UNCOVER WHAT
LIES BENEATH

Ensuring that you’re doing a combination of eating right with cardio exercise (where we are increasing the heart rate) and resistance training is the key to getting the results you want and that hot six pack!

This combination of diet and exercise will increase the body’s metabolism, which means burning more calories, more often, including the times when you’re not exercising. Burning off these excess calories means a lower percentage of body fat, allowing the muscle definition to show — especially throughout our abs.

The workout below is a small combination of cardio and resistance training to help add tone to your entire body. For the best results, include an extra 30 minutes of moderate intensity cardio a day (for example jogging, cycling or aerobics).

THERE’S WORK
TO BE DONE BOYS!

Exercise 1 : Skipping
Begin by skipping for 5-10 minutes to warm up your body for exercise and add a small amount of resistance training for your lower body.

Exercise 2 : Crunches (3 sets x 12 reps)
This is the basic exercise we all know as a sit-up but we’re adding a slight modification. Lying on your back, lift your heels off the ground (which takes your hip flexors out of action), and then place hands either across your chest or fingertips behind the ears, do a small crunch squeezing the abs. You do not have to
sit the whole way up to your knees.

Exercise 3 : Push-Ups (3 sets x 12 reps)
Either on your knees or toes, take the hands out slightly wider than the shoulders. Make sure you keep the stomach tight and back stays flat (don’t let your lower back arch). This is going to help strengthen your upper body but also begin to work your transverse abdominals.

Exercise 4 : Oblique Twists (3 sets x 12 reps)
Again, this is going to work through your rectus abdominals but will now start to target your obliques. Using the same set-up position as your crunches, crunch up but then take your right shoulder across the body towards the left knee. Return to the centre, then to the floor. Repeat on the opposite side. One crunch to the left and one to the right equals one repetition.

Exercise 5 : Plank (3 sets)
This exercise is going to work on your transverse abdominals and help to improve your overall core strength and posture. Starting on the knees and elbows (elbows directly under shoulders), draw the stomach muscles in and keep your hips, shoulders and head in one straight line. For a harder options, lift to the toes keeping hips, shoulders and head in line. Hold for as long as possible, then try to match the same time on
the second two repetitions.

To ensure the best results, we need to make sure that we are taking in the right foods. The basic rule that we need to look at to help us lose weight is to burn more calories than what we are consuming. The second thing is we need is to watch the types of foods that we are eating, to ensure that we are fuelling our bodies with the premium petrol. This involves cutting down on excess fats and making sure we are eating enough carbohydrates and protein.

This combination of an exercise routine and some basic nutritional tips is going to start you on the way to having those “washboard abs” and defined muscles so you don’t need to have any fears when it comes to ripping your shirt off, whether it be in a night club, on the beach, or to just show off your great physique.

Any health and fitness advice contained in this magazine is for informational purposes only. Consult your physician and a fitness professional before changing your diet, doing any exercise program, or taking any supplements of any kind.

By Brendan Farnhill for FUSE Magazine. Photograhy by Jimmy Walsh. Model Tal Evans — Canberra.