Throughout the ads, at the cinema you see beautiful athletes bodybuilded with toned abs. Even women also have this peculiarity that seems to prove that you are an exceptional athlete able to achieve all that advertising promises or that cinema shows you. So? Is it possible for everyone? Can you set yourself the goal of seeing the shape of your abs under this layer of fat that characterizes them at the moment ?
How to make them visible? Is it a question of exercises? Cardio? Diet? Some spend hours on cardio machines thinking one day they'll see their abs, others do not know what exercises to invent in their endless abdominal sessions. Who is right ?
In fact no one is 100% right but no one is 100% wrong either. If you want to be able to wear your "six-pack" for everyone to see, it will require not only working your abdominal muscles with adapted exercises, but also do cardio and especially have a suitable diet.
When your abdominals are apparent, it means that you have decreased your daily caloric intake. Because the belly is often the place where excess calories are stored in the form of fat. So you have to force your body to go get calories in your reserves because you do not give it enough to perform all the actions you ask it to. So you can think of cardio as a way to burn calories that might be surplus.
Another thing you need to know is that fat cells fill up through the bloodstream and once filled, they no longer need to have contact with the blood vessels. These small capillaries will therefore close and no longer allow the passage of blood because it would cost useless energy to the human body. The small valvules provided for this purpose will play their role and close locally the area filled with fat. To reopen them, it is necessary not only to create a need for energy, but also to perform a local toning that will push the blood to reopen these small valves and allow the body to fetch the available energy in the form of fat.
Do not forget that the fat cells once filled will divide and create other fat cells able to accommodate, too, as much fat. By cons when you go dry, when you go to reduce your caloric intake to be able to remove the abdominal fat, the new fat cells will not disappear, they will wisely wait to be able to rassemble the fat that you will have the kindness to give them.
Do not think that it is therefore interesting to go up and down a lot in weight because this will only increase your number of fat cells. Try to keep in good physical shape and, even if you want to gain muscle mass, do not climb too high because any fat you have taken will also have to be lost afterwards. And when you lose fat, you will routinely lose some muscle too. So what is the right compromise that will allow you to gain enough muscle to increase your lean mass significantly and not gain too much fat that you would lose by sacrificing some muscle? The answer is of course not the same for everyone, but the best way to find out is to be measured during your weight gain and in the same way during your lean time. You will objectively see what you are gaining and losing in muscle and fat. .
Yves Bondroit coach for QNT