Six-packs abs were things of only men but now women also can have it. Doing the right workout can help to get a six-pack as with healthy diet plans. But it is not an easy task to get the six-packs, it can be challenging and require efforts.
Many women desire to have an attractive and well-sculpted body like their favorite stars and models whom they see every day on social media.
Many women know that getting muscle definition is a hard thing even if they do regular workout. A successful workout plan depends on the diet and a healthy lifestyle free of stress.
The important thing to know every factor that influences you to get your abs under control. For example, your body composition, which is a body fat ratio and muscle mass is influenced by hormones such as cortisol – a stress hormone. Stress is linked with higher abdominal fat levels in non-overweight women.
Every woman’s body is built differently, therefore it varies but it takes effort to see the result.
Exercise to get Six Pack Abs for Women
Table of Contents
Burn Fat with HIIT and Cardio
If you wish to develop 6-packs abs, you must first burn the fat. There is nothing better than HIIT and cardio for burning calories. Doing three hours of cardio and the HIIT for one week to reduce the fat from the entire body. You may try running up to stairs, bicycling, skipping, playing a sport, swimming, Zumba, or HIIT.
Crunches
Crunches’ workout is best for reducing midsection and abdominal fats. It works effectively for six-packs.
How to do Crunches?
- Lie down over your back on the workout mat.
- Flex your knees and keep feet flat over the ground.
- Keep your hands over either side of your head to help its weight.
- Turn up at an angle of 30° and breath out.
- Breathe in and go down to the beginning position.
- Do this again for 2-3 sets with 10 reps.
Bicycle Crunches
Bicycle crunches help to develop the abs and also work on hamstrings and quadriceps.
How to Do Bicycle Crunches?
- Lie down over the back on the workout mat.
- Keep your hands over the other side of the head to support its weight.
- Turn up at an angle of 45°, breath out, and flex to your right side. Get your right knee to your chest and try to touch the right knee using your left elbow.
- Move your upper body to your left side and bring left knee near your chest and try to reach the left knee using the right elbow.
- Do this exercise for 2-3 sets with 10-reps each.
Sit-Ups
Sit-ups are similar to crunches and focus on the external obliques and rectus abdominals. It is one of the best exercises to get six-packs abs for females.
How to do Sit-Ups?
- Lie down over the back on an exercise mat.
- Flex your knees at 90 degrees and manage your feet flat over the mat.
- Cross hands over the chest to make your palms lightly kept against the shoulders.
- Place your abdomen tight and keep feet flat on the floor, raise your head and shoulder.
- Pause for one second and gently go down to the beginning point.
- Do it for 2-3 sets with 10 reps each.
Variation
Place your palms on the thighs and arms straight and then sit-ups. Let your palms slid up to knees when you get up and slid down as you go back to the beginning point.
Lying Leg Raise
Lying leg raise is a challenging workout if you have excess weight in the lower body parts. This workout is highly suggested if you wish to reduce the weight of belly parts and develop abs.
How to do Lying Leg Raise?
- Lie down over your workout mat using your hands on the sides and palm should face down.
- Keep your toes pointed outward and raise both legs.
- Stop when they form a 90° angle with the ground.
- Gently reduce your legs and get them back to the beginning point.
- Do this exercise for 2-3 sets and 10-reps each.
Leg Up Crunch
This workout is a challenging variation of crunches. It works best for upper and lower abs.
How to do Leg Up Crunch?
- Lie down on the workout mat and lift your legs at 90 degrees and stretch hands on the head.
- Crunch upward and try to reach your knees or toes using your fingertips.
- Come back down and breathing.
- Breath out and crunch upward.
- Perform 3-sets with 12 reps each.
Plank
Plank exercise helps to strengthen the core, lower back pain, and improve posture. The lower belly bulge and work over the rectus abdomen, external and internal obliques, arms, transverse abdominals, quads, shoulders, hip, and back muscles.
How to do Plank?
- Bend down over your workout mat.
- Keep your palms in the front direction and palms must be kept flat over the mat, and arms should be straight like cat pose.
- Flex down and keep your forearms over the mat.
- Raise legs behind and manage them straight and bend your toes.
- Be in this pose for 10-20 seconds and feel your core, shoulders, and quads burn.
- Release the pose and repeat it three more times.
Variation:
You can also perform a side plank by lying down over your side and then raise the body by supporting with feet and forearms.
Mountain Climbers
The mountain climber exercise is similar to mountain climbing. It helps to burn tummy fat and strengthen core muscles.
How to do Mountain Climbers?
- Take a plank pose and keep elbows, shoulders, and wrist aligned.
- Flex your right knee and get is near to chest. Keep your right foot back down.
- As you keep right foot backward, hop, and lift your left foot above the ground, flex your left knee and get it near to chest.
- Perform this movement with a higher speed to feel the burn in abs and thighs.
- Perform 3-sets of 20-reps each.
Hanging Ab Curl
The hanging ab curl is the best workout and fun exercise to tone abs. It targets the inner abs, lower abs, and transverse abs muscles.
How to do Hanging Ab Curl?
- Hold a pull-up bar and dangle your legs. Make sure to keep legs straight.
- Breath out, flex your knees, and pull your legs upward to the chest.
- Breath in and gently takes down your legs and get them back to starting position.
- Perform this exercise with 2-sets with 10 reps.
Arm Pull Over -Straight-Leg Crunch
This exercise focus on lower abs, middle abs, upper abs, hamstrings, and hip flexors.
How to do Arm Pull Over-Straight-Leg Crunch?
- Lie down over a workout mat and put your legs stretched outward and keep arms stretched above the head.
- Raise your legs above the ground at a 45° angle.
- Raise your head and shoulders, get your hands near feet, and move legs upward till they form a 90-degree angle with the ground.
- Gently release the pose and get hands and legs to the beginning position.
Tip: Try using two pounds of dumbbells while exercising. You can also workout these to lower belly fats.
Six Pack Abs for Women: Diet Tips
Sample diet menu for developing six-pack abs
- Early Morning at 7:00 – 7:45 am
- Consume 1-cup lemon water containing cinnamon and honey.
- Breakfast at 8:15 – 9:00 am
- Eat eggs or oatmeal or Quinoa with one cup milk, one multigrain bread slice, and 4-6 almonds.
- Lunch at 12:30 – 1:00 pm
- Eat Chicken/veggie or Lettuce boats salad
- Evening Snack at 4:00 pm
- Eat unsalted popcorn with Green tea or fresh fruit juice
- Dinner at 7:00 – 7:30 pm
- Eat Mushroom or Chicken clear soup with plenty of fiber-rich green veggies or blanched veggies with boiled black beans
Increase Lean Protein
Protein is the main food for the muscles. Eating lean protein helps to rebuild and repair the torn muscles during workout. Include mushroom, chicken breast, lentils, beans, fish, and soy in your diet to get extra nutrition.
Do Not Skip Healthy Fats
Healthy fats are good for health and weight management. Adding healthy fats in your diet in place of unhealthy fats helps to lower the weight gain and inflammation. Add walnuts, almonds, pine nuts, macadamia nuts, fatty fish, avocado, chia seeds, flax seeds, olive oil, pumpkin seeds, dark chocolate, cheese, and eggs.
Add Dietary Fiber
We often think that carbs should be avoided to lose weight, but that is not true. Carbs are also important, but you need to learn about healthy carbs. Dietary fiber is one type of carb, which cannot be easily digested by humans but assists in weight loss by keeping your stomach full for more time and prevent fat absorption. Add flax seeds, broccoli, prune, pears, peaches, apple, black beans, lima beans, figs, berries, barley, oats bra, green peas, peach, guava, artichokes, guava, green peas, brussels sprouts, pomegranate, kiwi, beetroot, brown rice, acorn squash, and quinoa.
Drink Up
Commonly, when you feel thirsty and avoid drinking water, you may feel hungry and eat more calories. Furthermore, not drinking sufficient water helps to prevent cells from doing their functions, slow down metabolism, cause dehydration, bloating, and constipation. Consume 2-3 liters of water and according to your health requirement every day. You can also consume fresh vegetable and fruit juices, infused water, coconut water, smoothies, and buttermilk.
No Starving
If you think not eating will make you lose weight, then you are wrong. Not eating on time or skipping food may cause you to shift body on starvation mode, and it will stop using your calorie burning. The extra calories will get stored as fat and lead to weight gain. The extra calories will be saved as fat in the body and lead to weight gain. Consume 2-4 hours to make your metabolism active and managing cell functioning.
Consume Fat Burners
Some foods help to burn the calories apart from nourishing the body. Add fat burning foods in your diet to help to lower the fat. Consume green tea, grapefruit, brown rice, cayenne pepper, celery, black pepper, yogurt, nuts, low-fat milk, apple cider vinegar, dark chocolate, spinach, garlic, cauliflower, and peanut butter.
Some foods help burn the calories apart from nourishing your body. Include fat-burning foods in your diet to help you shed fat. Consume grapefruit, green tea, brown rice, quinoa, cayenne pepper, black pepper, celery, cinnamon, yogurt, low-fat milk, nuts, turmeric, dark chocolate, apple cider vinegar, spinach, cauliflower, garlic, and peanut butter. Here’s a list of other foods to eat to get six-pack abs.
Lifestyle Changes for Six Pack Abs
Lifestyle change is important for keeping six-pack abs. They provide inner makeover and allow them to adjust to a new lifestyle. You will love to have positive change.
Stop Hitting Snooze
You should make yourself wake up in the early morning to balance your sleep, hormones, and nourishment to maintain amazing abs. Early waking up helps to provide more time to do workout or yoga before you rush to school or office.
Reduce Stress
Stress is harmful to health. Having more stress hormones called cortisol is released, which promotes glucose levels in the blood and causes more hunger. It also causes fat deposition in the abdominal parts, diabetes, and insulin resistance. Meditation, yoga, weight training, cardio, swimming, playing, painting, traveling, reading books, listening to music, and applying makeup are a fun activity to relieve stress.
Don’t Avoid Breakfast
If you miss breakfast, it will make you feel hungry all day. Breakfast is an important meal of the day for normal body functions. Adding protein, fiber, and healthy fats in breakfast provide complete balance in the meal.
Avoid Junk
Thinking about what to eat to get a six-pack? Skip junk foods. High-carb, unhealthy, and zero healthy benefit nourishment are low-quality nourishment. They don’t do anything yet harm your well being. Abstain from eating on low-quality nourishment, for example, potato chips, fries, seared chicken, Indian singed snacks, and so forth. Additionally, avoid eating midnight snacking.
Weekly Workout
A regular workout is important for maintaining abs. Perform workout for 4 hours a week to manage your body shape. Try performing weights, cardio, and strength training to remove fats and develop lean muscle mass.
Develop Social Support
Social support is the most essential factor for weight loss or maintaining abs. Try to socialize with people who have lost that kind of weight or have a similar goal. You can learn more from it and stay motivated.
Share Your Calories
You may get a craving for some fried food or dessert. Do not eat it all snacks and share it with friends and family to eat fewer calories. Also, use small plates to signal your brain that you are eating enough.