Six Pack Abs Workout Routine

Why High-Intensity Resistance Training (HIRT) is the Best Workout Routine For Getting 6 Pack Abs

It’s important to keep people moving in our increasingly “push-button” society. However, many fitness trainers and so-called health “experts” continue to emphasize low-intensity activities like treadmill walking and other low-impact aerobic exercises. 

Don’t they know that the human body was meant for short, explosive bursts of activity?

Doing long, slow and boring aerobic exercises is NOT what you want when looking for a good six pack abs workout routine.

Granted, the commercial fitness industry’s primary business objective is to grow and maintain membership levels, so it is important to make clients feel good about themselves without making them work too hard. 

At least in the beginning…

But to achieve real health and fitness results, including targeted abdominal development, you need to go beyond the typical cardiovascular workout most trainers recommend to their customers. This is where High-Intensity Resistance Training (HIRT) comes in.

Loosely defined, a HIRT session consists of a group of 6-9 weight-bearing and/or free exercises, performed in 1-3 sets of 8-12 repetitions each that work the abs, in addition to the upper body, lower body, and non-abdominal core (i.e. back, hips).  

Your choice of HIRT exercises, frequency, intensity, time between reps, etc. will vary according to your present fitness level, physical ability and long-term goals. People looking to acquire six-pack abs in particular will be reassured to learn about the benefits of HIRT:

1. Speeds up your Metabolism

Unlike steady state aerobic training, which has the perverse effect of slowing down your metabolism regardless of how long you exercise, HIRT is guaranteed to keep your metabolic rate high – critical for burning fat throughout the day...even as you sleep! 

Combine HIRT with 30 minutes of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) for your cardiovascular system, and you will elevate your metabolism and keep it elevated for at least twenty-four hours after your workout concludes. 

By the time the metabolism rate starts to drop, your recovery time will be over, and you will be ready for the next training session.

2. Improved Muscle Strength

Resistance training lends itself very well to improvements in muscular strength. 

Performing an array of free exercises (e.g. raises, holds, crunches), ball exercises (with and without weights), and cable resistance moves will quickly overload your muscles to achieve hypertrophy; i.e. an increase in the size of your skeletal muscle cells. 

HIRT is particularly important for athletes involved in sports requiring short, explosive bursts of activity like football, hockey, or sprinting, since it encourages and trains Type II (fast-twitch) muscle fibers.

3. Increased Muscle Size

Not surprisingly, repeated contractions that form a necessary part of resistance training will lead to increased abdominal muscle development, provided you eat a proper diet with a net positive caloric intake; i.e. consuming more calories that you burn. 

Don’t forget to give your muscles proper rest after a tough workout, replenish lost glycogen stores, and repair muscle fiber tears through protein consumption within thirty minutes of your concluding exercises.

For individuals with the drive and passion to achieve results, following an approved HIRT program will force you to sweat during every workout. 

However, you will be rewarded with more developed, sculpted abs, and an improved capacity for reducing fat. 

We live in a fast-paced society, so it’s good to know that great results are achievable with relatively short workouts.  Aim for a thirty to forty-five minute session, 3-4 times a week. 

Once you achieve bigger, stronger abdominals, consider adding a high-impact, interval training session at the end to accelerate stomach fat loss to really show off that six-pack!