Secret Report

The Hidden Secrets of Six Pack
Abs They Don’t Want You To
Know… Finally Exposed!
www.SixPackExposed.com

Visit Mike Geary’s Truth About Abs To Get More
FREE Video Abs Exercises, Diet/Nutrition Plans and
More…
1
Discover The Secrets of Rock-Solid Abs At www.SixPackExposed.com
Table of Contents
Forward ................................................................................................................. 5
Note ............................................................................................................ 5
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 6
You and your body ................................................................................................ 7
Firmer, Flatter Abs ............................................................................................. 8
What to do beforehand ......................................................................................... 9
Talk with your doctor ........................................................................................ 10
Getting a personal fitness trainer ..................................................................... 10
Get a physical exam ........................................................................................ 11
It takes time and effort ........................................................................................ 11
If you fall off – get back on! .............................................................................. 12
You ..................................................................................................................... 13
You aren’t perfect............................................................................................. 14
What are your targets? .................................................................................... 14
Find an exercise buddy ................................................................................. 15
Motivation and rewards .................................................................................... 15
Body fat index .................................................................................................. 17
Get the proper amount of sleep ....................................................................... 18
You and exercise ................................................................................................ 19
Make it regular ................................................................................................. 19
Take it slow ...................................................................................................... 20
Have good form and technique ........................................................................ 21
Some exercises you can do ............................................................................. 22
The plank ...................................................................................................... 24
Variation on the plank ............................................................................... 25
The crunch .................................................................................................... 25
The crunch with the exercise ball .................................................................. 26
Reverse crunch ............................................................................................. 27
Pelvis lift ........................................................................................................ 28
The Bicycle ................................................................................................... 28
Slow bicycle twist .......................................................................................... 29
Russian twist ................................................................................................. 29
Torso twist..................................................................................................... 30
Belly twist ...................................................................................................... 30
Hip twist ........................................................................................................ 31
Vertical leg crunch ........................................................................................ 31
Vertical crunch .............................................................................................. 32
Long-arm crunch ........................................................................................... 32
Reach-for-the-sky crunch (on an exercise ball)............................................. 33
Leg raises ..................................................................................................... 33
Leg raise crunch ........................................................................................... 34
Side hip-lift .................................................................................................... 34
2
Slow leg drop ................................................................................................ 35
Scissor kick ................................................................................................... 35
Exercise gear ................................................................................................... 36
You and your diet ................................................................................................ 38
Fight the cravings............................................................................................. 39
Healthy recipes ................................................................................................... 40
Main dishes ...................................................................................................... 41
Salmon pasta in parsley sauce ..................................................................... 41
Cumin seed Rice........................................................................................... 41
Broccoli and Cauliflower Gratin ..................................................................... 42
Veggies ............................................................................................................ 43
Pan-Grilled Bruschetta .................................................................................. 43
Healthy Bean dish ......................................................................................... 44
Meats, Fish, Poultry ......................................................................................... 44
Grilled Salmon Steaks .................................................................................. 44
Grilled Chicken Breasts with Broccoli ........................................................... 45
Pepper Steaks .............................................................................................. 46
Lamb Kebabs with Cucumber Raita.............................................................. 47
Get off that Plateau ............................................................................................. 48
Ab Training myths and the facts.......................................................................... 49
The myths and the facts ................................................................................... 49
Spot Reduction (doesn’t work) ...................................................................... 50
Sit ups are (not) what you need .................................................................... 50
More reps are (not) what you need ............................................................... 51
(No) Ab exercises for your belly fat ............................................................... 51
Ab muscles are (not) different ....................................................................... 52
Things you can do............................................................................................... 52
The List ............................................................................................................ 53
Get smaller plates and glasses and things ................................................... 54
Don’t skip meals............................................................................................ 54
Cut down on the snacks ................................................................................ 55
Stay healthy – walk whenever you can ......................................................... 56
Eat more proteins, less carbs........................................................................ 56
Nutrition supplements ............................................................................... 57
Do eat foods high in fiber – even if they are carbs ........................................ 57
Exercise whenever you can – even when watching TV ................................ 58
Try washing the car yourself, or even mow the lawn! ................................... 59
Work out in spurts ......................................................................................... 60
Avoid foods high in sugars or sugar substitutes ............................................ 60
Eat healthier snacks if you must................................................................ 61
Stick with low-to-no calorie beverages .......................................................... 61
Don’t go food shopping on an empty stomach .............................................. 61
Stay away from the family-sized packs ......................................................... 62
Go brown or whole wheat ............................................................................. 62
De-stress and get your beauty sleep ............................................................ 62
Eat your fruits and veggies ........................................................................... 63
3
Stay safe ............................................................................................................. 63
Always check your gear ................................................................................... 64
Don’t bite off more than you can chew ............................................................. 64
Always remember to support your back ........................................................... 65
A couple of back stretching exercises ........................................................... 65
Don’t lose more body fat than is safe for you ................................................... 66
Consult with a trained physician or fitness coach before hand ........................ 67
Always remember to adequately hydrate yourself ........................................... 67
And don’t forget to eat!..................................................................................... 68
Don’t jump into the deep end to begin with ...................................................... 68
Dress appropriately .......................................................................................... 68
Mix and match your exercise ........................................................................... 69
Warm up sufficiently beforehand...................................................................... 70
Avoid neck pain when doing crunches ............................................................. 70
Learn to take a rest between bouts .................................................................. 70
Remember to breathe properly ........................................................................ 71
Don’t be ashamed to ask for help .................................................................... 71
The author of this book is in no means or manner a trained or qualified

medical practitioner, nutritionist, fitness coach, or any other such
professional. To that end the author recommends that you seek out the
advice of a fully trained and qualified medical, nutritional, or otherwise,
professional.
4
Forward
Just in case you’re wondering whether this book is for you, or whether you
should go and pick up something else for yourself, I will tell you here and now
that this book is aimed primarily at those of you who want to have firmer flatter
abs, but who lack the knowhow; or who lack the will to go out and do it for
themselves.
Not that I will tell you exactly what and what to do, but I will make it so that you
have a clear understanding of some of the things that you need to do.
To that end, you will find that this book is aimed for those of you who are only just
beginning, or who have only just thought about or glanced at various ways on
how to get firmer flatter abs.
I will try and take you through a few exercises which you can do to help you get
firmer flatter abs, and I will take you through a few things you can do to change
your lifestyle around so that you will be better adapted to get firmer flatter abs.
The one thing that I won’t do however, is to pretend that I am a fitness coach or a
nutrition expert or any such individual and presume to tell you exactly what
exercises are best for you, how exactly you should do them to get the maximum
impact and what you should eat to get the best out of your diet.
Every little piece of advice and knowledge that I have offered up here should be
taken as advice only, not as gospel.
To get the best possible advice and knowledge about all facets of getting firmer
flatter abs, you should ideally speak with a fitness coach, or a fully trained and
qualified individual who can help you with your needs.
Note
Although I have addressed this in a later chapter entitled, “What to do
beforehand”, as well as throughout the book, I thought it best to start off with
these few words of caution and safety.
If at any point in time you feel that what you are doing doesn’t “feel right”, or
maybe you can feel yourself straining beyond your normal endurance point, then
you will want to stop what you are doing as soon as possible and consult with
your doctor, physician or other such qualified professional to seek help.
Never, ever, go so far beyond your limits that you physically hurt yourself or
damage your body in ways that might not fully show itself to begin with, but which
will later manifest itself, to the detriment of your health.
5
Also, before beginning any exercise routines or implementing any diet changes in
your lifestyle, you will ideally need to consult with your doctor or physician to
assess your fitness level as well as to what degree you will be able to begin your
ab-flattening routine.
Introduction
Let’s face it, it’s not everyone who can have a washboard stomach with a well
defined six pack to boot. However, we can all dream about it, and even if we
can’t get the uber-defined six pack along with the hard-as-nails washboard
stomach, at least we can get something close to it.
Of course this will entail a lot of hard work from you, especially, if like I was,
you’re starting out with belly fat that stubbornly refuses to budge no matter what
you do.
The truth of the matter is that even if you have little to no belly fat, you will need
to work a little bit in order to arrive at, if not a washboard stomach, then
something approximating that.
And if you’re thinking that this all sounds like too much trouble and that you
would rather be doing something else right now, just think about your joy when
you’re finally able to fit into that itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny bikini you were lusting
after last summer, or the fact that you can now take your shirt off in the height of
the summer madness without fear of scaring the neighbors!
I won’t lie to you, it’s not going to be a cakewalk, but then again, if it was easy
everyone would have a flat and toned stomach and then who would there be to
appreciate your stunning physique?
Before we go any further though, I would just like to say that I am not a
nutritionist, or a sports or fitness coach, or any other such thing.
I’m simply a normal person like you, a person who has had my fair share of
struggles and who has come out of them with a renewed sense of self and a core
of confidence that is not easily shaken.
And is all this due to the fact that I now have a firm and flat stomach? That I am
now able to walk down the street with my head held high, no longer ashamed of
my figure (or lack thereof)?
The simple answer to these questions is, No. None of that is the true reason why
I am now a changed person, it just enhances my feelings and helps me to face
the world.
6
I have to say that it was through the intensely invigorating and get-out-of-my-rut
life-shake up that I underwent in my quest to get a flatter stomach, which
brought my out of my shell and helped me to face the world on my terms.
This is not to say that you will or will not experience the same things that I did, or
that you will get the same satisfaction from doing this that I did.
The truth of the matter is that you will get from it what you will, and depending on
how you perceive the world, you will come away from your experiences with a
different view of things, just not the same view as me!
That said, I would just like to point out that many people who are overweight, or
who do not look the part of the perceived ideal human being (be it male or
female), will mostly not be as confident about themselves as those people who
are comfortable in their own skin, or as those who know that they look the part of
the modern-ideal man/ woman.
It is this situation which I found being addressed as I progressed down the line
and which made me in to a more confident person.
And although I don’t want to sound too preachy, this being a book on toning and
flattening your abs and all that, I do have to say that the journey I took to get to
the point that I am now was well worth it and hopefully you will find out the same
thing for yourself.
Getting a flatter firmer stomach was my goal, and I managed to achieve it – and
hopefully now, I can help you to achieve this too.
You and your body

If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll freely acknowledge that there will always be
some part of our bodies that we love to hate – and it won’t matter whether we
have the ideal body or not.
It’s human nature to be dissatisfied with some part or other of ourselves, and
whether it’s our legs, thighs, our not-so-flat stomachs, or even our overall
appearance we are most of us, not content with our bodies.
Now, at this point I could go into a discourse on the ins and outs of being
satisfied and happy with what we have and how best to go about achieving this,
but, since we’re here to find out how you can get firmer flatter abs, I’ll refrain
myself!
However, before we go further, I would just like to point out that being happy with
7
oneself, and being happy in your own skin, will go a long way towards helping
you to get that you body which you so crave.
How does that work then? Well, it’s very simple really. Because you are happy
and satisfied with yourself – the way that you look and who you are – you will be
less likely to see all the flaws – both the existent ones as well as the non-existent
ones.
This means that when you finally hit your target of getting six pack abs, or merely
a firmer flatter stomach, you will be less likely to see all the wrongs with it, not to
mention how much further you might still have to go.
Be happy in and of yourself and you will find yourself leading a more contented
life. You will also find that it is also easier for you to maintain your weight and
your new firm flat stomach, more easily.
Firmer, Flatter Abs

Now that we have gotten over the fact that we all have parts of our bodies that
we love to hate, maybe we can do something about it. This is it, the time to get to
down to the nitty-gritty of this book. This is where we begin our journey to getting
the flattest abs that we possibly can.
To begin with, it is first advisable that you read through this book and other books
like this, to get a good understanding of what you are going to be doing. The next
thing that you need to do is ideally to get a physical done before you proceed on
your course. For more on that, see the next section, entitled “Talk with your
doctor”.
To achieve firmer flatter abs, you can be assured that there are a few things that
you will need to do, and some of it I’m afraid, entails your sacrificing some part of
your life to achieve your goals.
In short, you will find that you need to let go of most of your junk food snacking (if
not all!); you will need to dedicate yourself to achieving your goal of flatter abs,
(which is hard in and of itself); and you will also find that you need to change your
lifestyle to accommodate your new needs.
That said, I would also just like to say that it will be quite easy indeed to think at
this point in time that you don’t want to go through with this, that it was all a good
idea while it lasted but now it’s time to get back to real life.
Well, I’m telling you here and now that you shouldn’t give up on your dreams and
your goals.
8
But if hadn’t said that, if I had instead tried to paint a rosy picture about how
much you need to put in, to getting your flatter abs, I would be doing you a great
disservice.
Why, you ask? Simply because it would be ever so easy for me to allow you to
believe that everything will be hunky-dory and that you will easily lose the weight
and gain the muscle definition that you want without having to go too out of your
way to get what you want.
The disservice that I would be doing you would then come later on down the line
when you found that the going wasn’t so easy, and that you had to work harder
than you thought you did and when you found that you had to sacrifice more than
you were willing to in the first place.
Which would mean that you would then be more inclined to drop the entire thing
as being too much trouble, and then where would that leave you?
So, to achieve firmer flatter abs, or a well defined six pack, you will need to work
at it, and you will need to sweat for it, and you will need to make some necessary
changes in your life.
But now that you know about them beforehand, now that you know what you can
expect, and now that you know that you will have to make some changes in your
lifestyle, you will be better prepared and better able to handle everything that
comes your way.
And if you want to you will also find that you will be able to incorporate these
things slowly into your routine so that you are not bombarded at once by
everything.
This, I found, is a good a way to go if you’re not really the exercising or sticking-
to-routine kind of person.
What to do beforehand
Obviously there are things you should know about before beginning on any
course of action to get firmer flatter abs, and the best source for this type of
information has to be your doctor, physician or other such professional.
You will need to get all the necessary information you need for you to begin your
workouts in the proper way.
• Talk with a doctor or a fitness coach on what exactly you can do, as well
as what exactly you should be doing
9
• Get a personal trainer if you can to help you get things going to begin with
• Get a routine physical done before you embark on any serious form of
exercise
These are the things that you should do before beginning any type of workout
session – be it a gentle one or an intense workout – and these are the things
which you will find helps you to get flatter abs in the long run, because you know
what you are doing, and you know what you can do.
Talk with your doctor

This is one of the first things that you should do before beginning on any type of
routine or plan that will possibly affect your health. Especially since you will be
doing exercises and things that are bound to be high impact of intensive, and
which will most definitely get your blood pumping.
Even if you haven’t been to see your doctor in a dog’s age, you really should
make it a point to go and visit with him/ her to ensure that you are fully able to
cope with, or do all of the exercises that you need to do in order to get a six pack
of a flat stomach.
Getting a personal fitness trainer

Although this might sound something like the domain of Hollywood starlets and
celebrities, the truth is far from your perception on this point.
Many people have the ability to get a personal fitness trainer these days, even if
it is only for one or two consultations. In many cases, you will find that one or two
good solid sessions with a personal fitness trainer are all that you need to get
you started on the fitness ladder.
After that, after you feel comfortable doing what you need to do by yourself, after
you have mastered the techniques and knowhow of the various different exercise
routines you will be able to go it alone until such time as you need a personal
fitness trainer again.
In this way, by getting a personal fitness trainer only in bouts, you will find that
you are getting the workout you need without having to spend bags and bags of
your hard earned money.
And when you get to a point when you feel the need to have a consultation or
that you need to change your routine once more, you can once again get your
10
personal fitness trainer to help you.
Make sure that they know up-front how you are going to go about matters
however, as some trainers might not like having to work in this manner.
Find a trainer with whom you feel comfortable and with whom you can work
easily without feeling awkward. Your trainer should be someone from whom you
can ask questions, and who will answer you in a manner which you can
understand.
You also have the option of having an initial consultation with a personal fitness
coach and then going it alone, but this is not a course I would readily recommend
unless you know what you’re doing, because it is all too easy to injure yourself
doing exercises or routines which you’re not familiar with.
So get a personal fitness trainer if you can and make sure that you know what
you’re doing.
Get a physical exam

Especially if you are looking to get well defined abs and a firmer flatter stomach,
you will find that you need to do quite a few high intensity workouts, such as
cardio exercise.
As this is the case, you will be better served getting a routine physical exam. This
can help you to rule out any underlying heath problems which might feasibly
stop, or prevent you from accomplishing all your ab training goals.
So, yes, it might be time consuming, but you will find that you are most definitely
better off for knowing in advance exactly what you can do, and what you cannot
do regards your ab training.
Having a routine physical exam done can also help you to better formulate an
exercise plan that will make the best use of your present health. As you get
healthier and fitter over time, you will then be able to ramp up your fitness
schedule to take advantage of this fact.
You should also talk with your doctor about how often you will need to get routine
physical exams done, to make sure that you are keeping fighting fit and trim in a
healthy way.
It takes time and effort
11
Rome wasn’t built in a day and you can be assured that you won’t get firmer
flatter abs in a day either. In fact, you can probably rest assured that you won’t
get it in a week or two either.
Like I keep on saying, you will need to work, and work hard, to get firmer, flatter
abs and to that end you will find that you need to keep at it for some time. Don’t
give up halfway through your efforts because of a flagging determination, stick
with it and you will find that you are better off for it.
If getting a well defined six pack was ever going to be easy, then the truth of the
matter is that most of us would already have one by now. But the combination of
hard work, time, effort and dedication, means that most of us will not get past
week one in our efforts.
This is why you need to understand and accept for yourself that it will take time to
get your abs looking just the way you want them to. It’s only when you do this
that you will be able to continue on your way to losing that stomach bulge along
with the sagging middle, and getting your own set of well defined abs.
If you fall off – get back on!

Just like the story about Adam and Eve temptation will rear its head and you will
find yourself tempted beyond belief to go for things that will lead you away from
your exercise regimen.
It doesn’t matter what apple you find dangling in front of your face however, nor
does it matter whether or not you took a bite of that apple or even whether you
succumbed to gluttony and finished it completely.
What matters is what you did after you went for that ever-tempting apple, and
how you dealt with matters afterwards. Everyone will fall or fail at least once
during their lifetimes at something or other, and the main thing is how you
handled the aftereffects of this that counts.
For instance, if you gave in to temptation, ideally you should put that out of your
head. There’s nothing you can do about it now, the deed is done. Move forward
and renew your efforts to get better looking abs.
The one thing that you shouldn’t do if you give in to temptation is to moan and
groan about it and generally give in to despair about it. Basically though, if you
fall off and give in to temptation, then don’t give in and keep going back for more
of the same. You need to get right back on and keep heading towards that goal.
I would like to tell you something that I was told once when I was close to going
completely off course, and staying that way.
12
Think of yourself as a ship heading from London to New York; you need to cross
the Atlantic get to your destination. You set off with your target clear in sight and
to begin with you’re doing really well. You are on course, headed towards New
York.
Then suddenly a storm blows up out of nowhere and you find that you have now
changed course towards Greenland. You’re heading off course, and to
compensate for this, you might have to steer towards Brazil.
You have gone wildly off course, and you might yet go more off course, but
you’re ultimate goal is to get to New York and therefore you’re steering your ship
so that you will somehow or other get there.
If you take your goal of attaining a six pack, or simply flatter, firmer abs, to be the
journey to New York, and a storm or two springing up and sending you spinning
off course, to be temptation rearing its ugly head, you can see where I was
headed with that story.
As long you keep your goal firmly in your mind, no matter what happens, no
matter how many storms blow your way, you will find that you are easily able to
compensate for these. The end result then? If you fall off, get back on.
You
This is it, this is the time where you need to take a good hard look at your life.
You might think this to be a wholly unnecessary use of your time, and you could
be right about that, but only if you decide to sit down and gaze off into the sunset
for hours on end thinking on the things which you can’t change.
This section is instead all about you finding out about yourself, finding out to what
degree exactly you want to go to get better defined abs.
I suggest that you take just a few minutes out of your busy life to decide exactly
what you want, and how you want to go about getting it.
To that end, the sections which follow this one are designed more to help you
come to terms with what you want, and also to point out what you will need to do
to get your six pack.
I would like to again take the time out here to say that I am not a qualified
professional dealing with health and fitness whatsoever. The information
contained within the pages of this book should be taken only as general
guidelines.
13
For better informed decisions and advice on this subject, I strongly suggest that
you consult with someone who is fully trained and qualified on the subject.
You aren’t perfect

You need to face facts. You aren’t perfect no matter what you would like to
believe and this means that you don’t have the perfect body either. There will be
flaws and things which you won’t like about your body, and although some of
these won’t be visible to others, other things will be more visible.
You need to accept the fact that your abdominal muscles might be one of those
things about you which isn’t perfect. It’s an unfortunate fact, but the truth of the
matter is that some people just can’t get a six-pack no matter how hard they try.
This is the one thing that you have no control over – your genes. You can try
your hardest, but sometimes the best that you might be able to do will be to get a
firmer flatter stomach. You might find that you have to put aside your dream of
having a six pack.
Of course this is not something that you can necessarily know at the outset so if
you do want a six pack, you will have to persevere and just go for it; you might
end up one of the luckier ones to be able to do so.
But when do you then know when to stop striving for a six pack and to be happy
with what you have already achieved? Well, that’s really a very personal thing,
because everybody (no pun intended by the way), is different.
You will need to be the one to take a long hard look at what you have been
doing, for how long you were doing it, and what the results were.
If you know that you have been doing everything just right, if you know that you
have been using proper form and technique, and if you have been doing it for
long enough that something must show up on the old radar but hasn’t, then you
will know when the time is right for you to ease back on your efforts to get a six
pack.
Instead, try and concentrate on something else, like keeping your body in the
best possible shape it can be, or maybe even look at something that will define
your other muscles, if you haven’t already done so. There are always choices
open to you on what to do.
What are your targets?
14
This is an important part of getting your perfect abs, since without knowing
exactly what you are heading towards it will be difficult for you to reach your
goals. So the first thing that you need to do is to define what your targets and
your goals are.
Sure, you know that you want to get firmer flatter abs, but do you know when you
will want to stop trying for this goal and when you will want to just keep things in
shape?
Otherwise you might find that you are heading for your target and have already
passed it. You’ve already gotten there, you just didn’t know it, since you were so
focused on getting there.
• So, define your target.
• Then make sure that you keep track of what you’re doing, and how you’re
getting along, and how far you have to go in order to reach your target.
• Next, when you reach your target, learn to recognize it for what it is. And
when you have done this, you can then make a completely new target for
yourself which will help you to keep your six pack, or your flat, firm abs,
just the way you like it.
Having something to reach for, a goal which is definable, will help you a lot,
especially when you find yourself straying from the path.
Find an exercise buddy

If you are more of a people person, if you find that you exercise better when
there are people around, there are two things you can do, and the first one is for
you to join a gym.
But since this is not necessarily a palatable option to many people, you also have
the option of dragging a good buddy along with you on your quest for the perfect
set of abs.
The reason I mention this, is because sometimes, a little incentive is needed in

order for you to get going, and an exercise buddy can help you to achieve that.
Motivation and rewards

All of us lose our motivation at some point or other, and we all need a little
nudging to either keep things going at the required pace, or to get things moving
15
once more. Either way that you look at it though, motivation is a key factor in your
getting the abs that you want, and you will need to look into this quite carefully.
The idea behind this being that if you can keep yourself motivated even through
those times when you are tempted to let things conveniently slide, you will find
that ultimately you are staying the course.
And the best way to stay motivated is to set yourself smaller, more manageable,
and therefore more achievable, goals. You need to keep the bigger picture in
sight at all times, but by setting yourself smaller goals which you can more easily
achieve, you will find that you are more and more motivated to keep at it.
If you have read through or listened to the advice given by many people who
have an interest in losing weight or gaining more muscle definition, you will find
that they also advocate the same thing.
The difference to what they’re saying and to what I’m saying you should do, lies
in how I believe you should handle your motivation.
For instance, most of these worthy individuals would suggest that your motivation
should come from treating yourself when you reach a certain goal, the idea being
that you feel yourself more amenable to doing something if you know that there’s
a reward at the end of it.
Well, if you just sit down and think about it, it doesn’t really make sense. After all,
you’re doing this whole thing for yourself, not for anybody else. By rewarding
yourself for getting to your goals you’re more or less trying to bribe yourself into
staying the course. Sounds kind of silly, right?
Why do you want to bribe yourself to stay the course? Why do you want to give
yourself a pat on the back for reaching even the smallest of goals? Is this truly
motivation for you to keep going? Because if it is, you will find that ultimately you
are only fooling yourself.
If you really want something you will always find ways to stay the course and get
it done. On the other hand, by dangling a carrot in front of your face every time to
egg yourself to go further, you are cheating yourself of the true motivating
factors, not to mention the fact that the end goal when reached won’t necessarily
be as sweet.
I believe in motivation, and I believe that you should reward yourself for a job well
done – but only when appropriate. Reaching your goals should be motivation and
reward enough if you really want to get to your end goal.
This is why I feel that feel that rewarding yourself for reaching each and every
single one of your goals is not only a waste of time, but it also ultimately takes
16
something from the fact that you have finally reached your end goal.
In other words, you need to appreciate and celebrate each and every one of the
goals and targets that you reach, and reward yourself only for those goals which
were hard to attain, or which seemed unattainable.
In this way, you will find that your ultimate success is sweeter for it being
something that was hard won. And in this way, you will also find that you are
more and more motivated to see things through to the end.
Body fat index

This little thing, is not an invention of the twenty first century, it has been around
for longer than that. However, the only reason that it is gaining such prominence
as of late has to do with the more health conscious and figure conscious attitude
that most of us are taking these days.
This means that we actually care about what goes in our bodies, and ultimately
what happens in our bodies as well.
The body fat index then, is a scale invented by some person or other to
determine the amount of fat you are carrying around of your total weight.
It is in fact very formulaic, and with the advent of the internet and all of that, you
will find that you can very easily a body fat calculator online to help you find your
own body fat index.
This is in fact really helpful as although some people are heavy, most of their
weight comes from muscle mass, and not from fat.
Countless numbers of studies have provided a body fat index average for both
men and for women. It has been accepted that you will begin to see any type of
definition of your abdominal muscles only if you have a certain percentage of
body fat.
For women this is normally considered to be at about 13% while for men, this is
about the 10% range. This is why many people are so eager to find out about
their body fat percentage, so that they can then take steps to reduce it to an
appropriate number. However, there is a side note to this which you should take
heed of.
Although you do need to lower your body fat index in order to see any definition
whatsoever in your abs (hence the reason why so many people will tell you that
you can’t really get a six pack unless you have lost that belly fat), in order to stay
healthy you also need to maintain a certain percentage of body fat.
17
This means that if you go under a certain percentage of body fat, that you will not
be maintaining a healthy body fat index. And in some cases, since no one can
change their genetics, you will find that the bar for your own personal body fat
index is higher than the average number.
Remember, an average is just that – an average. It is not something which is set

in stone and it is not something which is going to be one hundred percent right
for you.
In order for you to stay healthy and maintain a healthy body fat percentage, you
might just have to give up the thought of getting six pack abs, and have to settle
for having a healthy, firm and flat stomach instead.
Get the proper amount of sleep

This might seem like a silly thing to say, but the truth of the matter is that many of
us just don’t get the right amounts of sleep these days. Long days at work, and
long nights at play (or work), means that we are left short of the required eight
hours of sleep.
But why should you be concerned with that, you ask, especially since you want to
get a six pack, not win a beauty contest, right? Well, the truth of the matter is that
without the right amounts of sleep on your side, your body just doesn’t function in
the way that it needs to.
Which, in turn means that you won’t be making the most of your day or your
training because your body is so sleep deprived, and this means that you won’t
be making the most of your workout.
Besides which, you will also find that being severely sleep deprived can prove
detrimental to your training as you might not be fully aware of what you are
doing, and thereby pose a danger to yourself.
Of course, with that much of sleep deprivation, you should be in bed, not doing
an intense workout, but there you have it, we will still do something as silly as
workout when we are do tired, even if this is not going to help us in any way
whatsoever.
The reason I mention it here is for the simple reason that between sleep
deprivation and stress from the daily grind of life, you are not getting as much
rest as you ideally should. And this in turn, makes it harder for your body to
recuperate when it needs to.
So, as far as you are able to, as far as you can, learn to get at least a good solid
18
six to seven hours of sleep even if not eight, and try and do away with the stress
– it’s simply not good for you.
You and exercise

This is it, up until this point we’ve talked and we’ve talked about it, but now it’s
time for you to do something about it. Yes, the time has come to put your money
where your mouth is, so to speak. It’s time that we need to get down to the true
nitty-gritty of the entire thing. We’re going to exercise.
Joy, I can all but hear you saying, in an ‘overjoyed’ tone of voice that manages to
convey your feelings exactly on that subject. However, the fact of the matter is
that unless you actually get down to it and do some exercise you will not get your
washboard abs. You will instead be stuck with something that looks like a jelly
roll.
Exercise is the key, and how you go about it is even more important than
anything else, especially in the beginning when you are still finding out how to
properly do these.
The following pages, I hope will give you a good idea of what you will be facing,
and in the section “Some exercises you can do”, you will hopefully get a good
idea about the type of exercises that you will need to do.
However, before we go further down that avenue, I would just like to say that I
have given only the most basic of ab exercises. These can be done in the
comfort of your own home, but they are not complete in and of themselves. To
get a full workout you will need to incorporate other things into your workout
regimen, and the best to find out what you should ideally do, is talk with someone
who knows what they’re doing.
Make it regular
This is one of the points where most people make their mistakes. They believe
that by working their abs everyday of the week, that they will develop their flat
stomach or six pack, faster. This is simply not the truth (see the section “Ab
training myths and facts” for more on this).
You don’t need to train every day to get the abs you want. This is not going to do
anything special for your abs.
What you ideally need to do, and this is reflected in many exercise routines and
things where the goal is to work out a group of muscles, is to exercise regularly
19
yes, but only about every other day, or even only three days a week (evenly
spaced out of course).
This means that you have roughly a day of rest in between those days when you
work out your muscles. You will find that any fitness coach worth his/ her salt will
tell you the same thing.
In fact, they will probably tell you that an ideal workout schedule would be
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, where you take Tuesday, Thursday and the
weekend off. Or something along those lines anyway.
As long as you make your exercising a regular thing, but regular as in you make
sure that you do your routines to your allotted schedule, even on those days you
barely feel like facing the world; not regular as in exercise every day.
Sure you want flatter abs, but unless you go about it in an organized manner you
will not get what you want as easily.
Take it slow
I believe that I might have mentioned this point elsewhere in the book, but I
thought to make a special mention of it here, because so many of us
underestimate – or rather, overestimate – our capacity for working out and end
up with all sorts of problems to deal with.
It is in order to forestall this that I have dedicated a small section of the book to
telling you to: Take it slow!
The last thing that you want to do when you are just beginning with your ab
training is to have to put it all on the back burner because you have injured
yourself just because you were overly zealous in your pursuits of getting your
exercises.
• So, first of all, I will tell you the thing which will hurt you the most: You are
no longer as young as you used to be, no matter what your heart and your
head is telling you. Listen to your body – it’s telling you something else.
This means that you can no longer perform the same feats of intense
exercise which you might have done when you were younger.
• And now that we’ve gotten over that, let’s move on to the next point. Even
if you are relatively young, if you have never before in your life even
thought of doing exercise, and if your lifestyle to date has been more
sedentary than active, you won’t be able to take up any intense forms of
exercise all at once. Your body will need time to adjust to the strain that
20
you will be putting on it.
• And bringing on the next point: Even if you are a fairly active person,
unless you have been doing regular cardio workouts, or weight training, or
some such similarly intensive exercising over the past few months or
years (not weeks), you will still need to give your body time to adjust itself.
• Or if you are more partial to sitting in front of the TV than taking a mile
long hike, if you spend most of your life indoors sitting in front of
something as mind numbing as a computer, or if you spend most of your
life trapped behind a desk, don’t expect miracles. You got it: Your body will
need the time to adjust!
• If you have only just recovered, or you are still recovering from an injury or
health condition which has prevented you from being even moderately
active for a few weeks or months (or even days), you will need time to
build up to your former fitness level.
The conclusion then which we have reached? Your body needs time to adjust to
the fact that it will be required to work harder than it probably has for some time;
and your stomach muscles can no longer have a free ride – they will need to
work for their supper!
You will need to gradually work yourself up to a high intensity exercise program
which will fully work your ab muscles the way they should be. Take it slow and do
what you need to do, don’t worry about the fact that you might not yet be up to
what you perceive as the standard.
For one thing, everyone’s body is different, and everyone’s body will have a
different schedule it runs to, so don’t try to do the difficult stuff immediately.
And for another thing, by pushing yourself far past your limits, you will be pushing
your body too far. Once in a while is alright, it’s when you begin pushing every
day that you can do a serious injury to yourself.
And although you do need to push yourself beyond your limits in order to
maximize your workouts, pushing yourself to the end of your limits is not
required.
So take it slow, and work your way up to doing a proper high intensity workout,
and without your even realizing it, you will find that you are exactly where you
want to be.
Have good form and technique
21
Going along with what I was saying in the earlier section, “Take it slow”, I also
have to say that one of the things which you need to do when doing your ab
exercises is to take the time to learn them properly.
Proper form and technique count far more in the long run, than doing a few
hundred reps of the same exercise all the time. This is why, just as you need to
take it slow to begin with, you should also take the time out to learn exactly how
you need to do the exercises, and also why.
Although you can very easily begin to do any of the exercises which I have given
below in the section, “Some exercises you can do”, unless you know for certain
not only how to do them, but why these exercises are important, you won’t be
getting the most benefit out of them.
And for those of you who, like I was, are skeptical about that little theory, let me
just ask you a question: Crunches are all the rage just now to work your abs, so
you probably have heard about them at least, but why are you doing crunches in
the first place? What’s so powerful about crunches that they will help you to
define your abs?
And more to the point, if crunches are so powerful, then why on earth do you
need to do any other exercise? Why do all these people who have well defined
six packs or eight packs, workout regularly on things other crunches as well?
If you know the answer to those questions, then can you see the validity of my
point? If you didn’t know them, and I’m assuming that some of you don’t know
them, you would think that performing a few sets of ab crunches would do the
trick for you, and that you would get a six pack in no time at all.
This is just not the case, because for one thing, you can’t spot reduce any part of
you that you are not fond of, and for another thing performing only one type of
exercise that targets only specific area, will not help you to get better abs.
In fact, you will probably not see much in the way of improvement over the
course of your exercises. If you didn’t know this, then you would continue to do
those crunches at a high number of reps, in the hopes that you would get flatter
abs.
Knowledge is power, and in this case, the knowledge of why you are doing what
you’re doing, and the knowledge of what you need to do to get flat abs, and how
to go about it properly, will get you to all the right places.
Some exercises you can do

All of these exercises should be taken as guidelines only. If you are really serious
22
about going through with them, then please do take the time necessary to consult
with a fitness expert and/ or your physician.
You will also want to take things slowly the first few times that you do these
exercises, especially if you have not been exercising for some time, at a gentle
pace to begin with. This is especially important for your health and safety.
So if you are going to go through with these exercises then take them slowly, at a
lower number of reps than you normally would and work your way up to
something more respectable.
To that end, doing only about 10-12 reps of each set1, and doing each set for a
max of about two times, is probably the way forward for you. Then, as you
progress further along, you will find that you can increase the amount of reps you
do as well as the number of sets you do.
One thing you should keep in mind however, is that at a certain point, doing more
and more reps and more and more sets isn’t going to do anything for you or your
abs.
When you come to a time when you can do about 20 reps and about 3-4 sets at
a time, you should quit while you’re ahead. The extra workout you think you’re
getting by doing more reps and more sets, isn’t going to do anything for you.
Another thing that you will want to keep in mind, and I do mention this elsewhere
in the book, is that you shouldn’t work your ab muscles more than 3-4 times a
week.
You need to give your muscles time to rest between workout sessions, and trying
to work them to the max (i.e. seven days a week) isn’t going to help you get your
six-pack any faster.
I believe that I mentioned this earlier as well. The exercises which I have given
below might all be ab training exercises, but without a complementary diet, and a
proper exercise routine which makes the most of your ab muscles, you will find
that it takes longer for you to get your washboard flat stomach.
These are exercises which can be done in the comfort of your own home, but I
believe that it always helps if you can add to these, with either weight training
exercises or cardio exercises or both.
1
A ‘rep’ is the shortened form for the word ‘repetitions’; and to do a certain number of reps,
means that you are doing a certain number of repetitions of a particular exercise.
A ‘set’ is comprised of a certain number of reps. Normally this is something easy to keep in mind,
like 5’s and 10’s, but it does depend on the person, and some people like to go by fours, (i.e. 4, 8,
12, etc).
23
With a proper training routine you’ll find that you will get your washboard stomach
faster than without these. To that end, one of the things which you should
consider is getting a proper fitness routine worked out so that you can more
easily reach your goals of getting flatter abs.
I would also like to note that all of the exercises which I have given below are
primarily floor exercises, with only a few exercises that are using an exercise ball.
As such, although I have said that you should lie down on the floor, for your ease
of comfort, you should use a floor mat or a mat-like object to cushion from the
floor.
The plank
This is a reasonably simple exercise to perform although you will need to practice
at it to get it right. The idea behind this exercise is that you are building up your
muscle endurance and stabilizing those muscles which you need to most.
What you need to do: The first thing that you need to do is to get into a position
as if you are going to do pushups. You know the one,
where your body is outstretched like a plank, supported by
your hands and your feet only.
Or, if you don’t know how to do push-ups and therefore

don’t know what the position is, try this.
First lie on the floor, face down, you should be flat as a

plank. Bring your hands towards your shoulders, bending
your arms at the elbows.
Firmly plant your hands on the ground next to your

shoulders, or just underneath if this is comfortable for you,
and place your feet so that only your toes are touching the
ground.
When you are in this position, take a deep breath and push
upwards using your hands and your feet as leverage to get
your body up in the air, still as straight as a plank.
Your weight should now be mainly on your hands, with your

feet acting mainly as stabilizers.
The trick to this exercise is that you don’t go down and then
come back up again like for the pushups. Instead you need
to hold in your stomach tightly and keep your back as
24
straight for as long as possible.
Breathe in and out evenly, making sure that you remember

to actually do so!
(And if you want, this exercise can also be done with an

exercise ball.)
Variation on the plank

Instead of getting into the classic pushup position for this exercise, beginners can
also use a variation on the plank, where instead of having all your weight on your
hands, you have your weight on your forearms.
What you need to do: And the way to do this, is to lie face down on the floor,
bring your arms up near your head so that your forearms
are lying next to your head, and bracing your weight on
these lift yourself up
You should be in a plank position but a much less

strenuous one this time, where you can now work your way
up to getting into the normal plank posture.
The crunch
This is the typical exercise that many people do to get washboard abs, but you
have to understand that doing a crunch by itself, won’t help you to achieve your
goal; neither will doing high reps of these, do you any good either.
The trick is to do a normal number of reps and sets, but to make sure that you
have proper form and technique while you’re doing it; then team it up with other
exercises which will help to make the most of the fact that you have performed
crunches.
So the first thing that you need to do, is to stop doing those high number of reps
of crunches every morning and get into a good workout routine.
I would also like to say that this is the first, most basic version of the crunch. As
you will see for yourself when you go further down the list of exercises, there are
a number of variations on the crunch which you can do, and all of which can help
you to achieve your goal.
What you need to do: Lay on the floor with your legs bent at the knees, your feet
flat on the floor. Bring your legs up as far as they will go,
making sure to keep your feet in front of you at all times.
25
Your feet shouldn’t be behind, or underneath, your
buttocks.
If you have the ideal place to do this, like a near a couch or

something similar along those lines, maneuver yourself so
that your feet are placed inside the gap between the couch
and the floor.
Ideally this should be as far as your feet can go, and the
bottom of your couch etc, should also be close to the floor.
This is so that when you start doing your crunches your feet
have something to lock on to so that you gain more
leverage to help keep you in one place.
Bring your arms up and in front of you, don’t place them

behind your head as this will more than likely lead to you
using your shoulders to pull you up into position rather than
your ab muscles.
When you are ready, take a deep breath and raise your
entire upper body, from the pelvis up, about 6-8 inches off
the floor. You have no need to go any higher.
Hold in this position for a count of ten and then, on an

inhale, slowly go back down.
Do this for about ten to twenty reps every time. More reps
are not necessary as I have mentioned before, but
technique and form are.
The crunch with the exercise ball

This idea is similar to that of the normal crunch, but with the added effect of being
able to put more pressure on your ab muscles to work harder.
What you need to do: Instead of lying flat on the floor, in this version of the
crunch you are instead lying with your back on the exercise
ball. Your feet should be planted firmly on the ground.
To get into this position the easiest method is to sit on the

ball with your feet planted firmly on the floor, then slowly roll
the ball back, moving your feet as required until you are in a
more or less horizontal posture, with the exercise ball
positioned at the small of your back.
26
At this point your thighs, and upper body should be parallel
with the floor, and your feet should be firmly on the ground.
Make sure that you are feeling stable while you are on the
ball; it’s also normal to have the legs planted slightly apart
for this exercise as it gives you more stability.
To work the crunch, do as normal. Keeping your hands on

your chest raise your torso – not your shoulders – about 6
inches above the horizontal. Hold your muscles in place for
a count of ten and then slowly lower yourself back to your
original position.
Ideally, to fully work your abdominal muscles, you need to

also work the muscles supporting your back, and this can
be done by performing your crunch, but having your starting
point about 35-45 degrees below the horizontal.
In other words, you should really bend over backwards

about 35-45 degrees, then move upwards into your crunch.
Reverse crunch
This is a little different to the normal crunch (hence why it’s called a reverse
crunch!), and you will need to put a little bit more effort into getting this done
because it’s not as easy as it seems to perform this properly.
What you need to do: Lie on the floor in the classic crunch position. If you want
you can place your hands behind your head. For this
exercise though I prefer to have my hands along my sides,
palms down.
For this crunch maneuver, you need to lift your knees in

towards your chest until they are bent at a 90 degree angle,
sort of like you’re seated in a chair with perfect posture.
You can then either cross your feet together to gain more
leverage if you want, or just leave them together.
When you are ready, begin your crunch by lifting your hips
off the ground, extending your legs towards the ceiling.
Hold for a count of five, slowly lower your hips back down
again, then repeat.
27
Remember not to use your legs to lift your hips up, you
need to use your ab muscles to curl in your hips.
Pelvis lift
What you need to do: You need to be lying flat on the floor face up, with your
palms flat on the floor next to you.
Your legs should be straight up in the air, either bent slightly

or straight, but your feet should be facing the ceiling.
To perform the exercise, imagine that you are balancing a

tray loaded with glasses on your feet, and raise your legs
straight up towards the ceiling.
Your hips (pelvis) need to rise along with this. Raise your
pelvis up as far as it can go, hold for a count of ten if you
can and then slowly lower your legs back down towards the
floor.
If you want you can even start this exercise in a crunch or

sit up position, as long as you first keep your legs extended
in the air when you begin to exercise.
Do this for a set of ten reps if you can, or twenty if you can
manage that.
The Bicycle
What you need to do: As ever, you will need to lie flat on the floor. Bend in your
knees towards you, keeping your feet flat on the floor.
Place your hands behind your head keeping your elbows

straight out, and bring your knees up so that your calves
(your lower legs), are more or less parallel with the ground.
Begin this exercise by moving your legs in a motion that is

similar to that of a person pedaling a bicycle.
When you bring your left knee inwards toward you, touch
your right elbow to your left knee; and when your right knee
comes in towards in the pedaling motion, touch your left
elbow to it.
28
In order to do this, you will need to slightly raise your body
up from the ground. This in turn will ensure that there is a
twisting motion on your abs, while the effort of keeping your
legs in the air will strengthen your abs.
Slow bicycle twist

This is a variation on the bicycle exercise, but with a twist, not literally of course,
just figuratively speaking.
What you need to do: You need to lie down on the floor stretched flat on your
back. Make sure that your spine is not arched away from
the floor as this can become uncomfortable for you during
the exercise, and might even cause you a back injury.
Lace your fingers behind your head loosely, keeping your

elbows pointing away from your head on either side.
Slowly bring up your left knee towards your chest, and at

the same time lift your upper body and slightly twist it from
the waist to touch your right elbow to your left knee.
Lower your left leg and your torso back to the ground, and
then perform the same thing with your right leg. Raise it so
that your knee is coming towards your chest, and raising
your torso once more off the ground, touch your left elbow
this time with your right knee.
Remember not to use your neck muscles to perform this

exercise as you could develop a neck strain, besides which
you won’t be doing anything at all for your abs.
Repeat a max of 20-25 times a set before moving on to

something else, and start with lower reps if you are only just
beginning your ab training routine.
Russian twist
This is one exercise which you will find really burns through you, especially with a
higher set of reps and performed along with other ab exercises.
What you need to do: Lie down on the floor in the classic crunch position, with
your knees drawn up, and your hands laced behind your
head.
29
Slowly lifting your upper body from the floor, twist from side
to side. In this instance, your right elbow should go towards
your left knee and your left elbow should go towards your
right knee.
In this instance your knees are stationary, not like the Slow
Bicycle movement we just went through in the earlier
section.
Torso twist
This is, if you will forgive the pun, a slight twist on the Russian twist!
What you need to do: You need to be in the same position as for the Russian
twist, basically in the classic crunch position. Your knees
drawn up, your feet planted flat firmly on the ground and
your hands laced behind your head.
Take a deep breath, and lift your upper body a few inches
off the ground, making sure that you are not using your
neck muscles to lift yourself.
Slowly move your body from the hip upwards, which is the
portion that you lifted up, from side to side. Use your ab
muscles to move your body sideways back and forth.
The trick to this exercise and what you might not realize
necessarily at first, is keeping your upper body clear off the
ground while you are doing this. It’s very easy to do this
exercise and end up with a carpet burn if you’re not doing it
properly!
Belly twist
This exercise is better for working your back muscles, and should be done with
care. I have also found that it is ideal if you do these in conjunction with
crunches. So do a set of crunches first, then move to this one, and then back
again to a set of crunches.
What you need to do: You need to be lying face down for this one, with your legs
behind you. If you have the ability to, anchor your legs on
something so that you don’t move around much when
you’re performing this exercise.
Place your hands behind your head, lacing your fingers if

30
you want to.
Take a deep breath, and lift your torso a few inches off the
ground, and keeping your focus straight in front of you twist
your body from side to side.
Do this for about 20 reps before stopping. Remember that

your upper body should not be touching the ground when
you do this exercise.
Hip twist
You will need a smaller exercise ball, or a round beach-ball sized ball to use in
this exercise, which is also durable and not liable to burst in the middle of your
exercise.
What you need to do: Lie down on the floor. Bring your knees up towards your
chest and place the ball between your knees. This is why
you need somewhat of a small ball, so that it fits
comfortably between the knees.
Next, spread your arms out sideways so that they are

perpendicular to your body (think of wings which are
outstretched). It’s also better if you keep your palms facing
down on the floor.
Taking a deep breath, slowly bring your knees, keeping the

ball firmly between them, sideways down to your right side.
Your shoulders and back should be firmly in contact with
the ground, and there should be no arching of the spinal
cord.
To accomplish this exercise you need to use your ab

muscles to move your hips. You’re not really moving your
knees, although it does look that way to begin with.
Vertical leg crunch

What you need to do: Lie on the floor, and this time instead of bending your legs
and bringing them in to you, extend your legs straight up
then cross them at the knees, not the feet, and hold that
position.
Next, perform a crunch as you normally would, using your

31
ab muscles to lift your shoulders up off the floor. You don’t
need to go all the way into this as you would a sit up, so
about 6-8 inches should do alright.
Hold this position for a count of three, let go, and slowly
lower your shoulders back to the ground again.
Vertical crunch
What you need to do: You need to lie on the floor, and place your hands behind
your head, lacing your fingers if you want to. I prefer just
having my fingers lightly touch the back of my head, as this
ensures I won’t be pulling on my neck to lift me up.
Next, extend your legs straight up towards the ceiling. Do

your basic crunch movement, lifting your shoulders off the
floor a few inches using your ab muscles. But this time you
will also need to press your heels towards the ceiling.
So, you’re raising your shoulders off the floor your using
abs, and at the same time you’re flexing your heels towards
the ceiling, creating what appears to be a ‘U’ shape with
your body.
Lower your shoulders and your heels back into a normal

position and then repeat, remembering to keep your legs
extended toward the ceiling all the time.
Long-arm crunch
What you need to do: Lie on the floor keeping your body flat on the ground, and
make sure that there is little to no curvature of your spine.
Then extend your arms up over your head still keeping

them on the floor, clasping your hands together so that your
arms will now be touching your ears.
You can then either bend your legs into a crunch position,
or you can keep them extended out, whichever you prefer.
When you’re ready, do a crunch, lifting your shoulders up

off the floor. Hold the position for a count of three and then
slowly lower yourself back down again.
32
Reach-for-the-sky crunch (on an exercise ball)
This is slightly different from the norm, and although it might seem a little difficult
at first, you will soon get used to it.
What you need to do: Sit on the exercise ball with your feet planted firmly on the
floor, about a shoulder width apart. Slowly lower your upper
body so you are parallel with the floor.
If this is too difficult a posture for you to maintain, or you

find that back is becoming strained, position the exercise
ball so that it is in the middle of your back, supporting you.
When you are in position and not about to fall off or roll
around, raise your arms up high above your head so that
your fingertips are pointing towards the sky (ceiling).
To do this exercise you need to contract your ab muscles

and lift your upper body up, so that your fingers are more or
less reaching for the sky.
Remember to keep them as straight as possible, and

perpendicular to your body. Hold this position for a count of
five and then lower back down again.
If you are able to, to get the most out of this exercise, go
back down below the horizontal so that you are bent slightly
backwards. This way when you come back up again you
will find that you are exercising your muscles even more.
Leg raises
What you need to do: Lie on the floor, so that your feet are extended in one long
straight line. Keep your hands alongside your body, palms
facing downwards.
To begin this exercise you will need to first raise your legs a
few inches off the floor and remember to keep them raised
throughout the reps that you are doing.
When you are ready to begin your exercise, slowly raise

your legs, keeping them together and in a straight line,
upwards until they are at about a 45 degree angle to your
body.
33
Try and hold this position for a count of five, and then very
slowly lower them back down again to their original starting
position a few inches off the floor.
This exercise is using your ab muscles to keep your legs in

the air and you will find that as you progress through more
reps it gets harder and harder for you to keep your legs
from touching the ground.
But this is what you must do, and you also need to make
sure that your spine is not arching as you are lifting and
lowering your legs.
This won’t be good for your spine, and if you feel yourself
doing this stop immediately, take a rest and try again.
Ideally the first few times that you try this, you should
concentrate on getting the form and the technique of the
maneuver right, so that you don’t hurt yourself and so that
you get the most out of this exercise.
Leg raise crunch

This is a slight variation on the leg raise exercise that we went through earlier,
and can really burn into your abs when you’re doing it properly.
What you need to do: Get into position as if you are going to be doing a Leg
Raise. Basically lie flat on the floor, and keep your hands
alongside your body palms facing down.
Just like in the Leg Raise you will need to keep your feet a
few inches off the floor at all times.
When you are ready to begin, raise your legs at a forty-five

degree angle to your body as in the Leg Raise, and at the
same time, also raise your shoulders off the floor a few
inches performing a crunch.
After a few reps of this, you will definitely feel the burn in
your stomach.
Side hip-lift
This one can be a little difficult to manage the first time around, but perseverance
34
will bring its own rewards, and you will find that if you just take the time you will
be able to do this exercise properly.
What you need to do: Get on the floor again, and this time, lie down on your side.
It doesn’t matter which side you start with because you will
then have to shift to the next side after the first set of reps.
So, if you’re lying on right side, you need to be atop your

right forearm. Brace your weight on this forearm. Your legs
should be also be atop one another, and your other hand
should be behind your head.
Keeping your upper body as straight as possible, you need

to lift your hips off the floor. That’s right your hips.
And as you’re lifting your hips your legs should still be

together. Don’t use your legs to lift your hips off the floor,
remember to use your abdominal muscles, so contract
them in order for you to get your hips off the floor.
Slow leg drop

What you need to do: Lie on the floor with your legs extended towards the
ceiling. Your hands should be behind your head fingers
laced together.
When you are ready, slowly drop your legs – as one –

towards the floor, but only a few inches. Don’t use your hips
or any other part of your part to move your legs, other than
that of the abdomen muscles.
This is the whole point of the exercise, for you to strengthen

your abdominal muscles, so, to get the maximum effect
from this exercise those are the muscles that you need to
use.
If you want, you can also lower your legs further

downwards, as long as you remember to keep your feet a
few inches off the floor.
Scissor kick
What you need to do: Lie on the ground face up. Keep your arms either
alongside you palms down, or behind your head.
35
As in the Leg Raise exercise, raise your legs a few inches
off the floor and hold in place for the duration of the
exercise. Remember that your feet should not touch the
ground when you are performing this routine.
Take a deep breath and move your legs in an up and down

motion that resembles a scissor. In other words, raise your
right leg up, then as this leg is going down raise the left leg
up.
Continue in this fashion using a smooth movement for your

allotted amount of reps before moving on to another
exercise altogether.
Exercise gear
Although I have a feeling that this section will become outdated even before you
can say the words “exercise gear”, I have nevertheless included it in this book for
the good reason that it’s an amazingly interesting subject.
For one thing, if we could just take all the different types of exercise gear which
has been manufactured throughout the years and place them all end-to-end, I’m
pretty sure you would find that they would all be able to circle the globe – twice
over!
Alright, so that might be an exaggeration, but not by much. Can you think of a
single time in the years gone by (of late that is), where you haven’t been
bombarded by some advertising campaign or other telling you to use their
amazing new ab shaping/firming/flattening product? See what I mean?
And now that you think about it, how many times have you been tempted to go
out and get that self same product for yourself because you know that with that
little buddy by your side you’re going to be able to get the firmer, flatter abs that
you’ve been yearning for most of your life.
Which really leads us to the truth, doesn’t it? Because at some point in time or
other you would have gone and given in to temptation (sometimes more than
once!), and this means that you probably have one or two of those “amazing” ab
shaping gadgets with you!
If however, you’re still pure and virginal in that department, if you have yet to
succumb to the devil inside of you prompting you to spend your hard earned
money, I will tell you exactly the same thing that I told a friend of mine when she
also spoke enthusiastically about getting a new machine.
36
I said, “Darla, if you know for certain that you’re going to be using that machine
every day, and that you really will benefit from it, then go out and buy it.
Otherwise, my advice to you would be to put yourself to a small test.”
And what was this test you ask? Well, it’s a very simple one really. The way I see
it, anyone can go out and get themselves the next wonder machine for abs, but
how many of us are going to use it on a weekly basis, much less on a daily
basis? Very few of us, really, if you go to think about it.
(And if you doubt me, just think about how many times in the past few weeks
you’ve used your own ab machine!)
To that end, my test is very simple really. Every day, take the time out that you
would if you had bought yourself your exercise machine (about 15-20 minutes)
and spend it doing some exercise, and keep doing this for about two whole
months.
If you can keep things up for this length of time without falling away from the path
for more than a day or two at a time, then you’re probably going to carry through
with it if you have an exercise machine as well, and you might as well go and get
yourself one.
And if, like my friend you point out, that in those two months of test that you could
have happily been using your exercise machine, well, you might be right, but at
least you didn’t waste the time doing nothing. You got a good start on your
exercise and ab firming routine and you now know that you have the
determination to carry through with it.
On the other hand, if like the millions of people, (and me!), who go out and
impulse buy their ab shaping machines, you might find that you have a clunky
machine taking up all the precious space in your home, and that you’re not really
using it.
In my opinion this test is a win-win situation any way that you look at it, because
if you think about it, to begin with you’re saving your money on an unnecessary
purchase if you find out that you don’t have the inclination to keep up with the
exercising for any length of time; and for another thing, you’re also getting a head
start on your ab shaping needs, by going through the small test.
If however, you’re just starting on your whole exercise jaunt thing, and are still
not sure whether you want to shell out all that money on an expensive exercise
gear, you always have the option of going for one of the lesser priced pieces of
gear such as the exercise ball, or something similar along those lines.
However, it should also be noted that any type of specialist ab gear, or ab
37
exercising equipment isn’t really all that necessary. You can do most of your ab
exercises without the benefit of these wonderful new gadgets.
You and your diet

There is unfortunately no getting around it. If you want to get flatter firmer abs,
then you will need to modify your diet accordingly so that you get the best
possible chance of getting a flatter firmer stomach.
This means that you will need to stay away from all those foods which you so
love to eat, and get onto a healthier eating scheme. And you know what that
means – no junk foods, no processed foods and no extraordinary amounts of
sweets!
Okay, so you can have a little of these things, sometimes. You just need to cut it
out from your diet so that you’re not eating these all the time! It’s as simple as
that.
Of course, you know that it’s not going to be that simple, just as you know that
you will have to struggle to stop yourself from giving in to temptation and binging
on those which are most bad for you.
But the best thing that you could do for yourself in trying to lose that tummy roll
and trying to get your abs up to shape is to get your diet under control. If you
have a raging diet, one that inflicts added sugars and mounds and mounds of
unhealthy carbohydrates and fats on your body, then it’s very doubtful that you
will ever see hide-nor-hair of that six pack you want.
It is this problem which I have addressed in this particular section. To that end, I
have included a few easy, yet healthy recipes which you can make, without too
much of a fuss or fanfare, and which, if you have a family to cater for as well, you
will find that your kids will eat as well.
Just remember to keep your diet under control, and to eat a healthy and
balanced diet, at least sometimes.
You will also want to eat regularly – no skipping meals like you used to. A healthy
balanced diet means that you also need to eat regularly. Or if you want, instead
of eating three square meals a day, why not try and eat about five to six smaller
meals every day.
You might find it easier to do this, and it’s a perfectly acceptable way of keeping
to your diet plans, not to mention the fact that it also has the added bonus of
keeping those snack cravings down to a minimum since you’re eating during
shorter intervals and therefore not allowing your blood sugar levels to drop.
38
It’s when your blood sugar levels drop that you will find yourself reaching for the
nearest food, which most times happens to be something which is also unhealthy
for you.
So in reality, by eating five to six smaller meals a day, you are keeping to a
regular diet, and you are also keeping your blood sugar levels at a stabilized
level which is important if you want to avoid snacking.
This is also helpful for you when you want to have an intense exercise session,
as having stable blood sugar levels is key to help your body work properly.
And since we’re on the subject, I would also just like to point out that you
shouldn’t eat before a workout session, or after a workout session, at least not for
a couple of hours yet.
You do need to be fueled up and have the energy to get through your workout,
but if you eat too near the time when you will be working out, you won’t have a
pleasant time of it, not to mention the fact that some people get cramps etc,
when they do this.
Fight the cravings

Listed below are a few foods which have been known to help you fight cravings,
and these you will find are very good at doing their job.
So if you’re not the type, or you simply don’t have the time to have five to six
smaller meals a day, just munch into one of these along with a simple tea or a
coffee (not laden with cream or sugar!), and you will find that you are better off
for it.
As long as you stay away from the processed sugars and the sugar laden drinks
and snacks, you should be fine really, but the few snacks which I have
mentioned, are good in and of themselves and can help you to get a good start.
• Apples – need I say anything more? (Actually fruits of any kind should be
alright as long as you remember to eat these in moderation as well.)
• Pretzels – one of the favored methods of snacking, this is good for you as
long as there is no added anything on it.
• Pine nuts – these are supposed to be really good for you and they also
help to keep you feeling full, but stay away if you have any nut allergies!
• Oatmeal – now I know for a fact that oatmeal is a something which is not
39
only good for you, but that is also tasty. And it works too, as long as you
don’t load it with too much milk and sugar.
• Cheese – a little goes a long way, and loading a thin slice or two of
cheese onto a whole wheat slice of bread is a great way to go about
getting a healthy snack.
• Air-popped Popcorn – again, this is good for you, as long as it is the air
popped variety, and as long as you don’t add loads and loads of butter on
to it.
• Corn on the cob – need I more? (Just keep the melted butter or salt to a
minimum if you must have some!)
• Homemade granola bars – these are easy and simple to make, and they
are a hundred times healthier for you than most of the store bought
varieties, for the simple reason that you know what exactly goes inside it.
• Chewing gum – now I know that sounds a little weird, but have you ever
tried chewing gum all day? Not only does your jaw hurt, but you also don’t
feel like eating too much. Use the sugar free variety of course!
• Green tea – so alright, other teas and coffees are also good for you to
drink as long as you don’t load them up with cream and sugar, but the fact
of the matter is that green tea is simply good for you, no question about it.
So while normal black tea and coffee can help you to control your
cravings, green tea can help you to control your cravings, and is also good
for you to boot!
Healthy recipes
Just to give you a good idea of what you can do in the kitchen, I have given you a
few dishes below which are healthy for you as well as being tasty. These are all
just ideas that you can use and expand upon to create fabulous meals, and
which won’t take up too much of your time.
You will also find that eating food that you cook yourself is far healthier for you,
than anything you could find in a restaurant, even one of the best. Besides which,
I at least, find that it’s therapeutic to cook, especially since I don’t take all that
long over it to begin with.
Just about all of the dishes which I have mentioned below can be cooked in a
half hour or less, so you can see the appeal of them, right?
40
Main dishes
This section contains a few main dishes which you can very easily cook, and
which can be eaten as a meal in and of them, or which can be joined with
another dish or two to make a larger meal.
Salmon pasta in parsley sauce

You will need: 450g Salmon fillet, skinned
2 cups uncooked Pasta of your choice
⅔ cup Crème FraÎche, (you can use the low-fat variety if you want)
6 oz, (a handful) of Cherry Tomatoes
3 tbsp freshly chopped Parsley
Grated rind of ½ an Orange, (finely grated)
Salt and Pepper to taste
How it works: You will need to first wash and dry out the salmon fillet, before
cutting it into roughly 1 inch cube pieces. Place this in a Pyrex dish
and cover with foil.
Next place a large pan of salted water on the stove and bring to a
boil. Add in the uncooked pasta, and place your Pyrex dish
containing the cut salmon pieces over this. Try not to cover the pan
completely as otherwise the pasta will boil over.
Cook both the pasta and the salmon for about 10-12 minutes,
before draining the pasta.
Take a large bowl and mix together the remaining ingredients

(excepting the tomato). Next toss in the pasta with the
now-cooked salmon, and the tomatoes. Add salt and pepper to
taste.
Cumin seed Rice

You will need: 100g of uncooked Rice
2-3 tsp Cumin seeds, (to taste)
200ml Water
2 Spring Onions, finely sliced
5-6 Shallots, finely sliced
A handful of finely sliced Leeks, either the leaves or the stalk will do
2 tbsp Olive Oil, or Butter
Salt to taste
41
How it works: Wash the rice first, then either use a rice cooker to cook the rice, or
place the rice in a large pan. You will need to add the water before
placing the rice on the stove. (The cooking times of the rice will
vary, so check the packaging for cooking times)
When the rice has cooked, fluff it with a fork to separate all the
grains. To find out whether the rice has cooked, take a few grains
onto the end of a fork and mush it.
(If you can still feel grain, then the rice needs to cook for a little
longer. If the rice only feels soft however, it is cooked and you can
take it off the stove.)
Take a wok, or a deep frying pan, and set it to heat over the stove.
When your pan is hot, add the oil or the butter along with the spring
onions, shallots, leeks and the cumin seeds.
Add a dash of salt to taste and fry in the wok until everything is a
nice golden brown color. Turn off the heat of the stove and then add
the fluffed up rice to this and mix in thoroughly.
Serve with your choice of side dish. Or if you want to make this is a
meal in itself, add in some cooked chicken breasts, or other meat,
veggie, or seafood of your choice.
Broccoli and Cauliflower Gratin

You will need: 1 small head Broccoli
1 small head Cauliflower
1 cup Cheddar Cheese, grated
⅔ cup plain Natural Yoghurt
2 tsp Breadcrumbs
1 tsp Mustard seeds
How it works: Wash both the broccoli and the cauliflower heads, then section into
small florets. Set a medium sized pan of water on the stove while
you are doing this.
When the water is boiling add salt to taste, and then add in the
broccoli and cauliflower florets to the boiling water. Lower the heat
and allow the florets to cook for about 3-4 minutes or until tender.
Do not keep on the fire for too long as this will overcook the broccoli
42
and the cauliflower. At this time, preheat your grill.
While the broccoli and cauliflower are cooking, take a mixing bowl
and mix the yoghurt, cheese and the mustard well, remembering to
season the mixture with pepper.
When the florets are cooked, drain them thoroughly and place in a
baking dish, or a dish you can place under a hot grill.
Spoon the yoghurt mixture over the florets, and then evenly sprinkle
the breadcrumbs over this. Place under the heated grill and keep
only until the breadcrumbs and yoghurt mixture turns a golden
brown.
Veggies
This section contains some vegetable dishes which are great either as stand-
alone dishes or as an accompaniment.
Pan-Grilled Bruschetta
You will need: 1 Ciabatta roll, halved the long way
125g soft cheese of your choice
1 large Tomato, sliced
1 medium red onion, sliced finely
2 large handfuls of chopped, mixed Salad leaves
A dash of Olive Oil
How it works: You will need to first set a grill pan to heat. Place your ciabatta
halves on the heated grill pan and lightly toast on each side.
While you are doing this, wash and toss the salad leaves into a
bowl, adding a dash of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.
When the ciabatta roll halves have been toasted, take off the heat,
and place the finely sliced red onions on top of each half. Next
place the tomatoes over the red onions, and then the salad.
Finally, crumble your cheese over the top of each half and sprinkle
with some olive oil and pepper to taste.
43
Healthy Bean dish
You will need: 200g Runner Beans (or any bean of your choice)
1 small Onion, sliced finely
2 cloves Garlic, crushed
½ tsp Chili Powder
½ tsp Turmeric
½ tsp Mustard seeds
2 tbsp Olive Oil
How it works: Wash and string the beans if necessary, then chop them into 1inch
length pieces. While you are doing this, set a pan on the stove to
heat up.
When the pan is hot drizzle the Olive Oil into the pan, add the
crushed garlic cloves and allow to brown gently. Next add the finely
sliced onion, allowing this to brown as well.
Before the onions turn fully brown however, add in the mustard
seeds, the chili powder and the turmeric.
When the onion is a medium golden brown color, add in the

chopped beans, the salt and the pepper.
Keeping the pan on a medium-high heat, cook the beans for about
5-7 minutes, or until cooked.
Do not cover the pan while the beans are cooking, and do not leave
on the stove for longer than necessary as otherwise the beans will
lose their vibrant green color.
Meats, Fish, Poultry

I believe the section header in this case gives you all the information that you
need to know! (And just in case it didn’t – this section has a few recipes for meat
dishes, fish dishes and chicken dishes.)
Grilled Salmon Steaks

You will need: 2 wild Salmon steaks, with about a thickness of 1-1½ inches
1 medium Onion, sliced
A handful of freshly chopped Parsley or Coriander leaves
44
Fresh Lemon juice, to taste
A dash of Olive Oil
How it works: Wash and de-skin the salmon steaks if possible. Set aside to dry
out and prepare the remaining ingredients. While you are doing this,
heat up a griddle pan.
When the pan is hot drizzle about 2 tbsp of Olive Oil onto it, then
add the sliced onion to it. Brown the onion, then take from the pan
and keep it separate.
While the onions are browning, take the salmon steaks and rub salt
and pepper over it. Next, add the salmon steaks to the hot griddle
pan. If necessary, drizzle some more olive oil over the steaks.
Allow the salmon steaks to cook for about 10-15 minutes depending
on the thickness of the steaks. Turn over the steaks when they are
cooked about halfway through. (This is noticeable in the change of
color of the salmon steaks.)
When the salmon steaks are nearly cooked, add the freshly
chopped parsley or coriander leaves. Add the onions at this point as
well as some more salt and pepper to taste if you feel that you need
it.
Just before taking off the stove add a dash of lemon juice and serve
hot with a side of baby potatoes in their jackets.
Grilled Chicken Breasts with Broccoli

You will need: 1-2 chicken breasts
1 large Tomato, sliced
1 small head Broccoli, separated into florets
4 Spring Onions, sliced
2 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Flour
1-2 tsp dark Soy Sauce
¼ tsp Chili Powder
¼ tsp Cumin Seeds
A dash of Lemon Juice
How it works: Wash and dry the chicken breasts, then cut into cubes roughly
about 1 inch in size. Place into a bowl and lightly flour the chicken
45
breast cubes.
Next place your griddle on the stove and heat. While this is
happening, prepare the remaining ingredients. When the griddle is
hot add the olive oil to it, then add the chicken breast cubes.
Allow this to cook for about 18-20 minutes turning occasionally so

the chicken doesn’t get burnt. About halfway into the cooking, add
the remaining ingredients into the griddle (except the dash of
Lemon Juice).
Allow to cook until both the broccoli florets and the chicken, are
done. Serve piping hot over a bed of hot steamed rice, or as meal
by itself. For greater taste, add some chopped red peppers to the
chicken while it is cooking.
Pepper Steaks
You will need: 4 Beef Fillet Steaks, sirloin will also do
1 cup readymade, jellied Beef Stock
½ cup Butter
3 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Brandy
1 tbsp, both Black and White peppercorns crushed coarsely
1 clove Garlic, halved
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
3tbsp freshly chopped Chives
How it works: You will first need to make a chive butter. To do this, take ¼ cup of
the butter and beat the butter until soft.
Then add the chopped chives and salt and pepper to taste, and
beat the butter again, this time to mix things in. When this is done,
shape the butter into a roll, wrap it in foil and place in the fridge.
Next, take the steaks, and brush over with the olive oil. Press the
peppercorns into both sides of each steak, and leave aside for the
moment.
Take a large frying pan, and brush both of the cut halves over the
pan, rubbing the cut sides over it. Place the pan on the stove and
add the remaining oil and the butter.
When the butter has melted and the oil is hot, add the steaks to the
pan. Fry the steaks for about 4-5 minutes on each side, keeping it
46
longer if you like your steaks well-done.
When the steaks are cooked, take them out of the frying pan and
leave aside for a moment. You will now be preparing the sauce to
go along with it.
Add the beef stock and the brandy, to the pan, bring to a boil and
reduce the whole by half. Your sauce is now done.
When ready to serve, take out the chive butter and cutting it into
four equal parts, place a pat of the butter over each steak then ladle
the sauce over the steak.
Lamb Kebabs with Cucumber Raita

You will need: For the lamb
1 kg lean, boneless Lamb, cut into small chunks
1 large Onion, finely chopped, or grated
1 Lemon, juiced, and grated for the rind
⅓ cup Olive Oil
1½ tsp Caster Sugar
5 fresh Thyme or Rosemary sprigs
3 Bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
For the Raita

1¼ cups Greek yoghurt
½ a Cucumber
1 Green Chili, seeded and finely chopped
¼ tsp Cumin powder
Salt and pepper to taste
How it works: Wash and cut the lamb into chunks, then place in a bowl. In
another bowl mix together the remaining ingredients for the lamb
kebabs, adding salt and pepper to taste.
Pour this mixture over the lamb chunks. Mix in thoroughly and allow
the meat to marinate in the fridge.
While the lamb is marinating, prepare the cucumber raita. Dice the
cucumber into small chunks, and place in a bowl. Add in the seeded
and finely chopped green chili to the cucumber and mix in well.
Add in the remainder of the ingredients for the raita and mix well,
adding salt and pepper to taste. Set aside, preferably in the fridge
47
until it is time to serve it.
When the raita is prepared, preheat your grill and take out the lamb
chunks from the fridge. Take a number of skewers and thread the
marinated lamb chunks onto them.
When all the meat has been threaded, place under the grill for
about 10 minutes, remembering to turn the skewers at least twice in
that time so the meat is cooked all over.
Garnish with rosemary and thyme if you wish, add some lemon
wedges and serve with the raita.
Get off that Plateau

A plateau is a very disheartening place to be, especially once you realize that
you are on a plateau, simply for the fact that a plateau can last for some time.
This is something that you’re going to have to be very careful about as it is very
easy to get stuck in one place, and not have anything happening whatsoever to
you even though you might be working as hard as you can.
A plateau in the case of exercising and working out, is the point at which all your
efforts have coalesced into this one moment in time and you are stationary, not
making any progress whatsoever towards your goals.
Many has been the time when an unwary person has been put off their goals by
a plateau. The thing that you need to do then – because you will reach a plateau,
it is inevitable – is to shake things up a bit.
Your body has become used to the routine you are putting it through, and is now
not reacting anymore to the workouts or the diet that you are doing.
It is at this point, when your body has become used to what you are doing, that
you will get into a plateau. This means that for the next few weeks at least, you
will need to do different things, give your body the need to function the way you
want it to.
So for instance, you might want to add hiking to your regular workout session, or
maybe you can go on a detox diet. As long as you can get your body out of its
rut, you will be fine, but be warned that it might take more than a few days or a
week or two to do this, just as it might take longer than that to see results again.
Just don’t give up on what you’re doing when you hit a plateau, because,
48
remember that if you work it right, you will only on that plateau for a short while.
Ab Training myths and the facts

This section deals with a few of the more outrageous beliefs that people are
harboring concerning abs, ab training, body fat and losing it.
When I first started on my own course of ab training, I have to say that I also
believed in all of these – it took time and experience on my part for me to realize
exactly what was the truth and what was cleverly masked words on the cover of
magazines, placed there so that I would be tempted to buy them.
And it worked, I will freely admit that I am a sucker and that I gave in and bought
into every promise that those magazines were making to me – that I could lose
my belly fat by spot reducing, that there were exercise I could do to get rid of my
love handles, etc., etc.
The truth of the matter though was far from what I was reading in these
magazines and things. The truth of the matter is that there are some things that
even you can’t do no matter how good your intentions are, or how strong your
determination is to do it.
Read on to find out about a few of the things that you thought was truth, but
which is in fact a myth brought to life by different people at different times and
which have stayed alive through the years.
Before we proceed any further, before you can raise your eyes at me and ask me
whether I know what I’m talking about, let me just ask you this question: how
many years have you been (unsuccessfully) trying to lose only that roll of belly
fat? I rest my case.
And if you have yet to begin that cycle of trying to believe everything that isn’t
true, then I urge you to ask someone else how long they have been at it. Ask
around enough and you will find your answer easily enough.
Everyone who has well defined abs, a six pack, or firm abs, will tell you that they
have had to work for it, and that they had to do an all over routine to get rid of the
fat, while the people who are still struggling to get rid of these will probably tell
you that they have been at it for some time now, unsuccessfully I might add. You
make the decision.
The myths and the facts
49
Below are five myths of ab training, and their facts. I have gone into more detail
over these immediately afterwards myth by myth.
• Spot reduction – a myth, it doesn’t really work, it’s all or nothing really
• Sit ups are good to define ab muscles – this isn’t true, they don’t help at all
• You need to do more reps to work your ab muscles – not true, you need to
work your abs the same as you would any other muscle
• There are exercises that target only your abs – this is not a possibility, you
will need to work your abs in conjunction with the rest of your body
• Your ab muscles are different to your other muscles – not really, they are
just the same as any other muscle group in your body.
Spot Reduction (doesn’t work)

The simple truth of the matter is that you cannot spot reduce. It is an impossibility
that has been fostered on us by the well meaning people who have something or
other to gain from this wrong impression.
You can try however much you want, you can struggle for as long as you want,
but you will not be able to spot reduce any single part of you, and this is the truth.
To lose weight, or to lose fat, you will need to exercise and you will need to do it
on a fairly regular basis, also taking into account the fact that your diet will most
likely need to change as well.
The verdict: There is no such thing as spot reduction, don’t fall for that old line. It
might sound like music to your ears, but it’s more like the call of a
siren instead of something that will be helpful to you.
Sit ups are (not) what you need

Contrary to everything that we have heard over the years, you will find that sit
ups are not going to help you get leaner abs. In fact, sit ups are more or less
redundant when you really go to look at things.
What do I mean? After all, aren’t ab crunches the same thing as sit ups? The
answer to that would have to be a resounding, No. Ab crunches although similar
to sit ups, are not the same thing.
50
On the face of it the principle is the same; it’s only when you go deeper that you
see the difference. To begin with sit ups require you to come fully upwards
towards your knees, whereas crunches only require you to lift a few inches off
the ground.
The difference lies in this fact; and the redundancy of sit ups lies in the fact that
going beyond a certain point, that is, raising your upper body up off the floor
beyond a certain point does nothing for your abdominal muscles, and in some
instances, if this is not done properly the sit up will work your hip muscles or
strain your back and shoulder muscles.
So, no, the sit up is not the same as the crunch, since the crunch relies only on
your ab muscles to pull you up, and doesn’t place extra strain on any other part
of you. To see how to do a crunch, go to the sections entitled, “The crunch”, and
“The crunch with the exercise ball”.
The verdict: Sit ups are not what you need to help you get better defined abs.
Crunches are the way to go!
More reps are (not) what you need

So you want to get better defined abdominal muscles and you think that doing
more sets of reps will be just the thing that you need. Wrong.
This is the very last thing that you want to do. To get better defined abs you will
need to do only a few sets of reps. Obviously, the minimum amount of reps won’t
cut it, but you don’t need the maximum number of reps either.
A certain number of reps for each different routine will do nicely. These will
naturally enough vary with the type of exercise routine that you’re doing, but you
might want to check out what I’ve said in the beginning of the “Some exercise
you can do” section.
As a general guideline that should do finely. Just remember that more doesn’t
necessarily translate into ‘better’.
The verdict: More reps are not what you need: they won’t do anything to enhance
your goal of getting flatter and firmer abs.
(No) Ab exercises for your belly fat

This is more or less the same thing as thinking that you have can spot reduce
your belly fat. The plain truth of the matter is that there is no one exercise or one
51
set of exercises which are going to reduce your belly fat, just as there is no way
that you can spot reduce your weight from the places that you don’t like.
In order to lose the weight, and in order for you to lose the belly fat, you will need
to exercise and have a nutritious and healthy diet. And this will mean that you
need to change your life around.
It doesn’t matter what any of the magazines that you find yourself helplessly
buying tell you, you cannot target one area of your body and hope to lose the fat
in that area.
The verdict: There are no exercises that you can do to reduce only your belly fat,
meaning that you will need to have a good all-over workout if you want
to lose the fat.
Ab muscles are (not) different

One of the things that people tend to believe whether consciously or not, is that
ab muscles are somehow different from other muscles in our body. After all, this
is why we treat them differently, right?
We try to spot reduce from our belly, we try to apply abdominal oriented exercise
and we believe that doing higher reps for our ab muscles will somehow or other
help to develop them faster.
Since we now know that none of this is true, the next thing that you need to do is
to take a good long hard look at your ab muscles (not literally of course!). If you
have managed to burn away the fat, then you know that by training your ab
muscles in a normal manner you will be able to get if not a six pack, at least
firmer abs.
This means that you can train your ab muscles the same as you would your other
muscles.
The verdict: No, your ab muscles are not different from your other muscles and
you need to work them in much the same way as you would any other
muscle group.
Things you can do

As you might have noticed throughout this book, I have emphasized the fact that
you will first need to lose that belly fat before you can even begin to show off your
new set of well-defined abs.
52
Without losing this belly fat no matter how hard you try to achieve your six pack
you can be assured that you will not come close to the perfection (take to that to
mean flatter abs), that you want.
To that end I have included in this section a few things that you can do while
you’re at home to start the process of losing that belly fat.
These can very easily be done in conjunction with your other exercises and are
also a great way for you to get into the spirit of things if you’re not too keen on
exercising all that much (despite the fact that you want a firmer, flatter stomach
which will be the envy of all!)
The List
Below is the list of things that you can do on an everyday basis to help you lose
that roll of belly fat or those love handles which are a definite detriment to your
goal of gaining firmer flatter abs. Read through them and try to incorporate as
many as you can into your life.
Most of these will complement your existing ab workout routine, or if you have yet
to motivate yourself into starting your routine, you might even find yourself being
motivated to start it as soon as possible.
These small things which I have mentioned below can also help you to stay
motivated throughout the time when you are trying to define and shape up your
abs; the reason for this being the very simple one of the inherent rewards you will
get when you see the outcome of things.
(For more on motivation read the section entitled “Motivation and rewards”).
• Get smaller plates and glasses etc.
• Don’t skip meals
• Cut down on the snacks
• Stay healthy – walk whenever you can
• Eat more proteins, less carbs
• Do eat foods high in fiber – even if they are carbs
• Exercise whenever you can – even when watching TV
53
• Try washing the car yourself, or even mow the lawn!
• Work out in spurts
• Avoid foods high in sugars or sugar substitutes
• Eat healthier snacks if you must
• Stick with low-to-no calorie beverages
• Don’t go food shopping on an empty stomach
• And when you do go shopping, stay away from the family-sized packs
• Go brown or whole wheat – stay away from processed foods
• De-stress and get your beauty sleep.
• Eat your fruits and veggies
Get smaller plates and glasses and things

This way you will find that even though you might like to eat a heaping plateful of
food, you’re definitely eating less than if you continued with your larger plates.
Alternately you can always get lighter, brighter colored plates, as it has been
shown that you tend to eat less with lighter colored plates than with darker
colored ones.
Don’t skip meals

This is probably one of the very last things which you should do to yourself.
Starvation in any form or manner is not going to help you to lose that roll of belly
fat, nor is it going to aid you to get flat firm abs.
You need to eat your meals properly without skipping and you need to eat them
in a balanced manner. The idea behind this being that you will have enough
energy, that your body will have enough energy, to see the day through without
falling apart at the seams.
So if you want to be able to get flatter firmer abs which are the envy of everyone,
and if you want to continue on your exercise sessions to do so, then I strongly
54
suggest that you get back to eating regular meals.
And the good thing about this, you will find, is that you don’t even need to eat
three square meals a day. You can space things out so that you’re eating
between five to five to six smaller meals a day instead of three heavy meals.
Just remember not to eat immediately before or after a workout session!
Cut down on the snacks

This is one of the things which you will find can help you to lose quite a
significant amount of that belly fat, or even if not help you to lose that belly fat, at
least you will have the assurance that you won’t be putting on any extra weight.
To that end, the more you cut out the sugars and the added fats which are found
in abundant qualities in most popular snacks and things, you will find that you are
cutting out quite a significant source of fat-inducing, weight-gaining foods from
your daily diet.
Of course, if it were that easy you wouldn’t need me to tell you about it, nor for
that matter would you have that roll of belly fat on you!
So, since we can freely acknowledge that cutting out the snacks from our diet is
not going to be the easiest thing in the world, I think we can also take things one
step further and not quit the snacks cold-turkey.
The main reason for this being that you will almost definitely find yourself going
right back on to the snacks and forgetting all your good resolutions.
The best thing that you can do would be to take it slowly, remove one snacking
temptation one after another, in an orderly fashion.
So if you know that you like to snack at odd times of the day, the first thing that
you need to do is to stop that round of denials that you’re going through and
admit to yourself that you are snacking. Once you can admit that to yourself, you
will then be able to go about the business of trying to reduce your snacking
habits.
And the best way to do this is to exorcise the snacking need from your diet one
snacking-urge at a time.
So for instance if you know that you like to have a snack between breakfast and
lunch, try and change things around so that you’re not snacking so much, or so
that you’re snacking on something that’s healthy, like a fruit.
55
Although it sounds easy, it’s not going to be all that easy, but speaking as a
former voracious snacker, I can say that the liberation I now have from sugar is
really quite...liberating to tell you the truth!
Stay healthy – walk whenever you can

Another good way to shed the pounds is walking. Walk wherever you can
whenever you can, it’s as simple as that. Without having to add more exercise
into your normal routine, walking will give you that much needed energy boost to
help you lose those rolls of fat.
Of course, walking by itself won’t help you to lose the excess fat you might be
carrying around. You will also need to bring other factors into the equation to
accomplish this task, but it is a good way to start, especially if you have little to
no time left over to exercise the fat from your stomach area.
And one of the easiest ways to integrate walking into your life is to force yourself
to do it. Most of us these days are so used to taking the car even to go down to
the corner shop, that we forget we have the ability to move our limbs freely.
So the next time you automatically reach for the car keys when you have to go
down the road to get something or do something, think twice about it – more to
the point, think about the exercise you will be getting by leaving the car at home.
Or, if you really want to milk it for all it’s worth, try parking the car a distance
away from your destination so that you have to walk in to wherever you have to
go, thereby ensuring that you also have a walk back to your car as well.
Eat more proteins, less carbs

Now, this is not necessarily something that every nutritionist will agree on, but it
can’t be denied that eating more proteins is better for your efforts at building up
muscle mass, and losing excess fat.
Eating more protein based foods, and less carb based foods is better for you in
the long run than sticking to your normal carb laden meals. It might be difficult for
you at times to leave off on the pasta and the breads, but you will find that the
end result is well worth it.
The other thing that you will want to take into consideration when planning your
meals is that you will need carbs in your diet, just not all the time and definitely
not in vast quantities.
There are ways and means of integrating carbs into your diet though in a way
56
that won’t make it difficult for you to gain your six pack. And although it might
seem like a pain to begin with, finding out which carbs are actually good for you
will help you in the long run. Because, yes, that’s right, there are carbs which are
considered good for you.
To live a healthy life you need to have a healthy diet, and although you don’t
necessarily need to have the recommended ‘well-balanced diet’ to help you stay
fighting fit, you will need to make sure that you get the proper nutrients into you
at the right time. Otherwise you might find yourself facing more problems than
you need.
So eat more proteins, and less of the bad processed carbs, but also remember to
eat healthily, and in a way that will give you all the nutrients and energy that you
will need.
Nutrition supplements
One of the things which I wanted to address before we finish with this book, is
that of nutrition supplements. I don’t rightly know how you feel about these
things, but I know that there are some things which I wouldn’t do to myself in
order to get a better looking body, and one of them is taking nutrition
supplements or protein shakes or anything else along those lines.
To begin with, I wouldn’t take any of these things without first checking things out
with a qualified nutritionist or doctor to advise me on whether or not what I was
taking was good for my body.
It doesn’t matter what it says on the label, or what the company selling these
protein shakes and things will tell you, you need to remember that it is always in
their best interest if they can sell as many of these things as possible, and in this
case it might even go to stretching the truth a little bit, so that you get entirely the
wrong idea of what is right for you, and what’s not.
It’s really as simple as that when you go to look at it. So before you go around
changing your entire diet to encompass these nutritional supplements, talk with
your doctor beforehand.
Get a good idea about what exactly you’re going to get from taking these, and
what the long term effects will be if you continue to use them. Remember to be
wise about what you put in your body and you will definitely come out the winner
in the long run.
Do eat foods high in fiber – even if they are carbs

And to go along with the section that we just finished, I would also just like to say
57
that you should also eat foods which are high in fiber. These might, you will find,
be carbs, but as long as they are all natural with only the most minimal amount of
processing done to them you will be able to eat them without having to think too
hard about things.
Exercise whenever you can – even when watching TV

So you hate exercise, who doesn’t? If you didn’t hate it – or at least have a
dislike for doing it on a continuous basis – then you wouldn’t be here, right? You
would already have your six pack abs, and already working your way towards
and eight pack, or something similar along those lines.
And now that we have that out of the way, perhaps you might like to take a
minute to examine the benefits of exercising – even while you’re watching TV.
The thing is, and you should be very familiar with this refrain by now, you do
need to work to get your abs, and saying that you missed a workout session (or
two or three) simply because you didn’t have the time to get to it today, is not
going to cut it.
If you watch TV you have the time; if you spend your time lazing the hours away,
you have the time; if you regularly go to a restaurant for lunch, or if you always
eat out with your friends, you have the time.
It’s all a matter of perspective you see. You have the time, you just need to make
the most use of what you have. So you can’t say that all you have is five minutes
and that you can’t accomplish anything in that time. Learn to use even the five
minutes that you have to do something constructive.
If we take the above list off examples where I cited you as having time, you will
see what I’m talking about, so here goes.
If you watch TV – this is it, the one invention of the twentieth century which has
made a blithering idiot out of even the most sane and sensible
person.
Just think about it, how many times do we sit mindlessly in front of
the television whiling away the time while we have a lunch, or
dinner, or even breakfast, or a snack? How much time have we
spent in front of the TV because we ‘didn’t have anything else to
do’?
Too many, right? Well, this is just it, if you spend at least part of the
time that you’re sitting there watching TV, on your feet instead of on
your backside, you would find that you are actually doing something
58
productive, and wouldn’t that be a refreshing change!
If you prefer to while away the hours doing simply nothing – then you most
definitely have the time to get off your backside and get it into gear.
Let go of your apathy, let go of the notion that you need to have a
well deserved rest after working the entire week.
Your main goal now is to lose weight and get that six pack of abs if
you can manage it, it’s not to reward yourself for getting through
another hectic week of work.
Get in as many reps as you can of a low intensity workout if you

want, or do the high intensity workouts, whatever you want, as long
as you are shaking your body and breaking into a sweat.
If you eat out, or otherwise use your car to get you places – then try this cool new
invention called walking! That’s right, walking (I’ve covered this in
the section called, “Stay healthy – walk whenever you can”).
You might find that it’s of great benefit to you, and that you are
actually getting something of a workout.
Take the stairs when you can – avoid the elevators or the
escalators; if you’re going out to lunch, try walking there instead of
driving, getting a cab, or even using the subway.
Do anything that moves you around more than you normally would
and you will begin to see a difference pretty soon.
Try washing the car yourself, or even mow the lawn!

We all know just how easy it is to go down to the carwash and let the machines
do the job for you¸ but have you ever thought that by doing this you’re letting a
golden opportunity pass you by?
Have you ever thought of the workout that you could be getting by washing your
car? Actually, scratch that thought, you probably have, which is why you end up
going to the carwash, or paying some eager beaver kid from around the block to
do it for you.
Well, since your goals have changed and you now want flatter, firmer abs, or a
six pack if possible, you should take advantage of all the opportunities that are
presented to you to get a good workout going, even if it is in the form of washing
your car, or maybe even mowing the lawn, or how about washing the windows on
the side of your house?
59
There are many different exercises which you can get from doing those dreaded
household chores which you would rather palm off to somebody else, and I have
to say that washing the car is one of them!
So get out there, get the bucket and the hose ready and wash down your car.
You will have saved some money, ended up with a gleaming car and a good
workout into the bargain. Could it get any better?
Work out in spurts

Another easy way to get a good workout into your schedule and not break too
much of a sweat, is to workout in spurts. That’s right, in small bursts of intense
energy workouts, interspersed with short rest periods.
This is less strenuous on the mind, more than anything else, as you are not
carrying on for long minutes on end. The idea is for you to get a better workout
that you can actually benefit from without taxing your will power as well.
So for instance, if you like to walk, or even jog, take it relatively slowly for the first
minute or two then go into a high intensity walk or jog for about one or two
minutes, slow down and go slowly again for another minute or two, before
speeding up once again.
Try and keep this up for about fifteen minutes or so and you will almost definitely
begin to feel the burn. This is also a good way to spice up a dull and boring
exercise routine which will ultimately stop being challenging after you become
accustomed to it, and which will lose its impact after a time.
Avoid foods high in sugars or sugar substitutes

Basically you need to stop snacking and picking on foods that are bad for you
such as candy bars, too much chocolates, ice creams, cakes, sugary drinks etc.,
and start snacking on things which are good for you, such as those which I have
mentioned in the section, “Fight the cravings”.
But you will find that by eating sensibly you will be able to cut down on the added
sugars and foods which contain added sugars. Although, it must be said, that
sometimes you will need to search for the added sugars as they will be disguised
in things such as the words, ‘corn syrup’ fructose, glucose, sucrose, etc.
These products will never tell you that they contain sugars, but you as the person
wanting to get flatter abs, will need to be on the lookout.
60
You will also want to keep a weather eye on foods and things which are
processed or prepackaged and which tout themselves as being healthy and good
for you.
Sometimes, it’s these foods, for which we often pay through the nose, that are
bad for you, not their healthy un-processed counterparts, so watch what you eat
and make sure that you’re not getting added sugars into your diet which you’re
unaware of.
Eat healthier snacks if you must

And if you must eat snacks or that craving for food just gets the better of you, try
and eat healthier snacks and things. Stay away from the unhealthy alternatives,
please!
Stick with low-to-no calorie beverages

This is actually going along with what I said earlier, about avoiding sugars as far
as possible, and sticking with low to no calorie drinks and things that can help
you to lose weight that much faster.
It will also help your goal of reaching flatter abs, since your body now won’t be
laden down with sugar laden drinks and things. The same applies to your normal
daily cups of tea and coffee as well.
You know that you love to have more than one cup of tea or coffee a day, and if
this is the case, then you are far better off sticking to black tea or coffee, or going
in for the low calorie variety – as in less-to-no sugar, and very little cream or milk
if you must.
On the other hand, if you are used to guzzling your tea and coffee in their
unadulterated states, then you will find that you have the perfect no-calorie
beverage to help keep you going through the day.
Don’t go food shopping on an empty stomach

This is just sensible thinking. If you go food shopping on an empty stomach, you
will soon find that your shopping cart is piled high with all the foods that you
shouldn’t eat, and which you know will find their way inside you before you even
set foot inside your car!
So don’t go food shopping on an empty stomach, fill up on something healthy

before you go, even if it is only a fruit and a coffee if you can’t bring yourself to
eat a full meal.
61
Stay away from the family-sized packs
And another thing that you should remember when going food shopping is to
avoid those out-sized extra large family packs. They might be good on your
pocketbook, but in the long run they will be bad on your health.
Why is this you ask? Well, think of all those times when you did give in to the
frugal side of your nature, and ended up with family sized packs of your favorite
foods. Isn’t it true that you ate your way through that large pack in next to no time
at all, and isn’t also true that you felt guilty about it later?
Unless you have kids and you need the family sized packs, and you know that
you won’t be eating those types of foods, stay away from the family sized packs.
Instead, and this holds true even if you have kids, go for those individual sized
packs, or the packs which are the smallest you can find of any of your favorite
foods.
In other words, if you know that you’re going to be eating it, then get the smaller
pack. This will cut down a lot on your diet budget when the time comes!
Go brown or whole wheat

If you can eat brown breads or rice, or whole wheat breads etc, you will find that
you are much better off for it. What more can I say that hasn’t already been said
about it?
It’s healthy, it’s tasty, and it’s filling. It will also help you to keep to a healthy diet
which will help you to keep to your goal of getting firmer abs.
De-stress and get your beauty sleep

That’s right, we covered this subject earlier, but here it is again. That just shows
you how important it is, right?
You need to get adequate amounts of sleep otherwise you will suffer for it, just as
you will find that you are suffering because you are overstressed. And if you find
that sleep is elusive try some of the various methods available to get some of
that sleep (like de-stressing!)
62
Eat your fruits and veggies
There is no better way to get the nutritious diet that you want, than by eating your
fruits and veggies. I realize this is something that sounds like your mother would
tell you, but it is nevertheless the truth.
So eat your fruits and veggies – in the proper quantities of course – and you
really will grow big and strong! Or at least, you will be helping yourself to get
better defined abs.
Stay safe
And lastly, considering that sports injuries are very common and because it’s all
too easy to get hurt during the course of your endeavors, I have compiled a small
list of things which you can do to stay safe, and which will help you get further in
your goals without getting hurt in the process.
This is only a small list of the many things which can go wrong when you are
undertaking to exercise and get fit, so always be careful when you are working
out and if in doubt about something or if you feel that something isn’t right, then
stop and make sure that everything is alright.
Remember to never overstrain, or overreach yourself more than you can

comfortably go. Think smart, take things with a large dose of common sense
thrown in, and you will find that you are the better off for it.
• Always check your gear
• Don’t overdo it
• Always remember to support your spine
• Have a healthy body fat index – don’t lose more than you should
• Consult with a trained physician or fitness coach beforehand
• Always drink water
• Don’t forget to eat to keep your strength up
• Don’t start with the difficult stuff
• Dress appropriately
63
• Mix and match your exercises
• Remember to warm up beforehand
• Avoid straining your neck when doing crunches
• Take rests where appropriate
• Remember to breathe properly
• Don’t be ashamed to ask for help
Always check your gear

Always check your gear to make sure there isn’t anything wrong with it, and to
make sure that everything is in its proper position. This is a good rule of thumb to
follow and is something along the lines of the pre-flight check that pilots do to
make sure that the planes are in working order.
It’s absolutely no use foregoing this one crucial step just because you performed
it the day before. Things do wear out, and over time you will find that not even
the toughest is immune to a little wear and tear.
This means, that things like lose screws and bolts can pose a serious threat to
your safety, and this in turn means that checking your gear the day before or the
day before that, and not checking it before your new session, is simply not good
enough.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew

If you feel that something isn’t right with you, take the time out to make sure that
you’re still fighting fit.
Don’t push things too far when you feel yourself becoming tired, and don’t
overstrain yourself in effort to reach a goal. By doing this you are not making
things better for yourself, but you are in fact making things a lot worse on
yourself.
The very last thing that you want to do is to overstrain your muscles and
succumb to injury, because besides being annoying and painful you will also find
that it will put back your timetable of getting a flatter stomach since you now have
to get better before fully resuming your ab training.
64
Always remember to support your back
This is one safety tip that it is important for you remember. Without adequate
support for your back, you will quickly find that you are straining your back and in
the process setting back your goal to reach a six pack of abs.
If you know that you are going to be doing exercises that will strain your back, or
if you feel your back becoming strained while you are in the middle of your
workout, stop immediately and alleviate the stress that you are feeling.
There are many things that you can do to achieve this, and some of them have
their roots in yoga. Indeed my favorite stretching exercise to work the kinks out of
my back is one that I use at any time if I feel that my back is strained. It works
wonders for me in ‘smoothening’ me out.
I have given below the directions on how to do that and another simple exercise
to stretch out your back muscles, but remember that you should ideally talk with
a fitness coach or someone similar to get the best possible advice about
exercises that are good for your back, even simple stretching ones, because
after all, the last thing that you want to do is to strain your back.
A couple of back stretching exercises

What you need to do: For this first exercise, you need to lie on the floor – it
needs to be a hard flat surface – or on a mat on the floor,
face down.
Bring your hands up next to your head or shoulders,

whichever is more comfortable for you, palms down.
Take a few deep breaths to even out and regulate your

breathing, and then bracing your weight on your hands,
take a deep breath and raise your torso (upper body),
keeping your lower stomach are, pelvic area and lower
body firmly on the ground.
In this position you head should be looking upwards, your

spine should be slightly curved and your weight should be
on your hands.
Hold that stance for a count of five seconds – along with

your breath – then slowly exhaling through your mouth,
lower yourself slowly to back to the ground.
65
Wait for another count of ten seconds and go through it all
over again, this time holding your breath for ten seconds if
you can.
I tend to do about four of these as it is incredibly calming

and soothing to my mind as well as my body, increasing the
amount of time I hold my breath each time.
But you should only do as many as you feel comfortable

with, and remember to hold in your breath only for a short
time if you are not used to it.
The other benefit that you gain from this stretching exercise
is that of a calm mind. This is mainly where the deep
breathing comes in, as it helps to focus your mind so that
you get more out of your exercise than if your mind were
flitting around every which way.
What you need to do: For this stretching exercise you need to be on your hands
and your knees, basically on all fours. Keep a straight back
– no slouching or arching.
As in the earlier exercise, regulate your breathing so that

your mind is relatively at peace and not wondering whether
or not you have time for a quick shower before you have to
move on to your next stop!
Inhale, and exhale. Inhale, and exhale. Take a deep breath,

and arch your spine downwards, tilting your head upwards
so that you are gazing at the ceiling.
Hold for a count of ten and then exhale and reverse your
position, so that now your back is arched upwards,
somewhat reminiscent of frightened cat.
Do this a few times until you feel your back muscles

loosening up, or at least for about four to five reps.
Don’t lose more body fat than is safe for you

Although you might be tempted to lose more body fat than what is considered to
be your norm, you might want to be careful on that score, since losing too much
body fat, will be bad for you, and can lead to health problems.
66
If you’re not sure what a healthy body fat percentage is for you, then ask your
doctor. Remember that knowledge is power, and knowing what percentage your
body fat should be at, will help you to maintain this so that you can stay healthy
while trying to achieve your goal.
Consult with a trained physician or fitness coach

before hand
I’ve said this before, and I will say it again. You should consult with someone who
knows what they’re talking about when it comes to physical fitness. This person
should ideally be a trained and qualified person who does these things for a
living.
Don’t think that just because you have read all the books and because you have
attended a few fitness classes and things, that you know all there is to know
about getting flatter abs and about your body.
You won’t know the half of it, and by trying to do things without having the full
picture at hand, you could be doing yourself a serious disservice.
Remember that although knowledge is power, having only a little knowledge and
thinking that you know everything, can be dangerous, not only to yourself but to
others as well.
Always remember to adequately hydrate yourself

It’s a very easy thing to forget to drink water when you’re having a heavy workout
session, but unless you drink plenty of water, you could find yourself in heaps of
trouble.
Just think about it, when you work out, you sweat. And when you sweat, you lose
water (among other things), so if you don’t replenish the water that you’re losing
your body will feel this and in most cases make this fact painfully known to you.
Loss of water during workouts can lead to all manner of problems, and really,
isn’t it better if you just drink some water, or at least a sports drink to replenish
your body?
So remember to drink enough water, but I also have to say, don’t guzzle it down
like it was going out of stock. Too much water in one go and you could find
yourself in trouble when you begin your workout again.
67
And don’t forget to eat!
That’s right, your body needs fuel on which to run, and in this case, ‘fuel’ equates
with ‘food’. You need to eat in order to survive, and you need to eat well. And the
same applies if you want to be able to sustain a good workout as well – you need
to eat.
No, you shouldn’t eat just before going into a workout session, that’s just not
going to end up with good news for you. But you do need to eat, and you should
think about eating at least two hours before your next workout session.
Oh, and although I have mentioned this earlier, don’t eat immediately after a
session either. You should wait a couple of hours before heading into the nearest
fridge!
Don’t jump into the deep end to begin with

Take things slowly when you’re first beginning. It’s all well and good to try and
reach for the stars with your workouts, but trying to do that in the very beginning,
especially if you are not the fittest person on the planet will only lead to trouble.
So don’t try to fit in all the reps and all the exercise the very first times that you
begin your workouts. Take things slow, do the maximum number of reps that you
can comfortably do without overstraining yourself, and live to fight another day!
You will also find that if you go into this with all guns blazing, that your
enthusiasm will more than likely fizzle out before you go much further when you
find that you’re laid up in bed unable to move a muscle because you overdid it
the day before.
It’s always easier to start something and then continue with it, than it is start
something, stop for time to recuperate and then have to start almost from scratch
once more because you lost a few days recuperating.
Dress appropriately
Need I really say more on that subject? Even if it’s below zero outside, if your
house is like a sauna, are you going to dress up in your winter clothes? No, you’ll
dress in your summer clothes. This is called dressing appropriately.
Now, you might think that this was not a necessary point that I needed to make,
but the truth of the matter is that I have seen many people come dressed to the
gym in clothing which would be more appropriate to a day in the park – having
68
tea with royalty.
So, yes, there are people who come to the gym prepared to have a ‘workout’
wearing clothes which are totally inappropriate for the task.
I’m not saying that you should wear clothing which is all the rage and thought of
as being appropriate for the gym or anything else that is the ‘in’ thing right now.
No, I’m saying that you need to wear clothing which is lose, and which is easy for
you to move around in, yet which won’t get caught up in machines and things,
and which won’t trip you or anyone up for that matter.
Your body should be able to breathe through the clothing, and you should be
able to sweat freely through your clothing. Wearing something that sticks to you
like a wetsuit and which also acts like one, is not going to help you at all.
If you feel that you are trussed up like a turkey, or that you can’t breathe because
of the clothing you are wearing, then there is something wrong with it. You need
to go find something else before you pass out from lack of oxygen.
I personally find that a pair of my oldest sweats or jogging shorts, a tank top and
a sweat shirt, gets me through the days when I need to do my workouts. If I need
to go outside while I’m working out such as jogging or walking and the day is
cold, I layer myself appropriately so that I can peel off the layers as I get warmer.
It all depends really on what you want, and as long you are sensible about what
you wear when going in for a workout, anything should go really – you don’t need
bright colored spandex or Lycra to get you through the day.
Mix and match your exercise

Doing this, mixing and matching your exercise routine every time that you have a
workout session, means that you won’t get bored with it, and you won’t become
so used to it, that you do everything by rote rather than thinking through things
while you’re doing it.
It’s when you allow your mind to wander that things can go wrong, and doing the
same thing over and over again, in the same precise manner, can make it so that
things get boring, and too easy for you to do it automatically.
Strains or sprains or worse can come about because you are too busy thinking
about something else. And this is why it is advocated that you mix and match
your exercise regimen at least once a week if not every time. Remember that it’s
always best to avoid injuries where possible.
69
Also, you will find that the more concentrated your mind is on your task, the more
benefit you reap from your exercising.
Warm up sufficiently beforehand

It is all too easy to become injured because you haven’t given your muscles
sufficient time to warm up, so don’t jump into your workout session without first
getting yourself warmed up, especially if you are doing weight training as this
places great strain on your muscles.
Although it might be tempting to think that you are all warmed up and that you
can jump straight into doing a set of 20 reps of something or other, it is always
best if you take the time out to warm up. At the most you will lose a few extra
minutes, but just think of the benefits that you will gain.
Avoid neck pain when doing crunches

The best way that I have found to avoid neck pain, or neck strain, is to keep your
focus on one spot when you are performing your crunches. This is especially
important as you can unknowingly give in to the tiredness seeping through you
and use your neck to perform your crunches instead of your abs.
And this is where the pain will come in, especially if you are doing more than one
variation of crunches.
I tend to find one spot on the ceiling which I can easily find and focus my entire
attention onto that one spot, and in this way, I find that when my attention slips
down or when I begin to use my neck muscles instead of my abs, I can bring
myself back to the proper way of doing things.
Learn to take a rest between bouts

Proper rest is necessary when you are exercising and forgetting to take a proper
rest can be detrimental to your health. At the most you should do no more than
20 minutes of intense working out, with some time before and after for warming
up and cooling down.
But even during those 20 minutes of intense workout, you do need to take the
time to get your equilibrium back and to allow your body to have a breather.
70
Remember to breathe properly
I know that I really shouldn’t have to say this, but do you know how many people
forget to breathe when they are knee deep into doing their workout?
This might seem like a no-brainer right now, but you will need to remember to
breathe and breathe properly.
Great, gulping, gasping breaths won’t help you, you need to breathe in a
controlled manner so that you get a proper amount of oxygen throughout your
entire workout.
Don’t be ashamed to ask for help

If you feel that you’re not doing something properly, or if you feel unsure of
yourself, don’t be ashamed to ask for help. None of us came into this world
knowing everything, and there is no shame in asking for help on something which
you don’t know.
This way you will be able to stop injuries from occurring, as well as learning the
proper way to do things, without going at things half baked.
Ask someone who knows what they’re doing, and who is willing to share that
knowledge with you. Some people are very grudging about sharing their
knowledge and these are mainly the people who belittle others for a lack of
knowledge.
Others however who are unwilling to share their knowledge are reluctant to do so
because of monetary considerations, and although in this day and age this is
nothing new, you do need to pick somebody who is willing to help you out if you
are in need of it.
Of course if you try and abuse this by trying to wring every single piece of
information that you can from this helpful person, you might find that you are not
regarded in such a kindly manner as you were when you merely a stranger in
need of help.
If you need help, don’t be ashamed to ask, and also don’t be too frugal to pay for
it if the needs arises.
71

Secret Report

Încărcat de

Informații document

Descriere originală:

Drepturi de autor

Formate disponibile

Partajați acest document

Partajați sau inserați document

Opțiuni de partajare

Vi se pare util acest document?

Este necorespunzător acest conținut?

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Secret Report

Încărcat de

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

The Hidden Secrets of Six Pack

The author of this book is in no means or manner a trained or qualified

You and your body

Firmer, Flatter Abs

Talk with your doctor

Getting a personal fitness trainer

Get a physical exam

It takes time and effort

If you fall off – get back on!

You aren’t perfect

What are your targets?

• So, define your target.

Find an exercise buddy

The reason I mention this, is because sometimes, a little incentive is needed in

Motivation and rewards

Body fat index

Remember, an average is just that – an average. It is not something which is set

Get the proper amount of sleep

You and exercise

Have good form and technique

Some exercises you can do

Or, if you don’t know how to do push-ups and therefore

First lie on the floor, face down, you should be flat as a

Firmly plant your hands on the ground next to your

Your weight should now be mainly on your hands, with your

Breathe in and out evenly, making sure that you remember

(And if you want, this exercise can also be done with an

Variation on the plank

You should be in a plank position but a much less

If you have the ideal place to do this, like a near a couch or

Bring your arms up and in front of you, don’t place them

Hold in this position for a count of ten and then, on an

The crunch with the exercise ball

To get into this position the easiest method is to sit on the

To work the crunch, do as normal. Keeping your hands on

Ideally, to fully work your abdominal muscles, you need to

In other words, you should really bend over backwards

For this crunch maneuver, you need to lift your knees in

Your legs should be straight up in the air, either bent slightly

To perform the exercise, imagine that you are balancing a

If you want you can even start this exercise in a crunch or

Place your hands behind your head keeping your elbows

Begin this exercise by moving your legs in a motion that is

Slow bicycle twist

Lace your fingers behind your head loosely, keeping your

Slowly bring up your left knee towards your chest, and at

Remember not to use your neck muscles to perform this

Repeat a max of 20-25 times a set before moving on to

Place your hands behind your head, lacing your fingers if

Do this for about 20 reps before stopping. Remember that

Next, spread your arms out sideways so that they are

Taking a deep breath, slowly bring your knees, keeping the

To accomplish this exercise you need to use your ab

Vertical leg crunch

Next, perform a crunch as you normally would, using your

Next, extend your legs straight up towards the ceiling. Do

Lower your shoulders and your heels back into a normal

Then extend your arms up over your head still keeping

When you’re ready, do a crunch, lifting your shoulders up

If this is too difficult a posture for you to maintain, or you

To do this exercise you need to contract your ab muscles

Remember to keep them as straight as possible, and

When you are ready to begin your exercise, slowly raise