So you see them on all the fitness mags. You can't escape them. They are on the racks of every grocery store mocking you. I am talking of course about the elusive six pack abs that have a funny way of making you feel like you are out of shape if you don't have them. You've feel like you have tried all the workouts, you go to the gym all the time, maybe you bought that expensive ab gizmo you saw advertised on tv. but your abs still look flabby. The purpose of this article is to clear up some misconceptions and put you on the right six pack workout to getting the hard rippled abs that you deserve.

The first misconception about abs comes from an optical illusion. The rippled look gives the impression that the stomach area is made up of several different muscles. But the fact is that is only one muscle. The illusion of several different muscle groups has spawned a ridiculous amount of workouts aimed at upper and lower abs. This is like attempting to workout your upper or lower bicep. It is only one muscle and all muscles perform one function: they contract. So the only true way to work your stomach muscle is one that makes it contract under stress. This is why leg lift exercises are almost useless. Most of the action of this exercise is done by the hips. The pressure to stabilize your spine during this exercise causes a lactic acid burn which makes you feel like you are working your abdominal muscle really well but you are not.

The best six pack workout is one that focuses mainly on contracting the abdominal and nothing else. This leaves us with the old fashioned sit up. Sit ups are an okay six pack workout but they have a lot of wasted motion in them. It is not required to sit all the way up and touch your elbow to your knee. Your abdominal muscle is fully contracted when your shoulders are five to six inches off the ground. After that you aren't really working out the abdominal at all. This is where crunches come in. Crunches are like half sit ups where you only come up about half way and then go back down. You can also use weights by either holding onto a barbell plate while doing them or use one of the crunch machines at the gym.

But the bad news is that you can do crunches forever and still not see a six pack. You might have a six pack but it won't show up as long as you have a layer of fat covering it up. It takes more than a good six pack workout to get that chiseled look. That is why you have to eat right and do some cardio to burn off that extra fat. This will not only give you that six pack that you are after but give you a lean ripped muscle look too. For more tips on getting that muscular look, see my resource below.