Just curious - anyone have a 6pack?

R

robyn6002

Cathlete
Just curious any of you have a 6 pack?

If you did how did you get there.
It's a strange goal perhaps but it's a goal and wonder if anyone here has done it and how.

I have the lines down the side and line down the middle - and see oblique muscles -

odviously diet is huge - i've been clean eating since feb (no white flour, no sugar, LOTS of water, veggies) protein bars...

anyhow would love to hear your success>>>
 
Nope

No, sorry, I definately don't have a 6-pack and doubt I ever will since I'd have to practically eat perfectly, plus it's always been my problem area anyway.

Anyway, the friends I have who have very flat tummies have them because of genetics only. They don't do many crunches or anything special- it's just their good area. But they also tend to have problems with their lower body or are just very boyish figured (no curves). I think genetics plays a big key, and of course, your diet.

This is a great question though- I'd also like to know if anyone who had a pouch, ab flab, thought their abs would never be flat, etc. got a flatter tummy or definition? How?
 
I would say I have a "decent" 4pack....those lower abs are really tough to conquer!

And I would say that once I started doing ab work at least 4 times a week, I saw a major difference in my abs....

So while I may never see a real 6pack, I'm pretty content with how my abs look for a woman in her 40s!

Terri
 
Sure....

I have a six pack, you just can't see it because of the layer of fat over it!!! ;-)

Sorry I can't help you other then to tell you to get a six pack abs you need a really low body fat percentage. If you are a pear or apple will determine just how low. Pears will usually get away with a slightly higher body fat percentage, but either way you need it to be pretty darn low. Probably 13-18% depending on the person.

Dawn W
 
I used to have one, not anymore. However, when I did, I ate clean everyday, brought my own food to friends' and family's houses for gatherings and never EVER ate at a restaurant. What worked for me was doing lots of cardio (6 x's a week) and lots of crunches where you alternate lifting your feet about an inch or so off the ground as you do them. I was obsessed with Keil Robert's Abs, Back & More when I finally got my 6-pack. I am sure you don't need to go to the extremes I did to get mine, but there it is. I have really hard abs, it's just that now I have a THICK layer of insulation over them.
 
6packs are tough to get!! You have to have an extremely low bodyfat percentage to achieve the full 6 pack. Even at 16% bodyfat I don't have it. I mean my tummy is totally defined and you can see the lines down the side and there is no flab but I think for me at least to get that six pack I would have to get down to like14% bodyfat and that is just not doable for a normal person. Good luck though!!!
 
RE: I am with Dawn

I think I have the ability to get one if I had the ability to eat a lot cleaner. Gosh, I love to eat though. I came close a few years ago but I found when I was that lean, a lot of people were thinking I was throwing up or some such thing (I wasn't - never have, never could - yuck). I do have the lines down the obligues etc. and the leaner I get the more they show. Ah, there is also the c-section scar that gets in the way of that 6 pack too.

I guess in all honesty, I would like them but other things in life are so much fun, like eating, that I have not got there yet. I am going to keep on tryin though and will not eat dessert til Saturday (this week). Yeah right.

Kim
 
RE: Six pack

I am the proud owner of a six pack for the first time in my life. I am 53 years old. I have to credit it all to Cathe's murderous ab routines. However, there is a bit more to it than that. Let me start at the beginning.

About 10 years ago I decided to start exercising. I had never done any exercising at all but I was sick and tired of looking all mushy and chubby. I have a tendency to accumulate flab, particularly on the thigh/butt/ab area. I bought several non-Cathe step tapes as well as the Firms Volumes 1-6 , the Crosstrainer series and some Firm parts tapes. It was very difficult for me to get started because I had no knowledge at all. I read all I could and it took me some time before I lost weight and could see some hint of muscle.

My problem area continued to be the abs, particularly the lower part. I had a C-section in 1983 and my lower stomach had a lot of excess skin as well as a layer of marshmallow. I worked at it as hard as I possibly could. The results were good but still not great. No six pack. And because of all the loose skin on the lower part I could never get the flat stomach I wanted. Mind you, the Firm gave me hard muscle under the loose skin and I did manage to reduce the fat there, but I was not happy.

In 1995 I had a tummy tuck. And a touch of liposuction too.

The loose skin problem was gone. Still no six pack but I felt the improvement was wonderful.

Then I stopped exercising a few years later. Have still not figured out what happened. I guess it was burn out.

About a year ago I resumed exercising, this time with Cathe.

I lost about 27 pounds and found a six pack at last. I try to avoid junk food (not always successfully) and work abs with any of Cathe's routines four to five times a week, plus planks from Slow and Heavy.

I realize that a tummy tuck is not right for everyone and I am not suggesting it is the only way to get that six pack. However, the combination of tummy tuck/weight loss/ Cathe's ab routines and my own sweat and tears has gotten me to a place now that I did not know could exist for me. In my 20's (before having a baby) I never had tight abs so it is a thrill for me to have them now.

I just got a package delivered a few days ago from Victoria's Secret. I ordered two pairs of low rise jeans (size 2) and I just cannot believe that at my age these kinds of things can look well on me.

When I tighten my abs I can run my fingers over all these bumps and grooves in my stomach area and I am amazed.

So that is my story.

Marlene
 
RE: Six pack

Marlene, I'd love to see a picture of you. Between the tank top arms and the abs, I'll bet you look fabulous.
 
RE: Six pack

Wow Marlene that is AWESOME!

So what ab excercises did you do? How did your 6 pack develop. Did you first have definition with the line down the middle and 2 lines on the side - then obliques.

Please tell !!!
 
RE: Six pack

OOhh, I had a feeling you were going to tell us you had a tummy tuck, Marlene. I have that marshmellow thing covering my abs too and even after so many workouts it stays right there! Can't tell ya how much I want to get rid of it! I'll keep doing my ab work and maybe if I get brave one day I'll look into a little lipo myself. So nice to hear that you are so fit in your fifties and since I'm not far from that myself it really motivates me. Cool.
 
I bought my boyfriend one of those ab wheels. Now he jokes that he might not have a 6-pack but he has worked up to a wine bottle!

;-)

Shelley
 
Shelley: Love that one! Wine bottle indeed. My husband bought one of those contraptions a few years ago and I am sure it is buried somewhere in the bowels of our closet.

I see all kinds of ab helpers on infomercials, on QVC and in magazines and I really believe that unless you have some kind of back problem and can't do regular floor ab work a la Cathe, these gimmicks are a waste. The thing that looks like a chair with arms that you twist and turn with just slays me.

Anyway, I wanted to answer and respond to some of the comments that came in after my post. I was sure that my "confession" would generate some interest.

K60: Can you believe I have no pictures of me? In my mind I am still the chubby little thing that always avoided having my photo taken. Over the years I have learned to run away from the camera. I never liked the way I looked and did not want a record of it either. I guess it is time to change that attitude. I am working on it.

Robyn: Which ab exercises? Any of the Cathe routines in any of the tapes. I tried to alternate them and do four of five different ones a week, in no particular order. Just which ones I felt like doing. Since I bought the DVD's for Slow and Heavy, Pure Strength, CTX, etc., it is really easy to keep mixing them up.

I did notice the line down the middle first. That was the earliest indication that something was happening. As the excess fat melted off the cubes started to pop out.

Darli: I can certainly sympathize with your situation because I was in exactly the same place. I had a layer of loose skin and some fat that would not budge, particularly on the lower part of the abs. I did not head for a tummy tuck right away. I promised myself that I would give exercise my very very best effort for two years before considering that operation. I worked out with the Firm, doing their ab routines five days a week (and some days I did a double). I really believe that I did all I could possibly do and the results were less than what I wanted. Only then did I succumb to the surgery.

For me at least, the very best ab routines gave me rock hardness but that loose skin would never respond to anything but surgery.

After the surgery treated areas healed I returned for awhile to the Firm's ab routines. I developed that line down the middle and the hardness underneath was good but I never did get those cubes until this past year with Cathe.

Marlene
 
RE: A friend says I do . . .

A friend of mine and I got together at our club on Sunday, and she said she could see my "six pack" as I was demonstrating a curl-up variation. I often see a faint six-pack immediately after a workout, or the next morning.

I can't really say I eat "clean" (I've gotta have my Cheez-Its, potato chips and/or cheese doodles, and some light chocolate in the afternoon) every day, but at the same time I eat fairly "lean", and my taste for ultra-greasy and ultra-sugary foods has really gone down over the years, especially as I've up-kicked strength training.

I do abs every workout session, and try to do a fair number of curl-ups, internal and external oblique crunches, bicycles, V-sits and my newly-discovered beloved planks. I think prone and supine incline planks are making the vestiges of my lower belly evaporate! Also, in the two aqua classes I teach each week, we do about 10 minutes of supine suspended ab work using hand buoys as floats - these are really good, because instead of raising your trunk up against the resistance of gravity with the abs, you use your abs to press your hips down toward the floor of the pool against the resistance of buoyancy. Good cross-training.

Annette
 
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