You know those muscles that start at the obliques just at the waist and angle down towards the groin? The ones that male models always show off in underwear ads?
I gots me some of those. Clear as day. Not even flexing.
… and my six pack is showing through… well it’s just a four pack now but it’s coming!
All it took is upping my workout by 10%, dropping sugar and fat intake a bit and being generally depressed about not having a job, a g.f. and being a bit nervous about an upcomming date or two!
My face is looking a bit thin though… my family will probably ask about my health. My daughter keeps telling me I’m handsome though… so…
What do you mean when you say you upped your workout? 10% more weight on everything, or did you add a new excercise or two? Or do you just do more sets?
Higher intesity on all levels. I don’t do much weights anymore except for arms and shoulders but I do a lot of dips, chinups, pushups and various core muscle workouts. Aerobically, I upped my pace by 10% for the run, increased my resistance on the spin bike and eliptical trainer.
But I think the real difference came when I checked my sugar/fat intake just a bit.
I’ve dropped from an 8.5 min mile to just over 7.5. I could have increased distance buy I’m shooting for a faster pace right now. Distance is less of a concern. But yeah, I expect I’d still be burning more calories if I ran longer, but the increase of 10% in effort is tougher than running 10% more distance at the old pace.
Right with you mate.Mine started to show when I upped the intensity of my workouts, combined with taking fat-burning supplements, which hey! Do work. Got them showing through, as well a a definite six pack, even thought that takes a bit of flexing. But the cuts, man they are sweet. Dont have to flex them in the slightest. Also, I must start a thread about veins some day, also starting to bulge through. Some people think big veins are gross, I would say those people are MORONS.
Oh yeah?.. which ones? I used to take some back when they had ephedrine but it always made my heart race too hard and I only took 1/3 of recommended dose. Was never sure they did anything but give me a nervous energy boost; Which did help with workout intensity but I hated the shakes they would give me sometimes.
The veins… yeah, got 'em but I never focused on it… it’s just a side effect of low fat percentage and relatively large muscle mass.
My nephew is 14 years old and swims on a competitive team, which means 5 AM workouts everyday. Maybe it’s youth on his side, but he is ripped like you would not believe. I didn’t think just swimming would do that, but then look at someone like Ian Thorpe - yowza! I’m sure they do some weight training, but what it comes down to is distance and sprint swimming every single day of his life. Anyway, we joke about his six pack but it’s the real deal.
I think it’s great when you see results from a minor change in workouts, but the older you get, the softer it gets so enjoy it while you can.
I’ve just started working out, myself. Started back on Aug 1, and included a pretty significant change in my diet, too. In fact, I’ve got a thread over in IMHO about some of my workout goals. I can say that I’ve lost 31 lbs and several inches off my waist. My exercises mainly consisted of isometrics - pushups, situps, pullups - but I got up to high reps on all of those this last week, and realized that I wasn’t bulking the way I wanted. I couldn’t afford a full set of free-weights ($1000 for a complete set to do all of the exercises! yowza!), and some other health issues keep me from going to a public gym, so I compromised and bought a Weider “power-bar” type exercise system (poor man’s BowFlex - $299 on clearance at MC Sports). I figured it would give me the resistance training I need, even if it wouldn’t give me all of the flexibility of a full free-weight kit. I’m already noticing differences, and I’ve only been using the machine a couple of days. I figure, anything that helps me up my effort is a good thing. I don’t have a six-pack in the abs, but the shoulders, biceps, triceps, pecs and lats are all starting to define up. I started out weighing 268 lbs and I now weigh 237, which is only 12 lbs short of where I was when I got married, so I’m pretty darned jazzed…
Mmmm. That is my favorite part of a man’s body (well, to look at). In fact, I replayed the Apollo towel scene from BSG earlier today, just to appreciate Jamie Bamber’s. Anyone know what the proper name for that muscle is?
Anyway, congratulations! It is a wonderful thing to meet some of your fitness goals.
I’ve been hovering in 4 pack territory for a while now–basically I’m ripped all to hell from a few inches below my solar plexus up and my waist on down, but still have a small bit to go on my belly.
Funny thing is I still feel pudgy and overweight even though I’ve been in pretty good shape for well over a year now (ain’t body dysmorphia grand?). Every time I pass a mirror with my shirt off I’m still always a bit startled to catch a glimpse of myself.
