Six Pack Abs In Half The Time

By John Alvino

Fitness experts commonly teach that since your abdominals help to support and stabilize your spine, they should never be fatigued prior to performing any non ab exercises such as squats, pulling, pressing or rowing exercises. Based on the abs role as a stabilizer, the whole fitness world vehemently insists that you must ALWAYS perform your abdominal training at the end of your workout.

The problem is that the “do abs at the end of your workout” philosophy goes against one of the most fundamental workout truths: the Priority Principle. This principle simply states that what gets trained first will get the best training result. Why would this principle work for every other body part in the human body except your abs?

What if your abs are your weakest body part? What if getting six pack abs happens to be your number one priority? In these cases, they should be trained at the beginning of your workout when you are in your freshest state.

So at the risk of being controversial, I’m going to recommend this modification to your workout: if abs are your priority, train them first! This uncomplicated adjustment in training sequence will make a huge difference in your results.

You will have much greater focus when working your abs, and be able to put forth a significantly better effort while training them, since you will be totally fresh. If you are used to just throwing in a couple of abdominal sets at the end of your workout, you will literally double your rate of progress towards developing your six-pack.

In addition to the benefits mentioned above, training your abs in this sequence will also provide you with a great warm up for the rest of your workout. The only exception to this priority rule is when you are really training with maximal weights. Doing anything that could result in any residual fatigue prior to a maximal weight workout would be undesirable.

Try this exercise sequencing technique and get a great six-pack in half the time! As Stephen Covey says, “Put First Things First”.

About the Author

John Alvino is a world renowned fitness expert who is known for his ability to help people lose body fat as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 16 years as a Strength & Conditioning Specialist, including professional athletes, fitness models and regular men and women.

He is an advisor and regular contributor to Men's Fitness magazine. His trademarked Complete Fat Loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and has helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, and get lean in record time. For more information on the Complete Fat Loss workouts, please visit www.CompleteFatLoss.com