Get These Abs in Four Weeks

Is your spring fitness plan still just a plan? Don’t panic – our last minute guide is here to save you from beach shame

It’s that time of the year. How on Earth did that happen? When did the sun start peaking through the clouds? When the beaches become so inviting and give us… breasts and legs, magnificent breasts and legs, popping out of the top and bottoms of summer dresses – it’s magnificent. It is indeed.

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Unfortunately, however, beach sauntering is a two-way street. If the women are going to show off their wares, they expect to see some flesh in return. Your flesh. On display. For all to see. Shiiiiiiitttttt. Take a deep breath, calm down and blaspheme no more, sir, for we have a solution to your wobbly woes. A solution called ‘getting stacked in four weeks’, because ‘getting stacked’ is medically proven to be the fastest way to banish that belly.

More muscle burns more energy, you see. And this statement holds true whatever it is you’re doing – even a snooze on the couch will fry more calories if your biceps are that bit bigger. Which means, as a West Virginia University study recently showed, the best strategy for getting ripped is to lift weights and do cardio, which is why we’ve devised the following plan for you.

And it’s not just any plan, either. It’s a plan that tells you how to work out, how to eat and what not to do in order to get that torso beach-ready. Plus you don’t need a fancy gym membership either, just your bodyweight and a dumbbell. So dust off your doorstop and follow this plan to make women up and down the land drool.

The workout: behold the ultimate abs programme

Complete these exercises one after another without any rest. Finish the circuit once if you’ve not left the couch since last summer (resting 30 seconds between exercises), twice if you can run around the block without coughing up a block of lung butter (resting for 2 minutes only at the end of the circuit) and three times if you crack the high scores on Wii Sports (resting 90 seconds after each circuit). No dumbbells? Easy. Use a backpack stuffed with phone books or rocks. Do it every day for four weeks and you’ll lose your gut and gain a brick hard mid-section.

1. Overhead reverse lunge

Muscles worked: quads, hamstrings, glutes, shoulders, abs Hold dumbbells above your head with locked elbows. Step backwards with your left leg and lower your body until your front knee is bent at 90º. Keep your torso upright. Push back to the start. Do 6 reps on one leg, then switch legs and do the same on the other leg.

2. Rotating push-ups

Muscles worked: chest, triceps, shoulders, abs Lower your chest to the floor as you would in a normal push-up, then straighten your elbows. But instead of stopping where you started, rotate your left arm up so it’s perpendicular to the floor and your body weight rests on your right arm. Lower yourself to the start and repeat on the other side. Do 4-6 reps on each side.

3. Squat curls

Muscles worked: quads, hamstrings, glutes, biceps, abs Stand, feet shoulder-width apart, and hold a dumbbell in each hand, arms at your sides. Bend at the knees and hips to squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Straighten your knees, then bend your elbows to curl the weights to your shoulders. Lower to the start and repeat. Do 12 reps.

4. Inverted row

Muscles worked: back, abs, biceps, forearms Secure a bar three to four feet above the floor – rig up a sturdy broomstick if you have to – then limbo under it. Kidding. Lie under the bar and grab it with a just-over-shoulder-width, overhand grip. Hang at arm’s length from the bar with your body in a straight line from your ankles to shoulders. Pull your chest to the bar by bending your arms then lower yourself to the start. Do 6-8 reps – and remember if you’re not rowing you’re not growing. Or groaning, come to think of it.

5. Pendulum

Muscles worked: abs, obliques (side of abs) Nope, not the band (although they do make for quite an intense workout soundtrack). Lie on your back, arms out at your sides and your legs together. Raise your knees above your hips so that they are at 90º to each other. Prop up your head and shoulders into a half a crunch. Lower your knees to your left side. Go as far as you comfortably can, but don’t let them touch the ground. Pause, then return your legs to the centre and repeat to the right. Do 6-8 reps on each side.

6. Russian twist

Muscles worked: abs, obliques

Time to get serious, comrade. Sit with your back at a 45º angle to the floor and with your knees and feet raised off the floor. Clasp a dumbbell in both hands and extend your arms directly in front of you. Rotate your arms and trunk from the left side to the right side while keeping your legs still. Your head and spine should stay in the same position while your core rotates around them. Do 6 reps on each side, then praise Mother Russia.

7. Plank push-ups

Muscles worked: triceps, chest, abs Lie face-down on the floor with your legs straight. Place your forearms parallel to each other, beneath your chest. Tense your abs and place your right hand where your right elbow was, then straighten that elbow. Raise your left hand to a position that mirrors your right hand so that you are now in a push-up position. Return to the start and repeat on the opposite side. Keep alternating until you’ve done 4-6 reps on each side.

8. Dumbbell swing

Muscles worked: lower back, traps, adductors, hamstrings, glutes, abs Get into the swing of things by standing with your feet three feet apart while holding a dumb-bell between your legs. Use your hips to swing the weight away from your body. When the weight starts to fall back between your legs let your body absorb it by sitting back in your hips so the weight ends up behind you. Drive your hips forward and upward to raise the weight to chest height. Do 12 reps.

9. Leg-raises

Muscles worked: abs

Probably the simplest, but potentially the most pain-laden excercise on this circuit.

Lie on your back with your arms at your sides, palms facing down. Keep your spine straight and your head resting on the mat. Straighten your legs and position them together. Slowly raise your legs until they are at 45º to the floor. Pause for a few seconds and slowly lower them back to the the start position (making sure they don’t rest on the floor). Do 12 reps. Ponder whether there is a God

10. Standing dumbbell shoulder press

Muscles worked: shoulders, abs

Stand holding a dumbbell in each hand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Raise the weights so they are in line with your shoulders on either side of your head. Straighten your elbows to press the weights above your head until your arms are straight. Lower the weight back to your shoulders along the same path. Do 12 reps. Kiss ‘the guns’.

11. Sit-up presses

Muscles worked: abs, shoulders

Here’s your mega abs buster, because normal sit-ups just aren’t tough enough. Sit with your back at a 45° angle to the floor. Bend your knees in front of you keeping your feet on the floor. Hold a weight to your chest. Lower your torso to the floor then, with a straight back, rise to the start point and straighten your elbows to press the weight. Lower the weight to your chest and repeat. Do 8 reps. Cry.

12. Dumbbell squat thrusts

Muscles worked: abs, chest, shoulders Stand with your feet together, and a dumbbell in each hand, then in one motion drop to the floor and push your legs back into a push-up position. Reverse the process, then drop down and do eight more.

And if you can’t afford a dumbbell… …Get ripped like a wild animal. Leading Hollywood fitness trainer and former Tae Kwon Do champion, Vishnu has taken calisthenic exercising (read: working out without using equipment) one step further by creating All Fours Fitness. It’s a training programme that’s based solely on the movements of animals. Drills range from ‘squat sprawls’, which mimic the bio-mechanics of a frog’s movements, to ‘panther crawls’, which mirror the motion of a panther sneaking up of its prey, and ‘cross strides’, which see you running around on all fours like a gorilla. “Do four drills in ten minutes and you’ll soon be as agile, powerful and flexible as an animal,” says Vishnu. Ridiculous? Absolutely. Effective? Affirmative – after all have you ever seen a fat tiger? all4fit.blogspot.com

Ab-friendly food

Use these eating plans from sport nutritionist Matt Lovell (fourweekfatloss.com) to support all that good gym work

Day 1

Breakfast

2 whole eggs scrambled with 3 egg whites, served with a tomato and 3-4 slices of turkey bacon. Wash it down with a large mug of green tea or sugar-free black coffee.

Mid-morning snack

An apple, large handful of almonds and large mug of green tea.

Lunch

Medium-sized sushi box with extra sashimi. Insist on brown rice, it will fill you up for longer. Drink 500ml of water instead of a soft drink or a calorific vitamin water.

Mid-afternoon snack

Plain, sugar-free yoghurt, 1 tbsp ground flax seeds and 1 scoop of flavoured protein powder. Mix together in bowl and spoon it in.

Dinner: Cajun spiced grilled chicken breast, 2 cups broccoli, cauliflower and corn. A litre of water.

THE DAY’S FOOD EXPLAINED

Losing weight shouldn’t feel like you’ve gone on a hunger strike. That’s why this plan has you eating five small meals a day. “This means you’ll constantly be digesting food, which will ramp up your metabolism and make you burn more calories throughout the day,” says Lovell. “The meals each contain large servings of protein, which keep the hunger pangs at bay and help fuel the muscle growth you’ll amass thanks to the training you’re doing.”

“The other key weight-loss players are the sushi [rich in gut-busting protein and omega 3’s], yoghurt [full of the calcium proven to lose weight] and the Cajun spice is loaded with capsaicin that can boost your metabolism for three hours after eating it.” Dig in and you’ll be one step closer to ab-solution. Sorry.

From the August 2010 issue of FHM India.