BYO six-pack
How to ‘build your own’ washboard stomach
Personal Trainer
Paul O'Brien
Part 1
For many it’s the Holy Grail of fitness – a lean, chiselled torso with washboard abdominal muscles as the centrepiece. Yet the six-pack remains elusive for many people despite hours of toil on the roads or in the gym. Why is a six-pack so hard to achieve and what can we do about it?
My experience with hundreds of clients over the past six years has thrown up a number of key obstacles that bar people’s progress towards a toned physique. In this article, the first of two on building your own six-pack, I will deal with what, in my opinion, is the main obstacle most people face.
Made in the kitchen
You can go to the gym every day and do hundreds or even thousands or sit-ups, crunches and the like but if you do not address your diet you will never create the body you desire. Like it or not, a six-pack is made in the kitchen and not in the gym. We all think we know what healthy eating is but there is more to sculpting your perfect body shape than eating more fruit and veg. Follow these guidelines and you’ll be laying a great foundation for success.
- Ditch all processed foods. Breads, sweets, crisps, biscuits and cakes must go. I follow a general rule that if anything I pick up at the supermarket contains more than 3 ingredients I’ll put it back. If there are only three ingredients but one of them is added sugar, it won’t make it into the basket.
- Eat a hearty breakfast including protein. It’s true what they say, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Eating protein, which takes 20-30 percent more energy to digest, is a great way to keep hunger cravings at bay, fire up your metabolism and aid recovery from a hard workout the previous day.
- Eat every 3-4 hours. Part of the reason why shedding abdominal fat is so difficult is down to the fact that our bodies are trapped in semi-starvation mode. Eating only three main meals per day leaves long periods between meals and the brain reads this as ‘scarcity’. The brain then commands the cells to store more energy in fat stores in the event that the scarcity could escalate. Eating regular meals and snacks reverses this trend, speeds up your metabolism and transmits a ‘season of plenty’ message to your cells. Less energy is stored as fat, leading ultimately to a more lean and toned physique.
- Beef it up. As previously stated, your body uses between 20-30 percent more energy to digest protein than other nutrients. Aim to eat a little protein at every meal to fire up your metabolism. Protein will also help muscle resynthesis after hard workouts. Aim for quality proteins at meal times like fish, lean red meats, poultry, dairy, eggs, beans and pulses.
In Part 2, we’ll will look outside the kitchen at some more common barriers standing in the way of building your perfect six-pack, and some top tips on how to overcome them.
Paul O’Brien is a personal trainer and life coach based in Westport.
