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Hardcore 8 packs abs workout

8 pack abs workout
hardcore 8 pack abs workout chart


Getting ripped abs requires you to workout hard, consistently and smartly. To get hardcore 8 pack abs like Greg Plitt, you will require a strict diet and an effective workout plan. My past two posts here have been about nutrition and the kinds of foods that you need to avoid, in future I will write a post about the kinds of food you should include in your diet. This post is going to be a workout post, a workout strategy post to be more accurate.

To get a completely ripped hardcore midsection which is often only seen in fitness models and statues of Greek god's you should have a hardcore workout plan to target each and every section of your abs. So I made this hardcore 8 pack abs workout chart that shows workouts that target each section of your midsection.

This workout is meant to target upper abs, lower abs and your obliques to make sure you have the complete abs look. Abs are one of those body parts like calfs which can be worked out more often then others since they recover fairly quickly, so it is important to work abs out as often as you possibly can. So with this workout plan, we have 3 ab days, each targeting a different section of your abs. You can train your abs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or what ever suits you best, train abs after you do your workouts.

You could even add an additional abs day where you mix in a combination of lower, upper and oblique abs regions.

So I will just explain the workouts below

Upper abs workout day



On upper abs day you are going to do sit-ups with proper controlled form and a plank/side plank combination. You have to do these exercises with intensity for maximum effectiveness, and there will be no breaks between side plank combo sets.

So you have to begin by doing 25 sit ups but in a slow controlled motion, take the same time going up and back down, squeeze at the top and then repeat 4 times.

After the last set, move straight to plank for 30 seconds, then after 30 seconds is over move straight to the side plank on one side for another 30 seconds, then move straight to other side for 30 seconds. That was one set, now repeat that 4 times and you are done. You could do 1 set of sit ups and then 1 set of plank combo if you like and repeat it like that for 4 setds. Also plank are more of an entire abdominal area workout.

Related Post: find out how to burn stomach fat without doing cardio


Lower abs workout day



This is the most difficult region of abs to train, but fear not we are bringing on the pain. for this region I have chosen 3 exercises, hanging leg raises which are the best lower abs workout, jack-knife sit up exercise and the scissor legs abs exercise.

You are going to start with the hanging leg raises, do 20 reps for 4 sets, take short 30sec breaks between sets we want to make it intense. After hanging leg raises you will do the jack knife sit up exercise also for 4 sets of 20. Lastly you will do the scissor legs abs exercise, by this point if you were intense and only taking 30 second breaks between sets your abs should be burning, just push through the pain and do the scissoer legs until failure and the burning sensation becomes unbearable.

Obliques day



For obliques you are only going to be doing 2 workouts, the dumbbell side bends and the oblique sit ups.
Start by doing the dumbbell side bends, you have to do 4 sets of 25 reps 2 reps for each hand hold the dumbbell (meaning you are going to hold the dumbbell on your left hand side first and do side bends to both sides 25 times then you will switch hands and hold the dumbbell on other side and do the same, keep repeating until both hands have held dumbbell twice). Try using a dumbbell that is as heavy as possible without causing you to lose form, this workout will have your obliques burning, its probably the best oblique workout. Next you must do 4 sets of 25 oblique sit ups and then you are done for oblique day. By now all of your midsection will be in pain and laughing will be painful, that will be evidence of your hard work.

This is just a sample workout, you can make countless combinations of workouts for all ab days.

Decreasing Carbs is a Step Closer to Ripped 8 Pack Abs


Getting abs is not as simple as just decreasing carbs but that will take you one step closer to getting the kind of bodyfat level that you need. My previous post talked about diet and briefly talked about why you should cut certain foods out of your diet, in this post I want to tell you why you should decrease carbs.

I am assuming that you are the average person with the average metabolic rate, people with fast metabolism have an easier time burning calories and tend to get away with a lot of eating without gaining much fat, but they still got to work for their abs but not as hard as most people. I will say that we are all different and respond in different ways to different diets so you have to play around with your own diet to see what work and what does not.
less carbs, less fat and the more visible your abs will be

Let me start with some historic information, people back in ancient times survived by eating meat mostly and fruits and veggies, the meat provided all the protein they needed, it also provided the fat that they needed (yes we actually need fat, a diet without fat is in fact unhealthy), the fruits and the veggies provided proteins, fiber and other important nutrients. To put things simply olden day people were not obese, but were lean, strong and healthy, nowadays obesity is an increasing issue with families increasingly dependent on junk food and canned processed foods which are not good for them.

The problem we have now is that we consume too many calories but I am only going to talk of carbohydrate in this post. So to rephrase my previous statement, we consume too many carbohydrates, some of the foods (carbs we eat) are empty calories with little to no benefit to your health and nutrition, the best thing you could do to lose weight is to stop eating bread products, rolls, buns...the list continues but I am sure you get the point. It is even worse if you are woman because your metabolic rate is lower than male metabolic rate which makes it easier for you to gain fat (the world is not fair I know).

Carbs are used by the body as an energy source, so that you are able to do your daily activities. If you have a job that involves a lot of sitting you do not need to consume many carbs, that works against you because you do not use the carbs you consume instead your body converts and store the carbs as fat. The best thing to do is to eat carbs during your most active times of the day so that they are used and not stored as fat. It is best to have the bulk of your carbs earlier on in the day so that by the end of the day you have used up those calories, infact you need to eat most of your carbs at breakfast when you body need the energy plus it will give you body the longest possible time to use them.

Since this is a post about getting ripped abs I am assuming you workout because you can’t possibly think you can get ripped abs without exercising. It is best to consume carbs before and after a workout as they will most likely be used up because you use up a lot of energy when you are working out and the period shortly after that. Also avoid eating carbohydrates late at night, you will not use the calories you take in and they will be store as fat. When it comes to getting ripped abs fat is the enemy, and decreasing carbs and being mindful of when you have them will help you lean out and stay lean.

Avoid these foods and do bodyweight exercises


I read this interesting post about how if you avoid 4 kinds of food you will lose weight by Kris on his blog kriskris.com which is a nutritional blog that aims at giving people legit information with the research and studies to prove it unlike the information people get from financially driven nutritionist who have deals with pharmaceutical companies. I will briefly just tell you about 3 of the foods he found out about that all people looking to lose weight must avoid. I will also tell you a bit about what to do in addition to avoiding those foods in order for you to look and feel great.

Now avoiding these foods is relevant to people who want to have 8 pack abs because the hardest part about getting 8 pack abs is not really the abdominal workouts that you need to do but shedding fat which covers up your trained abs. Belly fat is one of the most difficult types of fat to get rid of but by avoiding these foods you are well on your way to having that great beach body.
lean ripped body - low body-fat percentage

The 3 foods to avoid are:


Avoid sugar in all its forms because it makes you fat and has no nutrients and a lot  calories and we know that in order to lose weight we need to eat fewer calories than the calories needed to maintain our current bigger self.

Avoid unsaturated fats (Tran’s fats) – unsaturated fats are found mostly in fast foods and canned foods, they are chemically modified fats in order to make them shelf stable and solid. These fats increase your cholesterol.

Refined wheat products – According to Kris wheat product are almost as bad as sugar because it lacks nutrients and just unnecessarily increases your caloric intake. There are diets that require you to not eat any wheat products at all, so no bread because it is bad for you especially if you eat too much of it and are diabetic or over weight (Oprah was on one of those diets(no bread) and she lost weight during that period of her life).

If you want to check out Kris’s original post go to http://www.kriskris.com/worst-foods-to-eat/.
If you want to reveal abs avoiding those foods would be a huge chunk of the job already done, replacing these foods with more nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables, red meat, fish, nuts and chicken will get you results.

Add bodyweight exercises into the mix if you serious about burning that stomach fat because doing bodyweight exercises will not only make you stronger but it will increase your metabolic rate which means you will be burning more calories.

There are many bodyweight exercises you could do, the more popular ones are, squats, jumping jacks, pull ups, chin ups, inverted rows, mountain climbers, push ups, dips et cetera. Adding cardio into the mix will make sure you burn even more fat, jumping rope is an example of fun effective cardio or you could do the more traditional forms of cardio, whatever suits your fancy.

One last thing, if you are not really keen on cardio, you could try intermittent fasting, this is a non restrictive diet (it’s not even really a diet because you can still eat the food you love and still see results). One of the most popular books and programs on this kind of diet is the Eat Stop Eat model of intermittent fasting by Brad Pilon.
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