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sry but this is the only one i can answer.

i told myself i did it for me to make myself stronger. but i found out i was doin
it for the girls . i still do, but im not that much of a gym person. i went like
3-4 times per week before but that dropped to 2 times a week max doing
some machines.

btw best to get advise is to just go to a gym and ask one of the workers there.
they can give you the advise seen your body condition at this moment.

edit: and i also have no fat on my body. makes training fun for you can see
the muscles developing nicely

I can answer some of your questions.

1. I think for larger muscles, you do slow, effective reps.

2. I lift for looks and strength and it just feels good.

3. You can lie on your back and with your feet together and legs straight, lift them up in the air. Try to get them as far back together as far as possible like this _\ <--- represents u lying on your back. Do as many reps as u can.

4. Crunches tighten your ab muscles. To get rid of the fat on top you have to do cardio. Run 1-2 miles everyday and you'll definitely work off the fat on top.

I can help out.
First, more reps with less weight = more lean, tighter muscles, less reps with more weight= bigger muscles. I workout for myself, and for the ladies. More the latter. ABS= SITUPS. ALL DAY LONG. K. For the 6 pack questions, yes it is definetly possible. But getting it is going to need to include 2 things, diet and exersise. If you eat well, more muscle growth, less fat. Will people be able to see abs through fat? While it may be possible when your flexing to have them see it, if you want to have the "underwear model" 6 pack, you have to lose that fat. So if I were you, find a good place you can do situps, and start having fun. Also, if you like to change it up sometimes, a "yoga" ball or w/e it is, you can use that, just put your feet on top of the ball, and do a form of situps there.
Now, back to my situps

Number 1 is pretty much right. I don't know about changing a 2 pack into 6 before summer's over, everyone's different. And you can get a "visible" set of abs just by working on getting rid of fat, yes. Whether you can do much with them is the question heh.

i also hear that a 6pack is only really visible if you dont drink much.

that the models that show their magnificent sixpack havent had any drinks
that day.

One word of advice, dont over do it the first time if you havnt done it in awhile. I keep a small bar with 26 pounds on it beside my bed, wake up in the morning do some just to wake my muscles up (usually about 15-25 reps). Then workout later in the day. Works well for me

What do you mean by a "visible" set of abs?

Thanks for all your help, guys! I really appreciate it.

A few more questions...
If I want to cut out on weight, should I stay away from too much meat? Should I focus more on vegetables and fruit and grains, then?

As a 15-year-old, how much do you think my regular caloric intake a day should be?

Thanks again, to everyone who helped!

I'm 17, So ill tell you what my "diet" is.

Protien X 3.
Eggs, Lunch meat, steak/chicken/fish.

But, I'm trying to add raw muscle mass.
Your not. So unless your workout is highly intense, I wouldnt eat that much protien. MAKE SURE you get your veggies, but having that as your sole diet never made sence to me. You should go to a local gym and ask them , they are payed to know this stuff.

True I eat 4 eggs every morning. A triple decker turkey sandwich with whole wheat bread for lunch. And probably pasta for dinner.

Hope that helped ^^.

Why have a 6pac if you can have a keg?

+1 lol XD I do prefer guys with nice abs and shoulders. ^^ *hint hint* =]

Don't forget to eat the right combination of foods / kcal each day. Otherwise you kind of work your a$$ off for nothing.

But I am not a specialist, maybe others can help you out with specific figures.

What I didn't get yet: Do you only want to weightlift, or a real bodybuilding training concept?

Six pack = situps.

Suuure! Every1 has a six pack! It's just covered in FAT! Just look at the holocaust survivors! >_>

No. Six pack = muscle.

Situps = six pack.


Getting me? I myself only go to a mixed martial arts gym, and I get all my muscle from there Also from my Capoeira sessions.

Yeah this is true also be careful if your trying to get strong or just build muscle. When you lift heavy weights too much you end up damaging your muscle tissue and then when it heals it'll create an extra layer to cover the weakended tissue. You'll end up building up layers of muscle that'll look big but won't be really strong.



I do it for myself so i can feel good. No one likes looking in their mirror and not liking what they see.



Im pretty sure crunches are the best abs activity and you don't need any equipment to do that. After a hile you can try hang off your couch while holding a 2X-XX weigt and then do crunch that way. try googleing fitness exercises and it'll bring up some sites with good info. I used to have a good one saved to my bookmarks but firefox deleted them all for some reason @_@



Everyone has abdominal muscles but not a six back. If your abs are covered by fat lose the weight with running or jogging or bikeing. Also thats a great cardio workout so your killing 2 birds with one stone. If you choose not to work off the fat you'll probably lose it over time if you eat right and everythign and keep up daily excersice but if its a big gut its just going to sit there and cover over everything -_-. not pretty picture if you ask me.
Also if you want a six pack by the end of the summer stick to a routine eat lots of protein and maintian a healthy diet drinking lots of water is also important to help build muscle. Don't over work yoruself or you'll just end up damaging your body. Try to do like abs,chest, triceps, and biceps one day and then the next day work on your cardio, and yoru leg muscles. That way your muscles can heal by the time your ready to work on them again. DON'T work out if you feel too sore its yoru body telling you it needs more time and if this is the first time your working out hard then it make take more than a day to heal depending on your body type.
So if you stick to a good workout scheduale and keep up with it you could have that six pack by the end of the summer. But its gonan be alot of hard work

dont feel like reading through all of that atm so ill give u a piece of advice.... WORK UR ASS OFF ONE DAY and then do light work outs, do NOT attempt to work hard EVERYDAY!! u will get worse results then one day hard as hell one day light

[quote="FenaCorp"]

1. I read somewhere that to get bigger, larger muscles, you lift heavier weights, for less reps, and to get leaner muscles, you lift lighter weights for more reps.

Ex.
For leaner muscles, you lift 10 pound dumbbells for 200 reps.
For larger muscles, you lift 20 pound dumbbells for 100 reps.

Can anyone confirm this?


yea true, not sure about the meanging of lean but yeah it will make your muscle smaller and develop your endurance. example marathon runner are tall and kinda slim, sprint runenr are small and have large muscle. Personally I train more on endurance, I've been doing some competition and this was needed.

2. Why do you lift weights? For what reasons? For your health, just to make yourself stronger, or... to look better for the girls?

I train to stay healthy, and for the Endorphin. you get addicted to this shit


3. Does anybody know any exercises that I can do at home, without any special equipment, to work on my abs?

sittup, pushup, stretching, jumpingjack for cardio.


4. Is it possible to go from a 2-pack to a 6-pack by the end of summer, provided that I eat right, and try to work off some of the fat covering my stomach area? Everyone has a six-pack, right? But it's just covered by fat and stuff, so you just have to work that off. If I just worked all the fat off, but didn't really work on the muscles, could you see the six-pack? Are doing crunches and ab exercises just to more define the abs?
And, what if you don't work off the fat, but you work heavily on your ab muscles? Could you still see the 6-pack, or the abs, through the fat?

Nha you dont have a 6-pack under the fat, except if you have worked on it. I'm terribly slim and didn't have 6-pack when I was young lol. But beeing slim is a good point in a way since when you train you get betetr muscle definition, and no dumb fatty strong harm
[quote]

Don't do the classic crunches! You have two points of resting where your abs aren't working! In a classic crunch you go all the way up and then back to the ground, remove those two steps, only make a small crunch, don't go too high or reach the ground. Your abs will be working all the time when you do that, much more effective.
You can try doing 20 of those small crunches then 10 seconds of freezing in the middle of the crunch, if you do that right and you repeat it 3 times ( 60 crunch/30 seconds holding ) I'll bet you $10 your abs will be in flames, especially since you don't workout all that much.



I'm not really good in explaining movements in English so I've added this image which displays what I'm trying to say.
If this isn't giving you any results after doing it(no burning abs) you can try to cross your arms over your chest and do it again, that's much harder.

Just dont give up on it and you will be big. Personally im 6'3" with broad shoulders and rather strong so im kinda big for a 16 year old. Then again ive always been tall

LOL that made me laugh. Did you make that yourself?
And yeah, about the picture, it makes sense, since that's the part of the crunch that you're really straining to pull yourself up. I'll make sure to do that.

Say I could do 50 crunches right now (just a random number)... what do you guys think would be a reasonable goal to set by the end of summer? I have around a 10-week summer.

To all the people who've replied to this thread, thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it.
About the whole six-pack under the fat thing... when you see pictures of the human body, and just the basic musculature, it shows that everyone has a six-pack, it's just not visible... so that's not true?

And about the food... why proteins? Should I stay away from seafood, steak, shrimp... that kinda stuff? Grains? Anybody know about them? Are they good for you, or bad for you?
And no more ice cream, cakes, or fruit roll-ups for me?

Haha, thanks again, guys, I really appreciate this. Never thought that my thread would get this many informed responses...

Its not about the amount of crunches, its about the total time.

50 Quick little Crunches will give you the same as for example, 10 slow crunches. Its all about the time you spend making those muscles work.
Also,

Protiens= Muscle builder. Fish/Seafood is also protien, and the omega-3 is good for you.
No more ice cream, cakes, other shit if you want to lose fat. :/

You can do all the crunches in the world and not get a 6 pack. 6 pack is simply the reward for keeping your body fat lvls under about 10%. You're going to have to change your diet more than lift. That said:

1. Yes, to an extent. There IS a point where repetition won't matter. It's easier (at least for me) to get on a training/eating schedule where you bulk for 10 weeks then cut for 2. EG. I'm currently on one where I eat 3400-3600 calories a day for 10 weeks then eat 1700-1900 for 2. My lifting changes from diamonds to reps during this time.

2. For looks, mostly. With my body type, I'm never going to be the strongest guy in the gym, so I lift to look good.

3. Distance running. There's a reason that all runners have amazing bodies from the waist down. Also, crunches, and bicycles will wreck your abs and get them cut.

4. Easily. Try and eat as close to a 40/30/30 diet as you can (40% cal from protein and 30% each from fat/carbs. I recommend using some meal replacement powders and bars as well as protein shakes, as they're a really good source for protein. Also a lot of chicken and fish will make it easier.

Also i wouldnt try any supplements that help you lose wait. Not sure how it would affect you and if you stop exercising it could mess you up some, but it works different for different people.

YMMV. I'm a big fan of non-steroid supplements. They're definitely not NECESSARY, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. It does, however, make it a lot easier. I use MRPs, protein shakes, an EFA mixture, creatine, glutamine, multivitamins, and fiber tablets. The combination helps me gain more muscle mass per workout, keep that mass from breaking down overnight, and helps me heal faster between workouts. I am definitely in better shape because of them, but I would still be in good shape even without.

Thats what i meant, the steroids. I just couldnt get the word out for some reason. But i know creatine can have some weird affects on some. But protein shakes and fiber tabs are decent. But dont get to the point where you need them, cause you dont.

Exactly. If I ever had to give something up for the supplements, I'd stop them temporarily. Except for the fiber and vitamins. That's just being healthy.

Muscle Milk is one of my favorite protien shakes if your intrested in that as well.

If your pretty big right now, with a fat % of like 25ish, getting a visible 6 pack is going to be tough. Still doable, just your going to have to change your lifestyle, as far as food/exersise habits are concerned. Atleast give it a shot, see how you like it.

While I'm starting creatine again, it all depends on your body type and goals. I dont think you should take it, because of what your goal is. Also, if you dont drink enough, you can end up with kindey problems out the wazoo.

Damn masta. I can sense your future job.