Six-pack Abs: 12 Weeks Workout And Diet Plan To Define Abs

This 12-week six-pack abs workout and diet plan for definition and core-strength can help you move towards your goals.

Use these plans to build a strong and powerful six-pack abs. The key to getting ripped six-pack abs is to focus on the diet while adding multi-joint, compound movement exercises and smart cardio to your workout routine. This is the long-lost secret you must use to succeed in the quest for six-pack abs.

Abdominal muscle functions

Before starting the exercise of abs, it is important to know about its muscles function. It would be very foolish to do exercises without the knowledge of muscle functions, so it is very important to know about it. So let’s know what is the muscle functions of six-pack abs first.

In our abdomen, there are four types of muscles group. Which is as follows:

1. Rectus Abdominis: Located in front of the stomach, it is the most famous stomach. Often referred to as a six-pack abs, as it is the most superficial of the abdominal muscles and gives you what a washboard often looks like to you, a fitness model. The function of rectus abdominis is to flex and stabilize the spine.
2. Transverse Abdominis: Located under the oblique, it is the deepest part of the abdominal muscles and wraps around your spine for safety and stability. It helps in breathing but more importantly, it activates the core and stabilizes the pelvis and low back during most movements.
3. Internal Obliques: Located under the external obliques, moving in the opposite direction. These muscles are just below the external oblique and work in a similar way in terms of function.
4. External Obliques: Located on the sides and front of the stomach. These muscles are located on either side of the rectus abdominis and play an important role in bending the spine, rotating the torso, and bending sideways.

12 weeks six-pack abs workout schedule

DAYS	TRAINING
Monday	Upper Abs Workout
Tuesday	Lower Abs Workout
Wednesday	Upper Abs Workout
Thursday	Lower Abs Workout
Friday	Upper Abs Workout
Saturday	Lower Abs Workout
Sunday	Off day

1. Upper Abs Workout

EXERCISES	SETS x REPS
1. SUPER SET
(A) Incline Crunches (B) Russian Twist	3 x 15
2. SUPER SET
(A) Standing Rope Crunches (B) Standing Rope Side Crunches	3 x 15
3. SUPER SET
(A) Rope Crunches (on Knee) (B) Rope Oblique Crunches (on Knee)	3 x 15
4. SUPER SET
(A) Crunches on Lat Machine (B) Dumbbell Side Bend (with rotation)	3 x 15 3 x (15 each-side)
5. REGULAR SET
Stomach Vacuum (5 sec hold)	3 x (10 times)

2. Lower Abs Workout

EXERCISES	SETS x REPS
1. SUPER SET
(A) Laying Leg Pull-­in (B) Mountain Climber Cross Body	3 x 15
2. SUPER SET
(A) Hanging Knee Raise (B) Side Bridges	3 x 15
3. SUPER SET
(A) V-Crunch (B) Hanging side Raise	3 x 15
4. SUPER SET
(A) Plank (on stability ball) (B) Cricket Short Crunch	3 x (90 sec hold) 3 x 15

Note: There will be no rest in between the superset, do upper abs and external oblique’s exercises back to back. Take rest between set 60 seconds.

3. Combine six-pack abs workout plan with other muscle groups

DAYS	TRAINING
Monday	Shoulders + Triceps + Upper Abs
Tuesday	Chest + Traps + Lower Abs
Wednesday	Cardio + Upper Abs
Thursday	Back + Biceps + Lower Abs
Friday	Legs + Upper Abs
Saturday	Cardio + Lower Abs
Sunday	Off day

Note: Do 12-15 reps of each exercise, no matter how weak you are, you have to hit 12-15 reps of 3-4 sets. Take rest 60 seconds between sets. Perform every exercise slowly and under control; don’t just focus on counting the reps, try to make mind-muscle connection which is important to grow muscles. Take one second to lift the weight and 1 to 2 seconds to lower it.

Six-Pack Abs Nutrition Tips

It’s unfortunately very true that you can’t train with a bad diet. In fact, we all have the coveted six-pack abs, it just sits under a protective covering called body fat.

To expose them, you have to remove the fat. To do this, you need to change your eating habits along with exercise. Here are some things to consider.

Essential nutrients

Protein

Many people make the mistake of reducing their protein intake, protein is one of the most essential things¹, without enough protein you will lose your muscle mass at an extremely high rate and sabotage the fat burning efforts.

Protein helps form the building blocks of muscle and is probably the most essential macronutrient of them all, mainly because the body burns a ton of calories digesting protein. Protein responsible for tissue growth and repair.²

Carbohydrate

It can be difficult to calculate the exact amount of carbohydrates to eat, but a good strategy to use is to eat most of your carbs after a workout.

When you consume carbs after a workout, your body rapidly absorbs the carbs directly into the muscle tissue, promoting growth. Carbs also help muscles recover faster after a workout, which will give you better results faster.

Remember, your body releases cortisol at an incredible rate after a workout! Cortisol has been proven to reduce the production of thyroid hormone³, the lower your production in this area, the slower your metabolic rate.

Fat

Many people believe that eating fat will make you fat, but in fact, healthy polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats such as fish oil, nuts, and olive oil will actually help you burn more fat than a low-fat diet.

The dietary fat in your diet will help keep insulin levels stable, which will help prevent you from gaining excess body fat.

As it turns out, if you want to prevent cancer, plant-based fats are powerful cancer-fighters⁴. If you are currently battling colon cancer, prostate cancer or breast cancer, it is essential to include plant-based fats in your diet on a daily basis.

Healthy fats include extra-virgin olive oil, flax seed oil, and fats from plant sources such as nuts, seeds, peanut butter and coconut. They also improve your heart health (cardiovascular health) and fight weight gain and obesity.

Fiber

The final diet tip is to include plenty of fiber and raw vegetables with the meal. Vegetables are loaded with a lot of fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals which are essential for building a lean body and ripped six-pack abs.

Vitamins and minerals

A game that many athletes play with their diet is their regular intake of vitamins.

In other words, they take them when they want to, and that’s a rarity! You need to take a multivitamin and multimineral every day without fail.

National Institutes of Health in 2006 and the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Health and Americans concluded that there was not enough evidence to recommend for or against the use of any vitamins, including multivitamins, to prevent heart disease, cancer, and other chronic conditions.⁵⁶

Observational studies have looked at possible links between multivitamin use and cancer. The Physicians’ Health Study II nudges evidence in the direction of benefit for a standard multivitamin—multimineral.⁶

Calorie Calculations for the Six-Pack Abs Diet

Calculate your caloric intake, consuming the right amount of calories helps you the most in achieving your goal.

Losing body fat means losing weight, which means reducing calorie intake. In general, you can cut 500 calories per day to lose about 1 pound per week.

This may amount to consuming less than 250 calories per day, while increasing activity to burn an additional 250 calories. There are many ways to look at this, but a calorie deficit will help you lose body fat.

Water intake

Water is an essential nutrient. It is also necessary to convert food into energy and help nutrients reach your muscles and support vital organs. If that is not enough, dehydration is a real energy killer.

If you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. Drink consistently throughout the day and aim for at least 4 liters per day.

12 weeks six-pack abs diet plan

To burn fat and reveal the washboard, six-pack abs, it is important to eat a balanced diet that is composed of protein, healthy fats and few carbohydrates.

DAYS	LOW + HIGH CARBS STRATEGY
Monday	Low Carbs
Tuesday	Low Carbs
Wednesday	Low Carbs
Thursday	High Carbs
Friday	No-carbs
Saturday	No-carbs
Sunday	High Carbs

Pre-workout, post-workout and during workout meal on workout day

Pre-workout meal

During workout drink

Post-workout meal

Upon wake up and 30 minutes lunch

Low carbs day meal plan

Macro-breakdown: Calories = 1877, Protein = 198g, Carb = 125g, Fat = 65g.

1. Breakfast meal

2. Snack meal

3. Lunch meal

4. Snack meal

5. Dinner meal

6. 1 hour before bed meal

High carbs day meal plan

Macro-breakdown: Calories = 2710, Protein = 200g, Carb = 302g, Fat = 78g.

1. Breakfast meal

2. Snack meal

3. Lunch meal

4. Snack meal

5. Dinner meal

6. 1 before bed meal

No-carbs day meal plan

Macro-breakdown: Calories: 2200, Proteins: 280g, Carbs: 34g, Fat: 112g.

1. Breakfast meal

2. Snack meal

3. Lunch meal

4. Snack meal

5. Dinner meal

6. 1 before bed meal

1. The Nutrition Source. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Available here: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/protein[↩]
2. Journal of Oral Pathology & MedicineVolume 35, Issue 5 p. 292-300. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0714.2006.00427.x. The use of surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry to detect putative breast cancer markers in saliva: a feasibility study. Charles F. Streckfus,Lenora R. Bigler,Michael Zwick. Available here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0714.2006.00427.x.[↩]
3. Yoshinao Katsu, Michael E. Baker, in Handbook of Hormones. Second Edition, 2021; Available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/cortisol[↩]
4. 2020 Jul; 12(7): 2010. DOI: 10.3390/nu12072010. The Impact of Plant-Based Dietary Patterns on Cancer-Related Outcomes: A Rapid Review and Meta-Analysis. Esther Molina-Montes, Elena Salamanca-Fernández, Belén Garcia-Villanova,1 and Maria José Sánchez.[↩]
5. Volume 23, Number 2. May 15–17, 2006. NIH State-of-the-Science Conference Statement on Multivitamin/Mineral Supplements and Chronic Disease Prevention.[↩]
6. October 17, 2012. By Patrick J. Skerrett, Former Executive Editor, Harvard Health. Daily multivitamin-multimineral may help protect against cancer.[↩][↩]