Everyone wants a flat stomach or the famous six pack abs.  The problem is most people do not do the right things to get them.  Hopefully, I will give you some ideas to steer you in the right direction.

First off, I want to say that I personally do not feel flat or muscular stomachs are a staple of being fit.  They only make you “look” fit.  I say this because I see too many people chasing after this one quality.  Stop.  Work on everything else, and the abs will happen.  All the times I carried around my six pack were the times I didn’t try for it, but once I quit fighting, the definition did, too.

However,  a strong core is key to great health.  I will give you some simple exercises to build that core and maybe get the results you are looking for.  Assuming you have a diet aimed at fitness and lowering your body fat, you need to undergo aggressive cardio.  Watch videos of MMA fighters prepping for a fight to know what I mean.  You need to not just go for a jog but do the track dragging a car tire with a rope.

Next, crunches or traditional situps only work the upper ab muscles and do very little for the spare tire area.  To work these muscles you have to engage the legs.  Hang from a chin up bar with a medicine ball gripped between your knees or calves (the lower the better).  Bring your knees to your chest while squeezing the ball and keeping your upper body from swinging.  I personally love these, and you will hate me the next day.

Take a kickboxing lesson, and learn to throw basic punches and kicks.  Most gyms these days have a heavy bag somewhere because of the trending MMA fighters.  Attack this bag in three minute rounds and work up to five minute rounds.  I like to do rounds one and three for speed/technique and two and four as raw power.  Round five is a combo of everything.

Before you know it, your results will come.

“When Chuck Norris does push ups, he doesn’t push himself up, he pushes the Earth down.”  After doing this workout plan people are going to say your name in place of Chuck’s.  All it is going to take is a few minutes each day to do very common exercises.

First of all, this plan is best to supplement your current plan.  With it you will gradually build your endurance and strength.  You will only do one set of push ups, crunches and lunges.

Here is the plan for day one: Do as many push ups as you can on day one. (ex. 40 total push ups, 40 crunches and 30 lunges (each leg).

Day two: Do half that number in the morning (ex. 20 push ups, 20 crunches, 15 lunges). That night do the exact same number. The key is to do them with perfect technique and not cheating form simply to complete the exercise.  It is better to stop a few short than to cheat.

Day three: Add one more push up, crunch and lunge to day two’s morning and night set (ex. 21, 21, and 16 morning and night) .

Continue doing this every day.

Each week you must add 10 to your morning and nightly sets. On some days you will add more than one at a time. Don’t rush it, though, only add 10 a week!

This requires less than ten minutes a day, and in a month’s time you will have added 40 to your totals! You could be doing 520 push-ups per day in a year! All with slow improvements and a lot of discipline.

I did this back in high school and started with 30 and climbed to 200+. My friend Chris Hubinsky continued on and peaked at 1,000! He and I decided to give it another go and just started over, ten years later. I am currently on 40 push ups, 50 crunches and 45 lunges…and am going for 300.  I always wanted to do 300 push ups straight.

I seriously have been debating the acquisition of a pull-up bar.  It would be a huge benefit to my back strength and a great addition to the program.  Does anybody have any other simple workout plans that provide results?