Want a flat stomach? Want to know how to build perfect abs?

If so, you came to the right place. We have the perfect workout for you.

Baywatch is coming back soon and your abs are coming back for summer. There couldn’t be a more fitting combo. The symbol of a superior physique will always be perfect abs.

The question most people want to know the answer to is how to build abs?

As winter flows out to the background, flowers are blooming and it’s time for your perfect abs to follow suit and glisten in the summer sun. Properly training your whole body and especially abs will be paramount to a winning a flat stomach challenge with a stunning six-pack.

So before you go off partying like you’re at Ibiza, make sure you follow these gym workouts to have your body in form.

Remember, people with Dad bods drink six packs. People with six packs are having body shots taken off them.

This Is How to Build Abs That Shine

Getting perfect abs is like shoveling snow out of your driveway. It won’t be easy and you can never ease off. What also needs to happen is the snow, or fat, has to melt.

To get the best possible abs by summer, training and developing your perfect abs is crucial as is lowering body fat levels.

It’s just like any other body part. You can build biggest biceps, but if they’re hidden beneath layers of fat they’re never noticed. On the other hand, if you put all of your effort into burning fat and never develop your biceps you shouldn’t be expecting any sort of grand reveal.

A super skinny guy with perfect abs is just as bad as a heftier one with a little muscle. In both cases, it doesn’t really look like either person did anything to get there. If this is an issue with you than check out our skinny fat workout.

You also must burn enough fat to show off the washboard.

This Is The Summer Perfect Abs Program

This six-week perfect abs program tackles the body from all angles with a variety of gym workout training stimuli. There are three full body strength-training workout to building muscle and maintain muscle.

There are two mandatory cardio workouts to enhance vascularity, burn calories and rev up conditioning.

Throughout the one-week program there is an abundance of abs training that ensures your abs get everything they need. You’ll focus on abs strength, the obliques, upper abs and lower abs.

The week is then finished off with two rest days. Before you knock the rest days, try the first week. You’ll soon see just how important the rest days are.

Just as with any program that gets results, there are nutrition guidelines.

Following these guidelines will ensure no muscle is lost and muscle can be actually gained.

At the same time it will have a focus on shredding through the fat, exposing cuts and an impressive midsection.

These Are Some Perfect Abs Training Specifics

At the core of this training are the abs workouts. Abs must be a priority here. That means no more tacking crunches or other random exercises to the end of a workout.

Each full body strength-training day will include abs exercises that will strengthen and tighten the core, improving lifting performance.

Each cardio training session starts off with an intense abs circuit to ensure full energy and effort.

Why?

This is how to build abs. These circuits guarantee that every aspect of the abs are covered. They’re very intense and will require mental strength to finish.

It’s also vital to hit the target rep ranges listed for each movement. Although abs are uniquely built muscles, they still require an intense training stimulus. Just like no one would do 50 reps on the bench press, you shouldn’t do 50 sit-ups.

That means it’s just too easy.

Rather than increasing reps to increase the challenge, boost the intensity by adding weight or altering the tempo. Stronger abs means more defined abs.

This Is Strength Training

The three strength-training days will be the meat of the program. Each workout will have a different emphasis ensuring the body will be heavily taxed, but not over-trained.

One day will focus on strength. The other two days isolate and focus more on growth and mass. Doing full body training sessions will have huge advantages over the typical muscle group workouts.

These workouts will burn far more calories. Alternating between two exercises in a near superset fashion challenges the heart to pump blood throughout the whole body.

Since the exercises are alternated, there is also less rest time elevating the heart rate even more. Also, the body will have to work hard to recover post workout.

A lowered caloric intake decreases metabolism and creates a drop in androgen hormones such as testosterone. Fear not, as this won’t be an issue since calories are boosted high on these days to keep the metabolism up and provide enough energy to recover the muscles and keep hormone levels at optimal ranges.

An added bonus is that these bigger exercises will train the core. Isolation exercises have minimal core activation in comparison with compound exercises.

Prepare for intense lifting workouts, but you’ll be spending even more time wondering how your body has changed so positively.

This Is Cardio Training

To induce the fastest fat loss and take advantage of the calorie deficits on the non-lift days, cardio needs to be done. Not only will these days burn more calories, but they will also start with the all important perfect abs workouts.

Attacking the cardio workouts with intensity will make sure no extra water weight is being held. It also ensures that you won’t just look in shape, but will be in shape.

The program calls for two very different sessions per week.

You Need To Do High-Intensity Interval Training

It’s time to train into the ground. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) challenges your body to push to anaerobic levels. This means that your body can’t produce oxygen as quickly as it is consuming it. This training causes excess post oxygen consumption (EPOC) after the workout.

That means your body will continue to work and burn extra calories even after you finish your workout, even with body weight exercises.

This effect is only reached by working at very high heart rates (80% of max or more) for short durations.

To quickly estimate your 80% max heart rate, use the following: 0.8(220-Age). If no heart rate monitor is available, divide the result by six so you can take your 10-second pulse count to quickly check if your heart rate reached at least 80%.

For example, a 20-year-old would need to count at least 26 heartbeats in 10 seconds to be at 80% of their max heart rate.

As you can tell, this is a very challenging cardio session. Fortunately, it is very short. There are plenty of ways to perform HIIT training. You could do sprints, prowler pushes, rowing, burpees or cycling.

So long as the target heart rate is reached in less than 45 seconds, you’re good to go.

Depending on conditioning, the rest period can be lengthened or shortened. Generally rest is no more than double the time it took to reach 80% and no less than half the time it took.

A good way to start is 45 seconds on and 45 seconds off.

This Is Steady State Cardio

This workout will be the easiest of them all. It will be gentler on the body, but still burn a lot of fat and help with recovery. The goal with this cardio session is to not raise the heart rate above 75% of your max or below 60%.

To get a general idea calculate: 0.7(220-Age). For example, a 20-year-old would have a 75% max heart rate of 140 beats per minute. The goal is to do 30 minutes at a steady rate.

Take your pick of slowly jogging outside, swimming, biking or various cardio machines. It should feel like you’re working and building a light sweat, but you should by no means be wiped out afterward.

Cut Calories To Get Perfect Abs

To drop body fat low enough to reveal perfect abs, there must be an overall calorie deficit. The training sessions will devour a lot of calories, but there also needs to be a decrease in calorie consumption.

The lift days will always be high carb and high calorie to preserve metabolism and strength.

The real work on fat loss will come from the cardio and rest days where carb and calorie intake is considerably reduced.

This Is Carbohydrate Cycling

As you can tell, calories will be manipulated using carb cycling, the most effective fat loss method. Protein and fat intake remains constant throughout the week, but carb and thus calorie intake is altered depending on the day.

High carb workout days means you’ll have a ton of energy to crush the workouts and enough calories so that your muscles won’t feel ravaged, down to nothing, the next day.

Take advantage of the high carb days to satisfy any little cravings and stay as strict as possible on the other days.

Following a low carb intake on the other days keeps insulin levels low allowing the body to tap into fat stores for energy.

Remember, abs look better than food tastes. Don’t be tricked otherwise on the low carb days. There are tons of muscle building foods to choose from. 

These Are Your Macronutrient and Calorie Perfect Abs Guidelines

Just how much should you be consuming?

These macronutrient calculations tell you exactly how much to eat. And sorry there is no easy diet.There should be an error margin of no more than 10 grams on each macro to maintain the full effect of carb cycling.

This is Your Suggested Macronutrient Intake By Day:

High Carb: 2 grams per pound of bodyweight

Low Carb: 0.3 grams per pound of bodyweight

Protein: 1 gram per pound of bodyweight

Fat: 0.3 grams per pound of bodyweight

 

This is What a 200-pound Man’s Macronutrient Intake Should Be:

Protein Intake: 200 grams

Fat Intake: 60 grams

High Carb Day Intake: 400 grams

Low Carb Day Intake: 60 grams

This Is Your Training and Carb Intake Program Overview

Split	Workout	Nutrition
Day 1	Full Body Strength Training	High Carb
Day 2	Abs and Interval Training	Low Carb
Day 3	Full Body Pull Emphasis	High Carb
Day 4	Abs and Low Intensity Cardio	Low Carb
Day 5	Full Body Push Emphasis	High Carb
Day 6	Rest	Low Carb
Day 7	Rest	Low Carb

Day 1: Full Body Strength

 

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest (Seconds)
1a.	Sumo Deadlift	3	5	90
1b.	Bench Press	3	5	90
2a.	Front Squat	3	6	90
2b.	Weighted Chin-up	3	6	90
3a.	Split Squat	3	10	60
3b.	Single Arm DB Row	3	10	60
4a.	DB Overhead Press	3	10	60
4b.	Leg Press	3	10	60
5a.	Ab Wheel Rollout	3	5	30

Day 2: Abs & HIIT Training

 

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest (Seconds)
1a.	Decline Weighted Sit-up	5	12	0
1b.	Decline Weighted Crunch	5	12	0
1c.	Decline Russian Twist (Light with speed)	5	12 each side	60
2a.	Intervals to 80+% of max	8	45 seconds	45

Day 3: Full Body Pull

 

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest(Seconds)
1a.	Deadlift	3	10	60
1b.	Weighted Pull-up	3	10	60
2a.	Romanian Deadlift	3	12	60
2b.	Cable Row	3	12	60
3a.	Glute Bridge	3	12	45
3b.	Barbell Row	3	12	45
4a.	Hamstring Curl	3	15	30
4b.	DB Curl	3	15	30
5a.	Preacher Curl	3	10	30
5b.	Calve Raise	3	15	30
6a.	Single Arm Farmers Walk	3	30 yards each side	60

Day 4: Cardio and Abs

 

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest (Seconds)
1a.	Kneeling Single Arm Cable Crunch	5	12 each side	0
1b.	Hanging Leg Raise (weighted if needed)	5	12	0
1c.	Palloff Press	5	12 each side	60
2a.	Cardio at 65-75% of max	1	30 minutes	–

Day 5: Push Supersets

 

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest(Seconds)
1a.	Back Squat	3	10	60
1b.	DB Bench Press	3	10	60
2a.	Alternating Lunge	3	12	60
2b.	Overhead Press	3	12	60
3a.	Leg Press	3	12	45
3b.	Close Grip Bench Press	3	12	45
4a.	Leg Extension	3	12	30
4b.	Triceps Extension	3	12	30
5a.	Seated Calf Press	3	15	30
5b.	Rope Pressdown	3	15	30
5c.	Plank Walkout	3	30 seconds	60

Days 6 & 7: Rest

Yep, that’s right. Take it easy. You’ve earned it.

If staying still isn’t your thing, some light yoga, stretching and foam rolling will keep your body/joints healthy and reduce the odds of a chronic injury.

Conclusion

Forget summertime sadness. You’re about to get the best body of your life! And, of course, that means perfect abs!

Why?

You now know how to build abs. Bring on any flat belly challenge. You’ll win it! All you have to do is stay true to the gym workout and diet.

Tracking metrics such as weight, body fat, workouts and the like will only increase your motivation so be sure to quantify results. Have at it!

By Raphael Konforti MS, CPT