So, you’ve been watching one too many rom coms with your girl – or boyfriend – and you noticed they have a liking for those side ab muscles … those sexy ones. Obliques.
Well, it could take 3 – 6 months to get ripped obliques, but it really depends. See, depending on your starting position, you might need a lot of work.
To see how to get there as soon as possible, keep reading!
What Exactly Are Ripped Obliques?
Obliques are part of the abdominal or ab muscles. They’re located on the sides of the trunk and eventually transition into the lats (back muscles) and serratus anterior muscles (the muscles between your ribs).
The obliques are important for the rotation of your trunk (upper body) and also essential for bracing the core. They’re widely known as the “sexy” muscles due to their use in popular media as a selling point for fitness and health.
Due to genetics, we humans tend to store a lot of our fat around the midsection – men specifically around the stomach and women mainly around the glutes and thighs.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do about genetics. However, you can still try your best to be your best…
Because of the predisposition of carrying fat around these areas, having your obliques appear is quite hard, and to get them ripped is an even taller order. That said, it is possible. You’ll just have to work a considerable amount of time, especially if you’re very overweight and aren’t blessed with the “mesomorph” somatotype.
You Gotta Get Lean
Contrary to popular belief, doing more ab exercises won’t make them show up more. The only thing that will get your ripped is by having very little body fat – we cannot really deny that.
You can point at bodybuilders who are huge, and their muscles show. But strongmen are even stronger and have zero definition (usually). It’s about fat, not muscle.
That doesn’t mean muscle plays no role – just that the number of fat matters way more.
In order to lose fat, you gotta be in a calorie deficit, meaning you’re eating fewer calories than your body needs. You need to stay in this deficit for your body to scavenge the missing energy (to stay alive) somewhere else in the body – from stored body fat.
These five steps will help you get ripped abs and obliques:
- Step 1: Eat only slightly fewer calories than you need – around 200 – 300 below maintenance.
- Step 2: Eat plenty of protein – around 1 gram per pound of body weight per day (max of 250g per day).
- Step 3: Split the remainder of your calories between carbs and fats as you please (try to pick healthier food options, however).
- Step 4: When weight loss stops (aim for 0.5 – 1.0% of body weight per week), then lower calories by around 200.
- Step 5: Train. Hard.
When it comes to food options, you would want to stick to healthier options, as these usually bring a ton of vitamins, minerals, and fiber with them. For example, opting for an apple instead of a Pop-Tart will give you way more micronutrients.
Aim for higher fiber options since these could help you curb hunger, and opt for some sugar-free drinks to help you combat cravings. Lastly, learn how to use spices and flavors – there’s nothing less dismal than a dry chicken breast and rice with the taste of nothingness.
Mmmm.
You Still Gotta Train
It will come as no surprise that you’ll still have to train to get ripped. Seeing as you can’t spot-reduce fat, you should be training for your entire body to get ripped, not just your obliques.
Training will consist of two types: resistance and cardiovascular training.
Just to get this out of the way – cardio alone won’t make you lose fat, but it can help you create a greater calorie deficit. So, while some cardio is good, too much isn’t.
Aim to do only around 10 – 15 minutes of cardio a day, and increase that in 5-minute increments every third week (if necessary).
Resistance training is, as the name suggests, going to involve some sort of resistance – weights, bands, bodyweight, etc. Ideally, you would want to train at least three times per week.
There are several reasons why we train with resistance, such as the fact that muscle requires more calories to sustain than fat, and to be ripped, you gotta have muscle.
But should you train your abs?…
Yes, you should train your abs. Not because this will magically make them “pop” faster, but because they’re an essential part of life and an even bigger factor when lifting weights. They’re needed to protect your organs and help your body stay rigid and stable.
So, by training them, they’ll help you remain healthy and injury-free, and they might look slightly better when you’ve stripped all the fat covering them.
How Long Does It Take to Get Ripped Obliques?
Again, these questions are hard to answer because it really does vary from person to person. Both folks can be 300lbs, but one could be 6’4’’ and have 18% body fat, whereas the other is 5’ 6’’ and 32%.
The further you are from the destination, and the less hard you can push to get there, the longer it’ll take. Thus, you should be very honest with yourself about your goals.
The overarching goal might be to get ripped, but that is also a very intimidating task. So why not set up a bunch of smaller goals to keep you motivated? For example …
- Go to the gym for 5 days in a row.
- Hit your calories 12 days in a row.
- Go out with friends and only have one drink.
Sustainability is the least-spoken-about factor in fitness, unfortunately.
Find something you can sustain, love doing, and will get you the results.
