The following is a speech I wrote as a senior in college.
I have since read thousands of pages worth of “fitness information”.
I’ve been befuddled by many dogmas, and been fooled into thinking their was a magic pill somewhere. THIS diet, or THAT workout that the guys did from 300. Magic exercise machines and supplements that will give you a perma-boner and more neck muscles are on sale everywhere.
Sometimes it’s easy to overlook the simple route in favor of the CARDIO BLA$TER 9K X-ercise iBrain.
Current Nate’s comments in parenthesis below.
How to Get Six Pack Abs
By 20 year old Nate Palmer
- Intro
- How many people are going to the beach for spring break? No, better question, how many of you are excited to show off that brand new beach bod that you’ve been working so hard to get all winter?….anyone? Ouch.
i. Well, I might be a little late, but I’d like to share a little bit with you to help you get that body you want, at least in time for summer
- I’ll be talking about some of the little known elements in getting and maintaining a body that will turn heads at the beach and the gym
i. We’ll talk a little about volume, we’ll discuss intensity, and then we’ll get into the little known secret to obtaining a cut, chiseled figure.
- Volume
- For maximum muscle growth and fat loss, volume has to increase
i. Very basic, it’s the difference between doing 2 sets of 10 and 4 sets of 10.
ii. More hypertrophy (muscle breakdown) is induced with higher volume training
iii. With more hypertrophy, comes a higher caloric expenditure to help rebuild the muscles that were broken down in training.
- Another way to increase volume is by increasing the number of muscle groups that an exercise hits.
i. For example, a compound movement like deadlifts or squats is much more effective at targeting and shaping your body than an exercise like bicep curls or tricep kickbacks.
- For example, a deadlift will target your quads, hamstrings, abs, glutes, rectus abdominus and femoris, your spinal erectors, medial deltoids and traps. A hamstring curl will target just that, your hamstrings.
ii. Working compound movements into your program can be as simple as replacing your leg extensions with lunges, or curls with pull ups
iii. Doing exercises like these not only increases the volume of the training you’re doing, but leads me to my next point of the intensity of the training
- Intensity
- Intensity has to do with the amount of effort you put into your training, or energy expenditure
i. For example 3 reps with 100 pounds is going to be more intense than 6 reps with 50 pounds
ii. One person jogs on a treadmill for 60 minutes and burns 320 calories, another person sprints for 5, and walks for 5 for 40 minutes and burns 320 C as well. The same? No, with higher intensity, i.e. sprinting, comes a much longer time period of caloric output and replenishment. Simply put, you burn more fat recovering from strenuous activity than from moderate exercise.
iii. Having a higher intensity physical activity actually boots metabolism by making your body digest faster and more efficiently in preparation for hard work
iv. On top of that, you don’t need to work out for as long.
- A good rule of thumb is that if you’re sweating from the work your doing, you are certainly burning fat.
i. An easy way to add this to your program is to simply decrease the amount of time between the sets and reps of your routine, or to work to failure on the last set of every exercise.
ii. This guarantees that you will be working hard every step of the way.
iii. However, even if you do both of these things, if your diet is not correct, you will be negating all your hard work in the gym.
- Diet
- Despite what many people have heard, a healthy diet is full of meat, eggs, and dairy products. Don’t be afraid of eating calories, as they are just the fuel our body runs on, and despite the negative hype, not consuming any will be worse for you figure then consuming the right amount.
i. Sticking to the food pyramid is a good way to start, by eating the right amount of fruits, dairy, meat, and grain, our body tends to maintain a balance.
ii. Eating trans fat, fast food, eating two hours before bed, and not eating breakfast are all big no-no’s if you’re trying to get your body ready for spring break in Mexico. (As long as you’re still eating mostly whole foods and keeping your calorie intake lower than your output, eating two hours before bed or skipping breakfast isn’t actually bad)
iii. It isn’t necessary to count calories in excess, but you’d be surprised at how much you can do for yourself by substituting that next soda or coffee for water, or by skipping the late night run to get Jack’s combo deal.
- By eating plenty of chicken and fish, fruits and vegetables, yogurt and nuts and by cutting out some of the crap, like white flour products, pasta, cakes, and any other product that is high in simple carbohydrates, you’ll start to see results in a lot shorter time period than you would by just hitting the gym
- Diet is the secret weapon to getting in shape, or at least looking the part. Also, it’s amazing how much better you’ll feel after having cut out some of the junk food in your life.
- Conclusion
- These three ‘secrets’ aren’t really secrets at all, merely simple physiological facts. But just because it’s simple and easy to wrap your mind around, doesn’t mean it’s easy.
- The hardest part of any program is not the implementation, it’s keeping up after the first week, and the hype has worn off.
- However, if slowly, methodically and persistently, you can apply the concepts of volume, intensity, and diet into your own personal life and routine, you’ll get the body you want. Hopefully in time for summer.
