Abs Fab: The Best Abs of The Aughts

Ryan Reynolds is definitely top of my list. His body especially in that movie Amityville Horror is unbelievable. That was a lot of time at the gym and dedication. All around physique, for me, my number one pick. His abs are ridiculous. "The Situation" from Jersey Shore, I admit that I’ve seen that show for the guilty pleasure, [laughs], it’s so terrible, but on the show his body is incredible. I think he has really good size, you can tell it’s from working out. It’s not necessarily just genetic. Some people are just genetically blessed, they have a nice physique, but you can see he puts in a lot of time and effort into those.

David Beckham – he just looks like he’s in shape from soccer. He’s a great athlete, it doesn’t really look like he goes to the gym much, I think that’s just from his job. But you can see from his Armani underwear ads, he definitely has a nice body.

Yeah. Matthew McConaughey, I’m a huge fan of because he has great abs, and he’s always shirtless, and he always looks flawless.

His body is always in perfect shape. Yeah, just no matter what lighting he’s in or where he is, he is always without his shirt and his abs look amazing.

To me, they still look like a kids. I didn’t look like that when I was their age, so I gotta hand it to them. It’s hard really have a cut body at that age, but I don’t think they hold a candle to the other men on the list, in my opinion.

Exactly. That’s the thing, if somebody wants a skinny, well not a skinny, but a lean, sort of boyish physique they definitely look great.

Well, I mean [laughs] Mario Lopez [who he worked with in A Chorus Line] does have an amazing set of abs, I can tell you from seeing them first-hand, he has a great stomach. Jake Gyllenhaal boasts a great body, but he’s not on here.

I do a series of ab exercises on the floor, just straight-up crunches every day. And I do sets of 120 without a break. I do that first thing in the morning when I get up, and I do them again at the gym. So just like a basic crunch is, I think, really necessary. I think a lot of people tend to forget to focus on their obliques and that’s where a lot of guys get love handles. If you don’t work that part of the core, you don’t get that line on either side of your abdominals – your six-pack. So I think that’s really important. That’s one thing people forget, to work their obliques, which you can do really easily with a free weight at the gym. You just hold like a 45-pound plate or a 25-pound plate depending on your strength level. You can just do a lower to the side as if you were setting the weight down next to you and then coming back up to a standing straight position. You do those on either side and that’s a really good workout for your obliques and your upper and lower half as well. That’s a really good core exercise.

You can’t really get a defined six pack unless you are adding some type of cardio into your workout. A lot of people that I know that have great abs will do classes where they do a lot of cycling. I dance a lot and that’s really good cardio for me, but I also run or I do a Stair Master. I turn that baby all the way up to the top level, so it’s basically like I’m running on the stairs. I feel like that’s a great fat burning exercise. Sugar definitely is the biggest contributor to belly fat. For some reason when you ingest sugar, the fat really accumulates around your midsection so if you cut out a lot of sugar in your diet, that’s the key.

Well, it's survival of the fittest, we’re genetically attracted to it. It’s like a peacock with beautiful feathers. Women with large breasts, men are attracted to that. With abs, it’s something that’s very prominent, it’s a sign of strength and health, and I think anyone would be attracted to that. And it has just become a point of obsession with men. All these health magazines, shirtless guys with chiseled stomachs, and in the last five to ten years have really become an obsession. You look at photos from 30 years ago, people didn’t spend as much time developing their stomach as they do now. It’s interesting how that’s become the forefront of male fitness. They really want to have a great stomach.