Train Like an Athlete by ATHLEAN-X (Video Podcast)

Do you have what it takes to get a shredded set of 8 pack abs? Well, even if your enthusiasm is there I’m going to show you how to determine if you can get an 8 pack or whether your sights should be set on six pack abs or maybe even 4 pack abs instead. There is a quick test that I’m going to reveal in this video that you can do to determine the genetics of your anatomy and find out what your abs will look like if your body fat is low enough to see them.

First thing is to assess your current level of body fat. If you are carrying a lot of body fat around your waist at the moment (not just a little bit that is hiding your abs) but enough that you would consider yourself too fat to see any ab definition at all then you probably won’t gain much from this test. If you are under 20-25 percent body fat this will work.

To start, stand up and grab as much of the fat and skin that you can around the area of your belly button. Make sure to point your fingers inward when you do this. Once you’ve grabbed hold of this, pull it outward. Contract your muscles underneath your skin and fat and you will notice that they pull away from this tissue and make it easier for you to distinguish the pure muscle below. From here, use your pointed fingers to “strum” up and down on the rectus abdominus muscle below.

Make sure your fingers are below your belly button when you are doing this. If you can feel a line at the level of the belly button then you can develop a solid six pack as the connective tissue band that runs from the linea alba is present and dividing your abs in such a way so that you can have six separate areas if the body fat is low enough. From here, move your fingers lower and see if you can strum or palpate another horizontal band of connective tissue. If you can, then you have the genetics capable of developing an 8 pack.

Now, as I illustrate here, I do not have and cannot develop 8 pack abs. I simply do not have the genetics for them despite my very low levels of body fat. You may find this to be the case as well, but so what? Never let yourself be discouraged by meaningless tests like this since there are so many other things you can do to make whatever abs you do have look amazing.

Firstly, you can work to develop your obliques. This will visually give you a tapered and framed out midsection making them instantly look better regardless of whether you have a 4 pack, 6 pack or 8 pack abs. The next thing you can do is make sure you add weighted ab work to your ab routines. As you hypertrophy your abdominal muscles they will stand out more and help to make the cuts become more visibly deep in the process. Finally, you can work on training the transverse abdominis muscle which will help to compress the connective tissue of the rectus which can improve the visibility of the abs anatomy that you do have.

The bottom line is, we all have abs and can make them look better by training them the right way and by following a nutrition plan that enables you to keep them year round. The ATHLEAN-X Training Systems at http://athleanx.com can allow you to do just that. Start training like an athlete and start looking like one without compromising muscle growth or fat loss goals. You can do both at the same time and I’m going to show you how step by step.

In the meantime, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24 if you want to get more ab workout videos and ab exercises you can do for six pack abs or even 8 pack abs if you’ve got the genetics for them.