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Side Plank.

Abdominal Strength Exercises

Rocky Sit Ups

These are some of the most controversial ab exercises, but there’s a good reason boxers used to do them — they work to give you a rock hard midsection — hard enough to withstand 12 rounds of body blows!

The reason they work great is because you’re crossing the midline of your body when you do them and neuroscience has shown that movements crossing midline make your body more coordinated, and coordination is the backbone of strength.

The key to doing theses safely is to keep the lower back pressed hard into the board/ground while doing each rep.

•   Lie on your back with your fingertips behind your ears (NOT your head) and your feet anchored. You can do this on the old-fashioned decline benches but I’d highly recommend doing them on a flat surface first with your knees bent.

•   Flex your abs and rotate attempting to touch your elbow to the opposite knee.

•  Lower yourself back to the start keeping your lower back pressed into the floor and do the opposite side.

•   Work up to 20 total reps — 10 on each side. 3 to 5 sets will work nicely for these.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Rocky Sit Ups.

Supported Knee Raises

These are a great ab exercise to help you gain even greater control of your abs — and control is strength. And strength, without the fat, is a nice six-pack. These are done on Parallel Dipping Bars or stands or even bar stools. And they make for a great preparatory exercise for Hanging Knee Raises too.

•   Jump up onto a set of Parallel Dipping bars (or jump stands or rings) and hold yourself up.

•   KEY POINT! — Make sure you push you hands into the bars and attempt to push the bars down so your shoulders move away from your ears. This helps connect your lats to your abs and will protect your shoulders from getting injured. Plus it makes your abs contract harder, therefore working them harder.

•   Slowly pull your knees up to your chest without letting your upper body sway.

•   Keep your knees as close to each other as possible for more abdominal activation.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Supported Knee Raises.

Hanging Knee Raises

These are not only a great ab exercise, but a great total body strengthening exercise too.

•   Hang from a pull-up bar.

•   Pull your shoulders away from your ears by contracting your lats (pulling down on the bar).

•   Hold this position and slowly raise your legs with your knees bent, but squeezed together, to your chest.

•   Lower them back down and repeat.

•   10-15 reps per set is a good range to shoot for.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Hanging Knee Raises.

Supported Leg Raises

These are performed exactly the same way as Supported Knee Raises only you will keep your legs straight the whole time.

•   Lift and lower your legs under control.

•   Keep your ankles and your knees squeezed together for better abdominal activation.

•   Do as many reps as possible with good form.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Supported Leg Raises.

Hanging Leg Raises

These are performed exactly the same way as the Hanging Knee Raise, only you keep your legs straight and your knees locked the whole time.

•   Lift and lower your legs under control.

•   Keep your ankles and your knees squeezed together for better abdominal activation.

•   Do as many reps as possible with good form.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Hanging Leg Raises.

Crawling

This is exactly what it sounds like — you simply crawl around on your hands and feet with your head up and your eyes looking straight ahead.

•   Keep your head up and your eyes forward

•   Keep your chest pushed out

•   If these are too hard, do them on your hands and knees

Click here to see a video explanation of Crawling.

Carries

These are a sinister abdominal exercise, because from the outside, they don’t look like they’re doing much of anything. It’s only when you start doing them that you feel your abs get hammered.

These are an amazing combination of all three types of abdominal exercises — Coordination, Stabilization, and Strength all rolled into one. They are best performed with dumbbells, kettlebells, or sandbags. And they’re simple to perform — just find a course where you can carry something back and forth.

Here are some different types:

Click here to see a video explanation of the various Carries.

Click here if you need a Sandbag.

Chops

These are a great exercise to do with a medicine ball or a cable column if you’re using a gym or better yet, you can get an old tire and a sledgehammer and perform these in your back yard.

You can perform them kneeling, in a lunge position, or standing.

They are best performed across the body — moving from above one shoulder down toward the opposite hip, knee, or even foot, depending on your strength levels.

Click here to see a video explanation of the various Chops.

Drags

Drag a sled or sandbag or car behind you. These are great because they force your abs to work the entire time you’re doing them. It’s another great combination exercise of coordination, stabilization, and strength.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Drags.

Click here if you need a Dragging Sled.

Compound Your Six-Pack Getting Results With These Strength Training Exercises

Most people who want six-pack abs fail to realize three important points —

Important Point #1: I can’t re-enforce this point enough — you have a six-pack, you just can’t see it — it’s covered with a nice layer of blubber.

Important Point #2: The fastest way to get the fat off is through resistance or strength training because your muscles are what burn off the stored body fat.

Important Point #3: The best form of resistance training or strength training is a program that used compound movements or exercises.

Compound exercises are exercises that use more than one muscle group and cross more than one joint.

So traditionally, if you’ve belonged to a gym before, you might have used the leg extension machine to work your quadriceps. This isolates them by bending and straightening the leg at the knee joint. This is an example of an isolation exercise. A biceps curl is another example.

It’s important to use compound exercises because they use more energy per unit of time than isolation exercises.

And, burning more energy during and more importantly, after exercise is one of the ways we burn off extra body fat.

Not only that, you’re body never works in an isolated environment (even when you’re alone — get it? It’s a joke…) but all your muscles work together as a team. So it makes sense to train them that way.

Plus, if we frame this in context of the 6 different body systems we’re manipulating to get our six-pack, we’re continually re-enforcing to our Nervous System to train our entire body as a unit.

These exercises can be performed at home or in a regular gym setting. You can use your bodyweight, barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, sandbags, heavy medicine balls, kegs — you name it — whatever you have available to you. (That’s why these pictures show me using different implements from rings, to stands, to barrels, to dumbbells, kettlebells and bars.)

Let’s take a look at the categories and exercises you’ll be performing.

EPOC — Your New Best Friend

One of the keys to seeing your six pack is to burn enough energy during your workout to raise your metabolic rate — or the rate at which your body burns calories.

When you work hard enough during your workout, your metabolic rate is elevated long after your workout — up to 38 hours according to one study. (Schuenke, et al.)

The harder you work, the longer your metabolic rate stays elevated postworkout. This is called “EPOC” — Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption. And you want it. A lot of it. It’s like getting interest in your bank account.

And using compound exercises is one of the best ways to increase your EPOC.

Total Body

This category of exercises uses every single muscle in your body. They require a great deal of energy and burn a ton of calories.

Deadlift

Keeping a flat back, pick an object up off the floor finishing in an upright position and return it back to the floor. Most often performed with a barbell.

Click here for a more detailed video explanation of the Deadlift.

Clean

Keeping a flat back, pick an object up from the floor and lift it in one motion to the shoulders. Most often performed with a barbell. Can use dumbbells or kettlebells or a sandbag.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Clean.

Snatch

Keeping a flat back, pick an object up from the floor and lift it overhead in one motion. Most often performed with a barbell. Can use dumbbells or kettlebells or a sandbag. (The pictures on the next page show it performed from the “hang” position — the easiest position to learn the barbell snatch from.)

Click here to see a video explanation of the Snatch.

Total Body Combo Lifts

This is an advanced category of exercises that use all the muscles in the body.

There are two or more exercises performed in a sequence, without ever putting the implement down.

This means that you should be at least an “intermediate” lifter before you attempt these exercise combinations. Not only that YOU SHOULD PRACTICE EACH LIFT SEPARATELY BEFORE PUTTING THEM TOGETHER INTO A COMBINATION.

(I put that in ALL CAPS because it is really important for you to follow that for your own safety and longevity. You can’t keep your six-pack if you’re injured. Trust me, I’ve tried.)

Clean & Press

Pick an object up from the floor and lift it in one motion to the shoulders. From the shoulders, press the weight overhead finishing with arms locked out.

Finish of the Clean and Start of the Press in the Rack

Click here to see a video explanation of the Clean & Press.

Clean & Push Press

Pick an object up from the floor and lift it in one motion to the shoulders. From the shoulders, explosively drive the weight overhead using the legs and press it overhead finishing with arms locked.

The Clean

The Push Press

Click here to see a video explanation of the Clean & Push Press.

Clean & Jerk

Pick an object up from the floor and lift it in one motion to the shoulders. From the shoulders, explosively drive the weight overhead using the legs and drop underneath it to catch with arms locked out overhead.

The Clean

The Jerk

Click here to see a video explanation of the Clean & Jerk.

Squat & Press

Squat down and stand up. Then press the object over the head until your arms are locked out.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Squat & Press.

Squat & Push Press

Squat down and stand up. Quickly bend and straighten your legs and drive the weight overhead using your legs until your arms are locked out.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Squat & Push Press.

Squat & Jerk

Squat down and stand up. Quickly bend and straighten your legs and drive the weight overhead. Drop underneath the weight to catch it with your arms locked out over your head.

Click here to see a video explanation of Squat & Jerk.

Upper Body Pushing

This is a category that uses all the pushing muscles in your upper body. These can be broken down into “Vertical” and “Horizontal” pushing motions. Horizontal is where you push away from your body relatively perpendicular to the floor. And Vertical is where you push the implement up over your body, relatively parallel to the floor.

Horizontal:

Push ups: floor, stands, rings, feet elevated

Assume a push up position. Lower your chest to the floor and push the floor away from you until your arms are locked out.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Push Up.

Bench Press

Lie on your back on a bench. Lower the barbell to nipple line and press it back up.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Bench Press.

Parallel Dips: dip stands, rings

Jump up and hold yourself steady on a set of parallel bars (rings, stands, or even barstools/chairs). Lower yourself down as far as comfortable and press yourself back up.

Click here to see a video explanation of Parallel Dips.

Vertical:

Military Press

Holding a barbell/object across your shoulders, push it overhead until your arms are locked out and then return it to the shoulders.

Click here to see a video explanation of Military Press.

Push Press

Holding a barbell/object across the shoulders, quickly bend and straighten your legs and drive the weight overhead using your legs until your arms are locked out.

Click here to see a video explanation of Push Press.

Jerk

Holding a barbell/object across the shoulders, quickly bend and straighten your legs and drive the weight overhead. Drop underneath the weight to catch it with your arms locked out over your head.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Jerk.

Implements you can use: Barbell, DB, KB, Sandbag, Kegs, Heavy Medicine Balls

Upper Body Pulling

These are exercises where you either pull your body through space or you pull an object to your body. These are also categorized as “Horizontal” or “Vertical.”

Vertical:

Chins: bar, rings

With your palms facing you, pull yourself up on a bar until your chin is over the bar and then slowly lower yourself back down.

Click here to see a video explanation of Chin Ups.

Pull ups: bar, rings

With your palms facing away from you, pull yourself up on a bar until your chin is over the bar and then slowly lower yourself back down.

Click here to see a video explanation of Pull Ups.

Horizontal:

Rows — Bent over: 1 Arm or 2 Arms.

Bend over at the waist keeping your back flat and pull the object toward you and then lower again. Can use one hand or two.

1 Arm Bent Over Row

Click here to see a video explanation of the 1 Arm Bent Over Row.

2 Arm Bent Over Row

Click here to see a video explanation of the 2 Arm Bent Over Row.

Rows — Renegade

From a push up position with your hands on a set of dumbbells or kettlebells, pull one weight back toward your waist then lower it. Repeat with the other side.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Renegade Row.

Implements: Barbell, DB, KB, Sandbag, Kegs, Heavy Medicine Balls

Lower Body Hip Dominant (Deadlift Pattern)

These are lower body exercises where the movement is generated and centered around the folding or hinging of the hips. The gluts and hamstrings and lower back are the main focus of these exercises.

Deadlift and variations

Keeping a flat back, pick an object up off the floor finishing in an upright position and return it back to the floor. Most often performed with a barbell. (See pictures in “Total Body” section.)

Click here to see a video explanation of the Deadlift.

RDL

Keeping a flat back, and your knees relatively straight, pick an object up off the floor finishing in an upright position and return it back to the floor. Most often performed with a barbell.

Click here to see a video explanation of the RDL.

Single Leg DL

Standing on one leg and keeping a flat back, pick an object up off the floor finishing in an upright position and return it back to the floor. Most often performed with a dumbbell or kettlebell.

Click here to see a video explanation of Single Leg Deadlift.

Good Morning

Keeping a flat back, with an object either held close to the chest or loaded on across the back of the shoulders, bend over, folding at the hips and stand back up. Most often performed with a barbell.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Good Morning.

Kettlebell Swings

Keeping a flat back, swing a kettlebell back between your legs and stand up, finishing in an upright position, and re-swing it through the legs for as many reps as desired.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Kettlebell Swing.

Lower Body Knee Dominant (Squat Pattern)

These are exercises that are initiated with the knees instead of the hips. The quadriceps and adductors get a lot more work than with the Hip Dominant exercises.

Squat

Sit between your knees as low as you can without rounding your lower back and stand back up.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Squat.

Front Squat

Hold a barbell across the front of the shoulders or a sandbag or a kettlebell or two and sit between your knees as low as you can without rounding your lower back and stand back up.

Click here to see a video explanation of Front Squat.

Goblet Squat

Hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in both hands in front of you with your elbows bent. Sit between your knees as low as you can without rounding your lower back and stand back up.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Goblet Squat.

Zercher Squat

Hold the object in the crook of your arms (bend your elbows and hold it in there) and sit between your knees as low as you can without rounding your lower back and stand back up.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Zercher Squat.

Lunging

This is a category of exercises that loads one leg instead of both legs.

Static Lunge

Standing in place, take a large step back, keeping most of the weight on your front foot. Lower your body so your back knee touches the floor and your torso remains upright. Stand back up by pushing the ground away from you with your front foot. Remain with your feet spread fore and aft.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Static Lunge.

Bulgarian Split Squat

Standing in place, elevate one leg behind you, keeping most of your weight on your front foot. Lower your body so your back knee touches the floor and your torso remains upright. Stand back up by pushing the ground away from you with your front foot.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Bulgarian Split Squat.

Reverse Lunge

Standing in place, take a large step back, keeping most of the weight on your front foot. Lower your body so your back knee touches the floor and your torso remains upright. Stand back up by pushing the ground away from you with your front foot and return to the start — with both feet together.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Reverse Lunge.

Forward Lunge

Standing in place, take a large step forward, keeping most of the weight on your front foot. Lower your body so your back knee touches the floor and your torso remains upright. Stand back up by pushing the ground away from you with your front foot and return to the start — with both feet together.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Forward Lunge.

Lunge Variations: Alternating, Walking, Carrying Weight in Hands, or On The Body.

Program Design And Loading Guidelines

Simple to complex

•   Start with something easy like Lower Abdominal Rocking and then move to something more complex like Bird Dogs and then on to Loaded Carries.

•   Start with “slow-strength” exercises like the Deadlift, then move on to “explosive-strength” exercises like the Clean or the Snatch or the Swing

Easy to Challenging

This allows you time to get the feel for each exercise. In this day and age it’s all the rage to have workouts that leaving you feeling exhausted. But that’s just a feeling — not necessarily a result.

Faster results will always come if you walk away with energy in the tank.

The truth of the matter is that the more exhausted you feel, the longer it takes you to recover. And if you’re not as recovered as you need to be, then you’ll be digging a hole for yourself and you’ll start messing with your Endocrine System.

That means, you’ll start to see a drop in your muscle-building hormones like Testosterone and Growth Hormone, and you’ll start to see an increase in your catabolic hormones, like Cortisol. Not a good deal for getting the six-pack.

The Difference between “Challenging” and “Hard”

Challenging simply means that whatever you’re doing is difficult, but not so difficult that the mind perceives the possibility of failure, due to that difficulty. “Hard” is the perception that not only is what you’re doing difficult, but that there’s a pretty good chance of failure, or at least there is doubt as to the completion of the task at hand.

It’s a subtle, but important difference. Challenging will help your mind “like” what you’re doing, and therefore you’ll want to do more of it. Hard does the opposite. It injects doubt into the process. We as humans fear uncertainty. Too much of that uncertainty leads to a loss of desire to complete the task at hand, and will eventually kill consistency, the secret to all success.

Practice technique first, then progress to “working out”

This falls into the “easy to challenging” category and it simply means that you should own the performance of each movement before you seek to challenge yourself with it. That’s best done by working with lower reps and lighter weights and then progressing either to lower reps with heavier weights or higher reps.

Light to Heavy

This should go without saying but I have to put it in here because some knucklehead who looks like a younger version of me (I was a knucklehead once…) will start too heavy and hurt himself. So start with lighter weights, and progress to heavier ones. Follow the progressions previously laid out. It’s OK for exercises to feel easy when you first start out.

Sets And Reps And Stuff

The best way to view getting your six-pack is through the lens of an athlete. An athlete trains for his event — he doesn’t work out. So, to be as successful as possible, you need train to get your abs.

Some of these exercises will be unfamiliar to you. Therefore, you need to practice them, just like an athlete practices the necessary skills for his event.

The best way to do this then is to work each exercise until you start to feel the onset of fatigue. Then stop. Move on to another exercise and do the same thing. And so on.

Once you become familiar with how each exercise is supposed to feel, and you are confident that you are not only performing it correctly, but achieving the desired results, you can and should seek to add extra resistance or more reps where applicable.

So, when learning a new exercise that’s relatively simple, like Lower Abdominal Rocking, keep your reps at 10 and below.

When learning a new exercise that’s complex, like the Squat, keep your reps at 5 and below.

And when learning a highly technical lift like the Snatch, perform your reps one at a time.

Once you feel confident and comfortable, then you can progress to higher rep ranges.

For simple exercises like the Lower Abdominal Rocking, work up to sets of 20 or more.

For more complex exercises like the Squat, work up to 10 reps with a barbell, or you can do even more when holding a light kettlebell in the Goblet Squat or using a sandbag — somewhere between 10 and 15 is about right.

And for highly technical lifts like the barbell Snatch, you might even work up to sets of 3 reps.

Specific Guidelines:

Learning new exercises:

•   Easy — About 10.

•   Moderate — About 5.

•   Complex — 1 to 3.

Once you’ve learned those exercises:

•   Easy — 15-20.

•  Moderate — 6-15.

•  Complex — 1 to 5.

What About Rest Periods…?

In the traditional strength sports, like Powerlifting and Weightlifting, the heavier the load, the longer the rest taken. 3 to 5 minutes or more between sets is typical.

In the bodybuilding world, shorter rests are usually taken: 30 seconds to 2 minutes is typical.

You can and should use both.

The reason is simple but profound: Hormones.

Studies done by Kraemer et al, 11have shown that using heavier weights on compound movements and performing lower reps and moderate rest periods significantly increases testosterone levels. They also found that higher reps with moderate loads and short rest with compound exercises also increased testosterone levels and growth hormone levels.

So by using a variety of specific rep ranges we will:

1.   Get strong and do more work, which means burning more calories. More calories burned means more fat burned.

2.   Build muscle, which helps burn body fat at rest. Muscles are what burn energy. More muscle = more energy use = more calories burned.

3.   Increase our testosterone and growth hormone levels, simultaneously burning off stored body fat, decrease estrogen levels, decrease our cortisol levels, and increase our insulin sensitivity, allowing us to burn off stored body fat and see our six-packs.

Sample Six-Pack Abs 365 Programs

Your best results will be found by working out (training) three days each week. No more. You’re body will need time to recover and rest and adapt.

Train on alternating days — Monday, Wednesday, Friday or something like that.

Here are three templates you can choose from. You will need access to a regular gym or health club.

Beginner — Less than 2 years of formal strength training

Each one of these workouts should take you no longer than 45 minutes.

Day 1:

A.   Abs Coordination: Lower Ab Rocking — 2x10

B.   Abs Stabilization: Planks — 2 x 20s holds

C.   Lower Body Hip Dominant: Deadlift — 2x5

D.  Upper Body Pull — Horizontal: Inverted Rows — 2x10

E.   Upper Body Push — Vertical: Parallel Dips — 2x10 or as many as possible

Rest about 60 seconds between sets.

Day 2:

A.   Abs Coordination: Windshield Wipers A — 2x10

B.   Abs Stabilization: Side Planks — 2x 30s holds each side

C.   Lower Body Knee Dominant: Goblet Squat 2x5-10

D.   Upper Body Pull — Vertical: Chins, assisted, if necessary — 2 sets of as many as possible

E.   Upper Body Push — Horizontal: Push Ups — 2x10

Rest about 60 seconds between sets.

Day 3:

A.   Abs Coordination: Bird Dogs — 2x10

B.   Abs Stabilization: Planks — 2x 30s hold

C.   Lower Body Hip Dominant: Deadlift — 2x5

D.   Upper Body Pull — Horizontal: 1 Arm DB Rows — 2x10-12

E.   Upper Body Push — Vertical: 1 Arm Military Press — 2x10-12

Rest about 60 seconds between sets.

Click Here For Your Complimentary 4-Week Beginner’s Workout

Intermediate — Between 2 to 3 years of formal strength training

Each one of these workouts should take you no longer than 45 minutes.

Day 1:

A.   Abs Coordination: Bird Dogs — 2-3 x 15-20

B.   Abs Strength: Supported Knee Raises — 2-3 x 8-15

C1.   Lower Body Hip Dominant: Deadlift — 3 x 5

C2.   Upper Body Pull — Horizontal: Barbell Rows — 2-3 x 10-12

C3.   Upper Body Push — Vertical: Barbell Military Press — 2-3 x 10-12

•  Perform all sets of A, then all sets of B, then C1 thru C3 as a circuit.

•  Rest between 60-90 seconds between sets.

Day 2:

A.   Abs Coordination: Windshield Wipers B — 2x10

B.   Abs Stabilization: Planks — 2x 60s holds

C1.   Lower Body Knee Dominant: Zercher Squat 3 x 5

C2.   Upper Body Pull — Vertical: Chins — 3 x 6-10

C3.   Upper Body Push — Horizontal: Bench Press — 3 x 8-12

•   Perform all sets of A, then all sets of B, then C1 thru C3 as a circuit.

•   Rest between 60-90 seconds between sets.

Day 3:

A.   Abs Coordination: Bird Dogs on Hands And Feet — 2-3 x 10-15

B.   Abs Strength: Rocky Sit Ups — 2-3 x 6-10

C1.   Lower Body Hip Dominant: Single Leg Deadlift — 3 x 6-10 each leg

C2.   Upper Body Pull — Horizontal: 1 Arm Dumbbell Rows — 2-3 x 10-12

C3.   Upper Body Push — Vertical: Parallel Dips — 2-3 x 8-12

•   Perform all sets of A, then all sets of B, then C1 thru C3 as a circuit.

•   Rest between 60-90 seconds between sets.

Click Here For Your Complimentary 4-Week Intermediate’s Workout

Advanced — More than 3 years of formal strength training

Each one of these workouts should take you no longer than 45 minutes.

Day 1:

A.   Abs Coordination: Bird Dogs — 3 x 15-20

B.   Total Body: Power Clean — 3 x 3-5

C1.   Lower Body Hip Dominant: Deadlift — 3 x 5

C2.   Upper Body Pull — Horizontal: Barbell Rows — 2-3 x 10-12

C3.   Upper Body Push — Vertical: Barbell Military Press — 2-3 x 10-12

C4.   Abs Strength: Supported Knee Raises — 2-3 x 8-15

•   Perform all sets of A, then all sets of B, then C1 thru C4 as a circuit.

•   Rest between 60-90 seconds between sets.

Day 2:

A.   Abs Stabilization: Planks — 2x 60s holds

B.   Lower Body Knee Dominant: Front Squat 3 x 5

C1.   Upper Body Pull — Vertical: Pull Ups — 3 x 6-10

C2.   Upper Body Push — Horizontal: Elevated Push Ups in Rings — 3 x 8-12

C3.   Abs Strength — Standing Chops w/ Medicine Ball — 3 x 6-10 each side

•   Perform all sets of A, then all sets of B, then C1 thru C3 as a circuit.

•   Rest between 60-90 seconds between sets.

Day 3:

A.   Abs Coordination: Bird Dogs on Hands And Feet — 2-3 x 10-15

B.   Total Body: Clean & Press 3 x 5

C1.   Lower Body Hip Dominant: Single Leg Deadlift — 3 x 6-10 each leg

C2.   Upper Body Pull — Horizontal: Renegade Rows — 2-3 x 10-12

C3.   Upper Body Push — Vertical: Weighted Parallel Dips — 2-3 x 8-12

C4.   Abs Strength: Rocky Sit Ups — 2-3 x 16-20

•   Perform all sets of A, then all sets of B, then C1 thru C4 as a circuit.

•   Rest between 60-90 seconds between sets.

Click Here For Your Complimentary 4-Week Advanced Workout

Bonus Section — Home Gym Training

Some people don’t have access to a gym or health club. So then, what do you do?

Simple — go down to your local sporting goods store and buy these two items:

1.  A Pull Up Bar — the kind you can attach to your doorframe

2.   A pair of adjustable dumbbells

You have literally months if not years of intelligently designed Six-Pack Abs strength training programs you can do just with these two pieces of equipment.

Here are some ideas for a Six-Pack Abs Workouts you can do at home.

Beginner — Less than 2 years of formal strength training

Each one of these workouts should take you no longer than 45 minutes.

Day 1:

A.   Abs Coordination: Lower Ab Rocking — 2x10

B.   Abs Stabilization: Planks — 2 x 20s holds

C.   Lower Body Hip Dominant: Single Leg Deadlift — 2x5 each leg

D.   Upper Body Pull — Horizontal: 2 Arm Dumbbell Rows — 2x10-12

E.   Upper Body Push — Vertical: Dumbbell Shoulder Press — 2x10-12

Rest about 60 seconds between sets.

Day 2:

A.   Abs Coordination: Windshield Wipers A — 2x10

B.   Abs Stabilization: Side Planks — 2x 30s holds each side

C.   Lower Body Knee Dominant: Goblet Squat

D.   Upper Body Pull — Vertical: Chins, assisted, if necessary — 2 sets of as many as possible

E.   Upper Body Push — Horizontal: Push Ups — 2x10-12

Rest about 60 seconds between sets.

Day 3:

A.   Abs Coordination: Bird Dogs — 2x10

B.   Abs Stabilization: Planks — 2x 30s hold

C.   Lower Body Hip Dominant: Dumbbell RDLs — 2x5 (hold a pair of dumbbells)

D.   Upper Body Pull — Horizontal: 1 Arm DB Rows — 2x10-12

E.   Upper Body Push — Vertical: 1 Arm Military Press — 2x10-12

Rest about 60 seconds between sets.

Click Here For Your Complimentary 4-Week Beginner’s Home Gym Workout

Intermediate — Between 2 to 3 years of formal strength training

Each one of these workouts should take you no longer than 45 minutes.

Day 1:

A.   Abs Coordination: Bird Dogs — 2-3 x 15-20

B.   Abs Strength: Supported Knee Raises — 2-3 x 8-15 (use a set of chairs or stools)

C1.   Lower Body Hip Dominant: Single Leg Deadlift — 3 x 5 each leg

C2.   Upper Body Pull — Horizontal: 2 Arm Dumbbell Rows with Pause at top — 2-3 x 10-12

C3.   Upper Body Push — Vertical: Dumbbell Military (Shoulder) Press — 2-3 x 10-12

•   Perform all sets of A, then all sets of B, then C1 thru C3 as a circuit.

•   Rest between 60-90 seconds between sets.

Day 2:

A.   Abs Coordination: Windshield Wipers B — 2x10

B.   Abs Stabilization: Planks — 2x 60s holds

C1.   Lower Body Knee Dominant: Squat w/ Dumbbells held on the shoulders 3 x 5

C2.   Upper Body Pull — Vertical: Chins — 3 x 6-10

C3.   Upper Body Push — Horizontal: Dumbbell Floor Press — 3 x 8-12 (Lie on floor and press dumbbells as if bench pressing.)

•   Perform all sets of A, then all sets of B, then C1 thru C3 as a circuit.

•   Rest between 60-90 seconds between sets.

Day 3:

A.   Abs Coordination: Bird Dogs on Hands And Feet — 2-3 x 10-15

B.   Abs Strength: Rocky Sit Ups — 2-3 x 6-10

C1.   Lower Body Hip Dominant: Single Leg Deadlift — 3 x 6-10 each leg

C2.   Upper Body Pull — Horizontal: 1 Arm Dumbbell Rows — 2-3 x 10-12

C3.   Upper Body Push — Vertical: 1 Arm Dumbbell Military Press — 2-3 x 8-12

•   Perform all sets of A, then all sets of B, then C1 thru C3 as a circuit.

•   Rest between 60-90 seconds between sets.

Click Here For Your Complimentary 4-Week Intermediate’s Home Gym Workout

Advanced — More than 3 years of formal strength training

Each one of these workouts should take you no longer than 45 minutes.

Day 1:

A.   Abs Coordination: Bird Dogs — 3 x 15-20

B.   Total Body: Clean with a pair of dumbbells, from just below the knee — 3 x 3-5

C1.   Lower Body Hip Dominant: Single Leg Deadlift — 3 x 5, each leg

C2.   Upper Body Pull — Horizontal: Dumbell Rows with Pause at Top — 2-3 x 10-12

C3.   Upper Body Push — Vertical: 2 Arm Dumbbell Military Press — 2-3 x 10-12

C4.   Abs Strength: Supported Knee Raises— 2-3 x 8-15 (perform on chairs or stools)

•   Perform all sets of A, then all sets of B, then C1 thru C4 as a circuit.

•   Rest between 60-90 seconds between sets.

Day 2:

A.   Abs Stabilization: Planks — 2x 60s holds

B.   Lower Body Knee Dominant: Squat with Dumbbells on Shoulders, add 3 second pause at bottom of each rep — 3 x 5

C1.   Upper Body Pull — Vertical: Pull Ups — 3 x 6-10

C2.   Upper Body Push — Horizontal: Elevated Push Ups, feet on Chair — 3 x 8-12

C3.   Abs Strength — Standing Chops w/ Dumbbell — 3 x 6-10 each side

•   Perform all sets of A, then all sets of B, then C1 thru C3 as a circuit.

•   Rest between 60-90 seconds between sets.

Day 3:

A.   Abs Coordination: Bird Dogs on Hands And Feet — 2-3 x 10-15

B.   Total Body: 2 Dumbbell Clean & Press — 3 x 5

C1.   Lower Body Hip Dominant: Single Leg Deadlift — 3 x 6-10 each leg

C2.   Upper Body Pull — Horizontal: Renegade Rows — 2-3 x 10-12

C3.   Upper Body Push — Vertical: 1 Arm Military Press — 2-3 x 8-12, each side

C4.   Abs Strength: Rocky Sit Ups — 2-3 x 16-20

•   Perform all sets of A, then all sets of B, then C1 thru C4 as a circuit.

•   Rest between 60-90 seconds between sets.

Click Here For Your Complimentary 4-Week Advanced Home Gym Workout

What About “Cardio”?

You’ll notice there’s no traditional “cardio” in any of these workout programs.

Why not?

Well because in my experience, cardio is the absolute last thing you need to do to see your six-pack.

As one of my good friends says, “Seeing your six-pack starts in the kitchen.”

And he’s spot on.

I’m currently sporting a six-pack and have for the last year or so.

I don’t do any cardio.

The Truth is, when you focus most of your energy on your eating, and the rest of it on your strength training and recovery (more about that in a minute), you won’t have to do any cardio.

The dirty little secret in the fitness industry is that if you perform the proper strength training, you don’t need to do separate bouts of “traditional cardio.” All you “need” to do is add weight to your exercises and decrease the rest periods between sets. This will make you breathe very, very hard. You won’t need to do any cardio after that. Trust me.

What About Interval Training, HIIT, And All That Stuff?

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is very, very popular these days. And you’ll see cardio intervals promoted and included in other training programs. That’s cool. I’m sure they have a reason for doing so. And I’m sure it works for them.

So why aren’t they included in here?

Simple. Your body only has a limited ability to adapt to multiple stresses at one time. And HIIT is very demanding on the Nervous System, which means in turn, that it will be very demanding on the Endocrine System and all of the body’s other systems. That means too much HIIT or HIIT wrongly applied will actually work against you in the long run.

I’m not interested in you doing a quick 6 to 12 week transformation program either. We are interested in you getting, and keeping your six-pack — permanently, no matter how long it takes. And the best way to do that is through balancing your hormones and all your body’s systems through eating/not-eating and strength training. (Interestingly enough, people who actually follow the UFLB eating plan usually see the weight fall of them quickly without really trying too hard.)

Plus, if you look closely at the workouts in this program, you’ll see that the interval method — the concept of working then resting, then working again, which is the methodology behind HIIT — is already included.

Here’s what I mean (and as I alluded to at the introduction of this section):

You can make any strength training exercise HIIT — you simply, a) add weight, b) decrease your rest intervals, or c) do both. This not only taxes your Cardio-Respiratory System, it also is a very efficient way to stimulate the release of both testosterone and growth hormone and burn off a ton of calories. So if your strength training program is set up correctly (by the parameters outlined in this book), you’ll be performing HIIT within your strength training program.

And remember, the whole purpose of HIIT is to drive the heart rate up enough to force the body to burn more energy post-exercise. (Remember EPOC.) And that is easily and more effectively done through strength training.

Here is not one, but three cases in point:

Case 1: When I worked in New York City as a trainer, I slapped a heart rate monitor on myself during a squat workout. I was doing heavy sets of fives. My heart rate peaked at 177 beats per minute. At the time that was 90% of my supposed Max Heart Rate (MHR).

Case 2: When I ran my personal training business out of a big box gym, I ran an already very fit female client through a four-exercise circuit consisting of compound exercises. We slapped a heart rate monitor on her. Her heart rate hit 201 beats per minute — when her MHR was only calculated at 196 beats per minute.

Case 3: The first time I got a “real” six-pack (not including having one as a high school wrestler), I had already dropped down from 252lbs to 208lbs during the course of a year-and-a-half. The weight training program I was on where the six-pack was an actual side effect, not the intended result, was nothing more than heavy Squats, Military Presses, Cleans, Snatches, Jerks, and other Olympic lifting assistance exercises. The weights were heavy and the rest periods short. (Just like Dr. Kraemer confirmed in his studies.)

You can get your heart rate incredibly high to initiate EPOC with only weight training. In fact, the study I alluded to earlier in the EPOC sidebar, done by Schuencke, et al,12 was done with only three exercises — the Bench Press, Squat, and Power Cleans, and performed for a 10 rep max each, for four circuits. It only took 31 minutes. And due to EPOC, the participants’ average metabolic rate was elevated by 20% above baseline for 38 hours — over a day-and-a-half.

Now, the only thing that I do personally that might be thought of as “traditional cardio” by some, is I take my dog for 20-60 minute walks almost daily. The shorter walks are during the week, and the longer walks are on the weekends.

Why don’t I consider this “cardio” when this is exactly what some traditional fitness programs advocate for fat loss? That’s a very good question and that leads us to the next section…

Master Key #3: Recovery

The “Forgotten Secret” In The Quest For Six-Pack Abs

I’m going to let you in on a little known secret about getting and keeping your six-pack. In fact, after being in this business for almost 20 years, I still rarely hear anybody talk or write about it.

Here it is —

In order to see your six-pack and actually keep it, you must apply the right amount of stress to your body.

And that means you must factor in your ability to recover.

Too much or too little stress and you won’t make but limited progress.

Here’s a true story:

I was leaving a client’s office when I bumped into a gentleman putting a headlock on one of my client’s employees. Now it turns out they were discussing Ninjitsu and it was just a demonstration. Being an admirer of Ninjitsu, I inserted myself into the conversation.

Well as the conversation turned out, the “headlocker” and I started talking about training. He was about 5’7” and had just lost about 20lbs over the previous 4 months. Not bad, but he still weighed in at 245 and looked like he had swallowed a bowling ball.

He told me he was working with a trainer and they were meeting 3 days a week for 60 minutes at a clip. On the other days he was doing 2 hours of martial arts after work. He was 42 and was only getting about 5 ½ hours of sleep a night — and had a highly stressful job — contract attorney.

Despite being on a traditional (bodybuilder-type) fat loss diet of 6 meals a day that included supplementing with protein shakes and various pills, he was perplexed as to why his progress had stalled.

Apparently his trainer was too because they had just increased the “intensity” of his workouts.

He asked me what I thought.

So of course I told him in no uncertain terms.

He was doing wayyyyyyy too much.

The reason he stopped seeing results was that he wasn’t recovering from his workouts. His body wasn’t getting enough time to rest and repair, and all he was doing was destroying the balance of his Endocrine System by increasing his resting cortisol levels.

And as we’ve already seen, when that happens, your testosterone and growth hormone levels will drop and your inflammation levels will increase. This compromises your Immune System and eventually, you’ll get injured. That or you’ll “crash and burn” — your Nervous System will just shut you down because that innate part of you that’s linked to your intuition believes that you are trying to harm yourself.

You may have experienced this — overtraining often manifests itself in feeling overtired, chronically fatigued, (irritable too) making it tough to get out of bed in the mornings. You may have even experienced a morning or two where you literally couldn’t get out of bed and had to sleep in longer than you normally would. That’s your Nervous System — the automatic side of you — forcing your conscious side to get some rest.

The really cool part about all this though is that your insulin levels will increase and you’ll start to lose the ability to metabolize carbohydrates, which means, if you eat a lot of carbs and aren’t getting enough sleep, your body will store those carbs as fat.

Right around your midsection and in your lovehandles. Nice, huh?

Ok, so maybe that’s not so cool…

So, What Is The “Right Amount Of Stress?”

For most people, it’s working out only three days per week.

Some can only handle two.

And that’s OK. Remember, you should be focused primarily on your nutrition in your six-pack quest. (Remember: Nutrition = 80% of your results.)

You might feel like a stud — or may even be one. But the truth is, working out more than three days per week is for professional athletes — you know, the guys you watch on TV — who get paid to play and work out.

Since you have a job, possibly a mortgage and car payment, and maybe even a family, you have more than enough stress to try and juggle without adding too much more to your plate.

And your body only knows stress — good or bad. Smiling, laughing, having fun are all good stresses. Jobs, financial and relationship pressures and working out are all bad stresses.

Yep, working out is considered a bad stress. It’s the adaptation — or the result — that’s good. And the adaptation only occurs when you rest, not when you’re working out, as most think. (That’s the stimulus for adaptation.) So, if you’re getting less than 7 hours of sleep per night, I recommend you focus 90% of your effort on your eating and the remainder on your strength training — and that only twice per week, until you can start getting more sleep.

The Connection Between Your Abs And Your Sleep…

This seems to only happen in America — we brag about how little sleep we get and how well we still function.

The fact is, we don’t. We don’t function well at all.

Research shows that people who are chronically sleep deprived have more cognitive impairment then those who are drunk^13. That means you accomplish less than you think you do. And that which you are doing, you aren’t doing nearly as well as you think you are.

Not only that, but researchers have discovered that sleep deprivation predisposes you to making poor food choices, such as choosing high carb foods and increasing food consumption (overall total calories)14, making it next to impossible to shed that layer of fat covering your abs.

To add insult to injury, when you don’t sleep enough — at least 7 hours a night, your hormones get out of whack. Here’s what happens:

•  Growth Hormone, which is released during your sleep cycle, decreases.

–  This means you have the possibility of losing lean muscle tissue and aging faster.

–  It also means you won’t burn as much fat.

•  Cortisol, also elevated in the early morning hours, becomes more elevated.

–   Bad news for you because this will not only increase the inflammation levels in your body, but your appetite [for carbs] as well.

•  Testosterone, also elevated in the morning, now becomes depressed.

–   Maintaining and putting on new muscle becomes next to impossible.

•  Leptin, the hormone that’s associated with feeling full becomes depressed.

–   So you feel full less often, which means you’re generally hungrier with less sleep.

–   And you’ll find yourself eating more. Definitely no way to get your abs. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite of what we’re trying to do.

•  Ghrelin, the hormone that tells your brain that you need food is increased.

–   This means your appetite increases. Big time.

–   Don’t be surprised to find yourself foraging late at night. Bad news for the belly fat…

•  Insulin, also becomes chronically elevated because of the increased circulating levels of cortisol.

–   Now your body starts depositing fat around your waist.

Fun stuff, eh?

I think that’s a powerful case for getting more rest and recovery, don’t you?

Let’s take a look at some “active” recovery methods you can and should use to help you get your six-pack.

Use Of Recovery Methods

Despite your best efforts, if you find yourself still short on sleep, I recommend you use the following recovery methods.

1.   Sauna: Sit in a sauna for 10 minutes after your workouts and/or on your off days

2.   Steamroom: Sit in a steamroom for 10 minutes after your workouts and/or on your off days.

•   Or combine both steam and sauna, in that order for even more relaxation!

3.   Contrast Cold/Hot showers: Jump in the shower for 10 minutes.

•   Alternate between 30 seconds cold and 1 minute hot.

•   Do this after every workout.

•   Or do it at the end of a long day before you go to bed.

4.   Cold Showers: Take a cold shower first thing in the morning.

•   It will jump start your day, boost your Immune System, and there’s even some research that it will mobilize brown fat, which in turn will burn more body fat.

•   Rumor has it that it even increases virility — nice little side effect.

5.   Stretching: Spend 20 minutes stretching after your workouts.

•   Or do it on your day off.

•   Don’t be overly aggressive about it, but stretch all you major muscle groups.

6.   Nature Walks: These are some of my favorite times of the day.

•   Go out for a 20 to 60 minute walk in nature. Take your dog. He’ll appreciate it.

•   Not only will you de-stress, but you’ll burn some extra calories.

Pick one or two of the recovery methods above and commit to doing them.

If for some strange reason the UFLB, strength training, and the recovery methods don’t work, here’s are three other areas to investigate…

•   Cut way back on your coffee consumption or cut it out altogether. There is some surprising research^15 that shows that our favorite morning Cup o’ Joe increases inflammation in the body, and stresses out the adrenal glands. And remember that inflammation increases cortisol. And cortisol — well, we know where that goes.

And other studies^16 have actually shown that caffeine disrupts how your body processes emotional stress. Which means if you’re under a lot of stress, drinking coffee will amplify those feelings of stress. Again, exactly the opposite of what we’re looking to achieve.

•   Go for at least one or two 60 minute nature/leisure walks each week. A 1999 study^17 in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine found that students who walked regularly better managed their stress levels than those who didn’t. I have personally found this practice to be invaluable.

But there’s an extra side benefit to doing this: NEPA or Non-Exercise Physical Activity. That’s right, walking burns calories. And it’s not stressful at all on the Nervous System, unlike some popular forms of fat loss, like High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).

•   Be more intimate with your spouse or significant other. Not only does this just feel great, it also decreases your stress levels, which makes you feel great. The more intimate you are, the better you feel and the less stress you feel. It’s a nice positive feedback loop. Plus, frequent intimacy increases libido and testosterone levels. Good for you, good for your muscle too.

SECTION IV.

Troubleshooting

Sometimes things go wrong — or not as “right” as you expect them to. So it’s good to have a guide to help you out when those times come.

Here are some common issues that arise on the journey to seeing your six-pack.

1.   Weight And Fat Loss Suddenly Stops.

This is the most common complaint of “dieters” and there’s a simple explanation. The body works in “fits and spurts.” It’s always striving to find “homeostasis” or balance. And when your weight loss “stalls” this is just your body’s way of thinking it found balance.

What you need to do instead of panicking or getting discouraged, is create slightly more “controlled chaos” in your weekly schedule. It’s likely that you might have fallen into a meal pattern where you’re eating the same meals and the same sized meals. Remember, on the UFLB you’re supposed to vary your caloric intake as well. On Day 4 you’re supposed to undereat at dinner — about half as much as you normally eat. And on Day 7 you’re also supposed to eat lightly — undereat and only supposed to eat protein. So if you’ve gotten off track there, get back on track.

The next thing you can do is actually eat WAY more on your Treat Day — sometimes we subconsciously undereat for fear of getting fat. Don’t forget that you’re following this day with a Fast Day where you’ll fast for close to 36 hours. So the calories will “even out.” This massive contrast in daily caloric intake is closer to how our ancestors ate — feasting when food was available and fasting when it wasn’t. This will also speed up your fat loss by ensuring that the enzymes necessary for fat loss are being released and working optimally.

Getting back to the “fits and starts” concept — we want to be able to measure the loss over time, not necessarily just the standard week and especially not day-to-day. If you can look back over the course of a month and see that you’ve lost 5 to 10lbs, then you’re averaging over a pound of fat loss per week. Progress is key.

Finally, pay attention to your clothes. When the scale’s not moving but your shirts are getting tighter and the waist of your pants is getting looser, then you’re effectively stripping off fat and growing muscle at the same rate.

2.   Can’t Lose Fat On My Stomach

Stomach fat is indicative of higher than normal cortisol production. First thing’s first — get more sleep. Sleep is almost the wonder drug for resetting cortisol regulation.

Second, reduce the stress in other areas of your life — job, family, etc. If you can’t do anything immediately add direct stress-relieving recovery methods into your program — every other day — not strength training days. Nature walks, funny movies, sporting events with friends all work to reduce stress.

Also, make sure you’re employing recovery techniques after your strength training sessions. They’re very easy to skip because more often than not, you don’t “feel like” your doing anything when you’re doing them, especially when contrasted with the effort of the strength training programs you just finished.

Finally — and I hesitate to put this in here because you might be tempted to abuse this — seek to reduce the amount of time it takes to complete your strength training sessions by reducing the rest periods between sets or performing your sets more quickly (not sloppily). This increased workout density helps your body release testosterone and growth hormone, both of which help reduce cortisol levels. (Remember, stress suppresses testosterone.)

But these more intense workouts are a yet more stress to your body so make sure you have the other recovery variables in place before you attempt these otherwise you could end up making your situation worse.

3.   Can’t Lose My Lovehandles And Back Fat

Lovehandles and back fat are well-observed signals that you’re body isn’t tolerating carbohydrates well and that you have at least some mild insulin-resistance. Therefore, make sure you are doing the following:

1.  Really eating low carb and not sneaking in carbs on your low carb days. Seriously — knock off the carbs on these days.

2.  Make sure you’re eating low fat on your all carb days. Pasta, potatoes and bread along with rice and beans are all great. But keep the cheese and oils and butters out of these. Mixing lots of fat and lots of carbs together (a.k.a. the Standard American Diet) will not only keep those lovehandles but will contribute to them.

3.  Make sure you’re not stuffing yourself into oblivion on your Treat Day. Eat to a “comfortable stop” so-to-speak. You shouldn’t have to crowbar yourself away from the table. Also, you may want to limit yourself to the number of carbs you eat on these days to, opting for foods higher in fat an protein, so burgers instead of lasagna, at least until you see the lovehandles start to shrink.

Here’s another option for you. Just like the stomach fat, reduce your rest periods between sets. This increases lactic acid accumulation which signals fat burning enzymes and the release of growth hormone in your body.

4.   Still Have Some “Man Boobs”

Manboobs are simply a sign of too much estrogen. That’s it plain and simple. So the easiest way to get rid of them is to increase the testosterone and decrease the estrogen in your body. Here are some steps to ensure that happens:

1.   So make sure you’re lifting heavy enough on your Total Body Exercises. Remember, heavy strength training has been shown to increase testosterone levels.

2.   Then make sure you’re getting enough protein. Increased protein levels have been demonstrated to also increase testosterone levels.

3.   Make sure you’re eating enough cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower. They’ve been shown to have anti-estrogenic compounds in them that reduce the amount of estrogen in them.

4.   Get rid of all plastic in your kitchen. Only store your foods in Pyrex ceramic or glass containers. As crazy as it sounds, this plastic has chemicals in it that are released into your food — especially when you microwave it in the container — that are converted into estrogen pre-cursors once in your body. This also includes drinking water from plastic bottles. Get yourself a Brita filter and a stainless steel water bottle. It’ll reduce your exposure to estrogens and plus, stainless steel just looks manly.

5.   My Strength Just Plummeted

This is a classic sign of “overtraining.” No matter how well a plan or program is laid out, it just can’t account for the stressors of life. Sometimes those stressors pile up and we just don’t have the emotional energy reserve to deal with them. So our bodies suffer.

The simple fix is first to drop the volume (total amount of work in each training session) by 50%. So if you’re supposed to do 3 sets of 5 on a give exercise, cut that back to 3 sets of 3. (Yeah, I know, it’s not exactly 50% but it’s close.) If you’re doing 3 sets of 10, cut back to 3 sets of 5. Do this for a week or two.

If that still doesn’t fix the problem, drop all exercises in your program except the Big ones — the Total Body ones — and still perform a low volume workout.

And if that doesn’t work, take a full week off and only engage in activities that are fun and the opposite of what you’ve been doing. After a week off, get back in the weight room and start light.

6.   I Don’t Feel Like Working Out Anymore

This is very similar to #5. Follow those instructions and then reevaluate. At the end of the day, you may just have to tighten your belt and suck it up and do it anyway. I know that’s not a popular answer in today’s “touchy-feely” politically correct world, but the fact is men often do things they don’t “feel like.” It’s what distinguishes us from children.

And one of the things I haven’t really touched on is that a stronger, leaner, healthier you — a guy who looks in the mirror and sees his six-pack is going to be happier than the average spare tire-wearin’ guy. You’ll be more productive at work, at home, and in society in general. Let’s face it we need more men like that — men who do what they don’t “feel like” doing. Working out when you don’t feel like it helps you become such a man. Why not claim your space at the front of the pack?

So those are the common pitfalls you may run into and the solutions to fix them.

Here’s a key point to remember in this “instant” world we live in — You can have almost anything you want with persistence and patience.

Consistency and commitment are the keys to getting your six-pack abs. At the end of the day, if you can just keep doing the things you know you should, you’ll reach your goal. If you drag your feet, look around, and stop to make excuses for doing so instead of keep on keeping on, you’ll never achieve what you want. Remember what my friend and strength coach Dan John says, “80% of winning is just showing up.”

CONCLUSION:

KEEPING YOUR SIX-PACK

So now you know the details, “the secrets” to getting your very own set of six-pack abs and more importantly, for keeping them.

You know that you have 3 Master Keys to manipulate — Nutrition, Strength Training, and Recovery. You know how to use them and have very specific plans to follow. You also know that your body has six primary systems you need to monitor and regulate and you also know how to do that using the 3 Master Keys.

And finally, you know how to troubleshoot your results — you are aware of some issues that may arise and how you would manipulate the 3 Master Keys to get yourself back on track.

Many think that keeping your six-pack once you’ve got it is hard. And sure, getting it looks pretty challenging when you take into consideration all of your body’s systems you have to balance to get it.

But now you — unlike pretty much everybody else — you get it. And if you’re not quite sure, you know where to look.

While others will continue to struggle, you won’t.

They’ll continue to think it’s hard. But not you — you’ll think and therefore find that it’s easy. You have this resource. And you now know that getting your six-pack is easy and it’s easy to keep. Because you know it’s all about perspective and expectations. You now have a complete and full perspective — you know the 3 Master Keys and the six systems in your body to they affect and how to manipulate them.

And you now know that keeping your six-pack is a lifestyle.

It’s a decision you commit to. The longer you do it, the easier it becomes until you’re just on autopilot.

That’s the purpose of the UFLB.

That’s the purpose of the strength training three times per week.

That’s the purpose of using active recovery methods.

And that’s the sole purpose of this book.

I have done my best to show you a glimpse of the major and complex interactions that occur within your body to help you get your six-pack. I have given you all the necessary information you need to know to start your journey. You my friend, just have to start walking.

To that end, make sure you take advantage of all the complimentary resources in this book. They’re designed to make your life easier.

Below you’ll find some free resources to make sure you get started on the right foot and keep going.

Click Here For Your Complimentary 4-Week Six-Pack Abs Getting Workouts.

Click Here For Video Demonstrations Of All The Exercises In This Book.

You now have everything you need to be successful. Get started Now!

I wish you the very best of success!

Geoff Neupert

For Questions, Comments, Or Concerns, please feel free to contact me at: support@sixpackabs365.com

REFERENCES

1“The Effects of High Protein Diets on Thermogenesis, Satiety and Weight Loss: A Critical Review.” Halton, T, Hu. F. J Am Coll Nutrition. October 2004. Vol 23.5.pp. 373-385.

2“Androgen receptors and testosterone in men-Effects of protein ingestion, resistance exercise and fiber type.” Hulmi JJ, Ahtiainen JP, Selänne H, Volek JS, Häkkinen K, Kovanen V, Mero AA. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2008 Mar 30.

3“Mechanisms of Disease: the role of intestinal barrier function in the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal autoimmune diseases.” Fasano, A, Shea-Donohue, T. Nature Clinical Practice.Gastroenterology & Heptology. Sept.2005.Vol2.No.9.pp.416-422

4“Hormonal Responses and Adaptations to Resistance Exercise and Training” Kraemer,WJ, Ratamess,N. Sports Med 2005; 35 (4): 339-361.

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Table of Contents

Six-Pack Abs 365:

All Rights Reserved

DISCLAIMER

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

The Ideal

PHILOSOPHY

SECTION I.

SECTION II.

System 1: Your Nervous System

System 2: Your Digestive System

System 3: Your Immune System

System 4: Your Endocrine System

System 5: Your Musculoskeletal System

System 6: Your Cardio-Respiratory System

So Why The Heck Does All This Science Stuff Matter?

SECTION III.

Master Key #1: Nutrition

The Ultimate Fat Loss Blueprint

The Blueprint

The UFLB Daily Plan

The Mechanics Of The UFLB

Comments, Questions, Concerns on the UFLB

UFLB On A Budget

Master Key #2: Strength Training

What Is The “Six-Pack” Really?

Direct Or Indirect Abdominal Work?

Abdominal Exercises — From Basic To Advanced

Lower Ab Rocking

Windshield Wiper Series — A and B

Windshield Wipers — B

Dead Bugs and Variations

Bird Dogs On Knees

Bird Dogs From Hands and Feet

Planks

Rocky Sit Ups

Supported Knee Raises

Hanging Knee Raises

Supported Leg Raises

Hanging Leg Raises

Crawling

Carries

Chops

Drags

Compound Your Six-Pack Getting Results With These Strength Training Exercises

Total Body

Deadlift

Clean

Snatch

Total Body Combo Lifts

Clean & Press

Clean & Push Press

Clean & Jerk

Squat & Press

Squat & Push Press

Squat & Jerk

Upper Body Pushing

Bench Press

Parallel Dips: dip stands, rings

Military Press

Push Press

Jerk

Upper Body Pulling

Chins: bar, rings

Pull ups: bar, rings

Horizontal:

1 Arm Bent Over Row

2 Arm Bent Over Row

Rows — Renegade

Lower Body Hip Dominant (Deadlift Pattern)

Deadlift and variations

RDL

Single Leg DL

Good Morning

Kettlebell Swings

Lower Body Knee Dominant (Squat Pattern)

Squat

Front Squat

Goblet Squat

Zercher Squat

Lunging

Static Lunge

Bulgarian Split Squat

Reverse Lunge

Forward Lunge

Sample Six-Pack Abs 365 Programs

Bonus Section — Home Gym Training

Master Key #3: Recovery

So, What Is The “Right Amount Of Stress?”

Use Of Recovery Methods

SECTION IV.

Troubleshooting

CONCLUSION:KEEPING YOUR SIX-PACK

REFERENCES