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If you want to lose the flabs and get rock-hard abs, you will need to roll up your sleeves and put in some work building chest muscles. There is no other way, and there are no shortcuts. You can’t buy abs or force them to show simply by eating less or eating healthful foods more. While diet can help you lose excess fat, it won’t give your chest muscle definition. Only a workout can. Below are some tips to help you build muscles fast.

1. Train with intensity. Intensity doesn’t mean you work out so hard you end up crawling home. Intensity means focusing on what you’re doing. Think of it as the mind-muscle connection. While you lift weights, you think of nothing else but lifting weights.

Sounds easy? Tell that to the people who hoist weights with noodle arms, or those who chat away with their friends while doing chin-ups.

2. Train weak body parts first. Thinking you should only work out the body parts you want to develop? Think again! If anything, you should train weak body parts first because if these parts are left to lag behind, you could end up injuring yourself while you struggle to lift some weights.

3. Train with weights that you can easily lift. Sure, building chest muscles is the reason you’re working out. But who says you have to lift weights so heavy you’d most probably pop a vein trying to do 8 reps? Whether you’re only starting out or have been building chest muscles for some time now, you need to work with your body, not against it when it comes to weights.

Building chest muscles will not be easy in the beginning. But if you keep the cocky attitude at bay and only focus on doing what’s right for your body, you shouldn’t have any trouble whatsoever growing muscles you can be proud of.
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1. Training too long. It’s easy to get carried away in your workout – you’re only starting out after all. But spending hours lifting weights is a huge mistake. Aside from being physically and mentally draining, training too long will only overstress your muscles. You don’t want to do this, believe me, because it will stunt muscle growth instead of enhancing it.

The solution? Limit your chest building to 45 minutes tops. You can do a lot in 45 minutes, especially with a great guide to point you in the right direction.

2. Training too often. Training too frequently is even worse than training too long. When you train too long for one session, you can stop doing so the next session. But when you train too often, this means you’ve been training too much too frequently. In other words, you’re putting your muscles through continuous strain! This is bad and will backfire on you for sure. Aside from priming you for a quick burnout, your workout efforts will yield diminishing results.

As a beginner, limit your workout to 4 days a week. This gives your body 3 days to rest.

3. Training too intensely. Many newbies think because they’re only getting started, they need to catch up with the guys who have been chest building for a long time. This, obviously, is wrong. There is no content, and if you out your body through so much so soon, you will most likely injure yourself in the process. So, take your time warming up to your routine.

Building chest muscles is hard work, but it can be fun. And, if you do it right, you’ll find those abs showing in no time at all!
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1. Start with lighter weights and fewer repetitions. If you’re only starting out, you’re probably thinking the more sets you do and the heavier weights you lift, the better. This is not true at all. You need to start gradually, to give your body time to warm up. You also need to start with lighter weights, so you don’t overstress your muscles. After a week, you can quicken your pace and lift heavier weights.

2. Do rowing exercises. Think it’s ridiculous to row off water? You won’t think so once you see how beautifully rippled your muscles look. Rowing is one of the best chest training exercises out there because it helps you grow lean back muscles. At the same time, it increases shoulder, chest, and upper and rear back strength. Be careful when you do this, though, so you don’t end up injuring yourself. The best way to tell you’re doing it right is if your muscles don’t feel pain.

3. Diversify your workouts. Sure, bench, presses, dead lifts, and pull-push barbell workouts can do wonders for your body. But all these put a lot of pressure on the muscles. You need to give your muscles time to relax, so be sure to diversify your workouts. Do light stretching and lighter routines.

In chest training, the time you spend resting is as important as the time you spend working out. Your muscles don’t grow while you’re lifting weights. Rather, they develop while they are allowed to rest. So go ahead and train, but be sure you know when to stop.
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1. Work on your negative lifting. Most people assume the only thing they really need to work in is the actual weight lifting. Everything else is secondary, and can wait. This is not true at all. Releasing the weight you lift is just as important an exercise as the actual lifting. Do not let gravity help you lower whatever it is you’re lifting. If you do, you’ll miss out on exertions that could have helped you build chest muscles really fast.

2. Use dumbbells. Barbells are okay to use, and they’re what most people lift. But they don’t work out of your pectoral muscles separately. You see, your body is not perfectly symmetrical. If you use barbells, you end up letting the strong side of your body do all the work. In contrast, using dumbbells allow you to work each side of the body separately, thus speeding up muscle gain.

3. Do pull-ups.

Remember, not all chest workouts are created equal. To build muscles fast, you don’t just need to work out; you need to work on finding the right technique.
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A much bigger piece of that puzzle is how much time you spend on cardio. I know, it sucks. A fat belly sucks even more. The fastest way to get rid of total body fat is to concentrate some of your workout time on high intensity interval training.

And finally, the biggest and most difficult piece of the 6 pack abs puzzle; nutrition. If you fail at getting the proper nutrition, all of your other efforts will not matter. Get your nutrition facts on paper. Find out how many calories you need daily, learn your body fat percentages, learn what foods to eliminate from your diet, learn what to add to your diet, and keep track of your progress.

So lets recap…..the key to 6 pack abs is nutrition, cardio, and ab training, in that order. Although there are different opinions floating around about workout routines, supplements, sets and reps, all fitness experts, books, and programs agree on this one fact.

It’s not for lack of willpower or diligence – you’ll be surprised how hard these people work out. It’s because they’re misinformed. They sweat through old ineffective routines that didn’t work for people then and aren’t working for them now. Below are some tips to make sure you workout chest properly and efficiently.

1. Limit the time you spend working out. In general, your workout should not last more than an hour. This hour starts the moment you start your first muscle-building set and ends the minute you’re done with your final muscle-building set. Anything more than an hour puts you in danger of overtraining.

2. Limit the frequency of workout of each muscle group. You’re probably thinking you need to workout each muscle group as often as you can, as long as you can. You couldn’t be more wrong. Each muscle group should only be stimulated directly once a week, to give it recovery time. If you overtrain them, you will only make them weaker and smaller.

3. Limit the sets you perform. The goal of workout chest routines is not to push your body past breaking point. It’s to train your muscles to look better-defined. In general, you should perform between 2 to 4 sets for your small muscle groups – meaning the biceps, abs, triceps, and calves – and 5 to 7 sets of for your large muscle groups, specifically your thighs, chest, and back.

The key to growing muscles you can flaunt anytime, anywhere is steady and gradual muscle growth. Muscle tissues are not built overnight so there’s no point in stressing your muscles. Remember, you need to stimulate muscle growth, not stress muscles past the point of recovery.
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Excessive chest training however can lead to overdeveloped pecs and make your body look out of proportion. Come on, we have all seen this often enough at the gym. A lopsided body just looks ridiculous. Chest exercises should only be a portion of a total body workout. If you’re trying to develop an impressive, muscular body, then you must train every muscle group equally.

When training clients on chest building, I recommend using the following exercises to get the most gains efficiently. These are by far, the most effective:

• Flat barbell bench press

• Incline barbell bench press

• Decline barbell bench press

• Flat dumbbell bench press

• Incline dumbbell bench press

• Decline dumbbell bench press

and when you have very little time:

• Dips

• Elevated pushups

It is important to work your chest only once per week to allow enough time to rebuild muscle. Select 3-4 of the above exercises and only 1-2 sets per exercise. You can easily overtrain your chest by being over eager and more is definitely not better.

When exercising your chest,  remember these key points:

Don’t arch your back. Arching your back may help you lift more weight but will never make you stronger. When you arch, you are not engaging your chest muscles and placing extra strain on your back.

By the same token, don’t overcorrect by pinning your back to the bench. Maintain a neutral spine with a natural easy curve in your lower back.

Use your abs to support your back while lifting. When lifting, exhale, pull your belly button to your spine and tighten your lower abs. Inhale when returning to starting position.

And finally, do not lock your elbows at the top of the movement.

Don’t forget……what you see in the mirror does not make you strong and powerful. Chest training must be done slowly, correctly, and most importantly along with a total body workout regimen.

The very best way to get 6 pack abs, is through diet. Doing abdominal exercises will not eliminate fat around your middle. How many people do you hear complain about doing endless ab work with no results. Ab exercises will definately strengthen and tone your muscles, however those muscles you are tightening by doing 100 crunches a day, lay underneath all the fat.

First things first. You must get enough protein. Protein produces bigger muscle. If you work out regularly, you need more protein than the average couch potato. That doesn’t mean you must eat tons of it through supplementation; how much protein you need is determined by how much exercise you get. You want just enough to create more muscle. More is not better. Eating more than your body needs could slow muscle gain by lowering your energy reserves.

How much protein do you need?

The RDA for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight for a sedentary man. Most nutritionists agree however, that someone who strength trains regularly needs more than this, somewhere around 1.4 to 1.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. Eating low fat dairy products, lean meat, and plenty of vegetables should be enough protein. (I am not talking protein from fast food joints).

One of the best ways to get 6 pack abs fast is to add good fats to your diet. You must keep your fat intake low, however, the right fat, in moderation is a good source of calories, a building block for muscle gain. You should try to get 20-25 percent of your daily calories from fat. Eating less than 20 percent can actually curb your efforts to gain muscle. You need the extra calories to bulk up.

It’s important to get your fat calories from polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. Add olive oil, fish oil, nuts, avocados, and peanut butter to your diet. I personally consume one of these fats at every meal. A tablespoon of olive oil on my salads, chopped walnuts on my oatmeal, sliced avocado on a chicken sandwich and a handful of sunflower seeds with my snacks. At the grocery store, choose foods that have no more then 3 grams of fat per 100 calories. Learn to love fat free milk and low fat cheese.

To get that head turning 6 pack, it is important to exercise your entire body, reducing overall body fat. It is just as important to make the above dietary changes. There is no other way.

Let’s say you have worked hard on your diet and have very little body fat….stay tuned for the best exercises to get that 6 pack in no time. It takes far less work and far less time than you think!

How do you make sure you don’t get to these frustrating plateaus?

Change it up! If you don’t alter your workouts, the plateaus are most certainly guaranteed. Reaching a plateau means that your body and muscles have adapted. As your muscles get stronger, fewer fibers are needed to lift the same load. If you can’t increase the weight, these fibers get lazy and you must do something to shock and stimulate them. A successful muscle gain routine will have variation.

Change the order in which you do your routines, vary your exercises, lower the weight and do more repetitions, or try to do your lifting more slowly.

Another cause of reaching a plateau may be over training. Too many people work the same muscle groups daily and do not allow for rest. It is imperative for muscle gain that no muscle group be trained on consecutive days.

Did you know that wearing weight belts inhibit the strengthening of your lower back and abdominal muscles?