R.I.P.P.E.D Weight Training Blog

Abs. Got ‘em? Especially if you’re a guy, chances are, you’d like to make your abs more ripped. You can get more ripped, too, if you follow a few basic abs diet and exercise tips. When it comes to how to get ripped, you can get those abs you’ve always wanted — and it doesn’t have to be that hard. It is going to take some time, though, because you can’t expect overnight results. You didn’t get that “couch bod” in one day and it’s going to take a little bit longer to get ripped as a result.

Be productive

The training methods you’re going to employ have to be productive, or you could spend more time in the gym but see fewer results. So pay attention to these points.

Your diet

In fact, this is probably the most important part of how to get ripped. It’s at least half of the equation, anyway, and probably better than half (the other half is the effort and proper technique you’re going to put into your workout, along with just plain determination and willpower).

But wait a minute; don’t think that a single diet can help you get ripped. You can do a number of different things that will help you achieve the look you want.

Eat less than you burn

If you want to achieve definition and lose some body fat, you are going to have to take in fewer calories than you burn. However, the eating program you choose (as opposed to “diet,” which is truly a nasty a negative word) is going to have to be something you’ll like and will stick with.

Bulk up on the protein

You need to eat about a gram of protein per pound of body mass in order to help you build muscle. You want to lose the fat and build muscle, and to that end, you need more protein than you would if you were simply trying to lose weight.

How many calories?

Take your current body weight in pounds and multiply it by between 10 and 12. (If you’re significantly overweight, multiply it by a smaller number than that, such as eight.) This will give you the rough number of calories you need to consume in order to lose weight even as you are strenuously working out.

The way you break out those calories will go something like this: let’s say, for example, that your formulation says you should be consuming 1800 calories a day. Of those, remember that you are going to want to consume a gram of protein per pound of body weight, or about 180 g of protein if you’ve multiplied your body weight by 10 for the number of calories you get. A gram of protein has four calories, so 180 g times four is 720 calories. That means you should get 720 calories from protein.

15% of your calories should come from “good” fats like omega-3 fatty acids and healthy oils like olive oil and from lean proteins like lean beef. The rest should come from complex carbohydrates.

Your abs workout

You cannot simply work on your abs to get ripped abs. As to how to get ripped, you’ll have to simply lose the fat overall, gain definition, and then work on muscle groups individually.

Work smarter, not harder

Change your program out, but three to five days a week, do a workout on all the muscle groups by performing an abs exercise like crunches, along with other muscle group exercises like calf raises, rows, shoulder presses, deadlifts, squats, bench presses and lat pulls — two sets of 10 reps each until you tire the muscle groups out for each exercise. On alternate days, do some whole body cardio like jogging, swimming, running, bicycling, etc. Go for 30 minutes to start and ramp it up to an hour as you get in better shape.

Get abs? Got abs

Again, it’s not going to happen overnight, but following your program and your diet is going to show you how to get ripped. As you lose the fat in gain muscle and definition, you should see those ripped abs in no time at all. Remember, you can focus on your abs — but not to the exclusion of other muscle groups or of cardio, because that won’t help. You need whole body exercise and some decent cardio to truly get the body you want.

Greg Correll
http://www.articlesbase.com/men’s-health-articles/getting-ripped-abs-explained-1164316.html

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 5:10 pm and is filed under ripped workout. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.