Abs are the ultimate sign of fitness.
Really, how stupid is this. It’s about the worst measure of fitness available, because 95% of the men (or women, for that matter) with visible abdominals have them because they are genetically blessed. They still need to exercise, lift weights, do cardio and eat right, but for the majority of people you see with a six pack, they got it really quickly and without much focus or effort. They didn’t need to kill themselves to do it. It just happened, because they have all the right genetic cards for it to happen. In particular, they have just the right body structure, fat storing mechanism, and abdominal wall shape which all come together to make a great core.
What about the other 5%? They had to work at it. Hard.
There was a story on CNN over a year ago about a kid who decided his goal was a six pack. After a bit, CNN checked back in on him and, sure enough, he had a six pack. The problem was, he also looked like death warmed over, and the Internet momentarily lit up with much criticism of how this guy did it. Essentially, he starved himself and trained only his abs for months and months. He got the six pack, but he looked like absolute hell regardless.
I, personally, am convinced that the deck is stacked against me. My ribcage sticks out way past where my abs lay, I store most of my fat in my lower belly, and I have thicker skin. But since I don’t want to have a rib removed or get liposuction or anything else equally ridiculous, if I’m ever going to have a ripped stomach, I’m going to have to work for it.
Here’s what I’ve learned after researching the hell out of this subject:
1. Just because you don’t have the genetics to get a six pack instantly doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
That’s the good news.
2. BUT… it might be impossible.
That’s the bad news. This might really just not be in the cards for you. If so, you should probably not waste years on this ridiculous goal and focus on everything else on your body.
3. Abs are mostly a result of diet.
Don’t do 5000 crunches a day then eat at McDonald’s every day. You are wasting your time. You’d be better off doing a ton of cardio, eating REALLY clean, and skipping the crunches completely.
4. There is no such thing as UPPER and LOWER ab training.
The reason your upper abs show first is because most men carry their fat in their lower belly — from the belly button down. You aren’t building your upper abs, you are losing fat on your upper stomach. If you want to see your lower abdominals, lose fat from your lower stomach.
Even though the abs are made up of a bunch of muscles, they work as a single unit. When you crunch, they all activate, so you can’t really focus on one part versus another. The benefit of doing leg raises AND crunches is the same as doing 4 different bicep lifts — different exercises keep the body from developing tolerance.
5. You can’t spot reduce
Everyone should know this by now, and yet I still see guys with positively MASSIVE guts at the gym doing crunches like a maniac. No no no, go do cardio, eat right, and lose that fat. Stop wasting your time.
6. When you train your abs: quality over quantity
Without fail, the really fat guy next to me in the ab room at the gym is banging out 2000 crunches in a row like a machine gun. I am burning in pain after 25. That guy next to me might be getting a little bit of cardio vascular exercise convulsing around over there, but he’s not doing much for his abs.
When you do crunches, do them slowly. Breathe out while you crunch up, flex and hold at the top for a second or two, then breathe in as you come back down. If you do them right, it should start to hurt really, really quickly. Like after 10 or so, not after 1000.
Also, make sure you are doing an actual crunch. One tip that helped me do them right was this: imagine you are trying to touch the bottom of your ribcage to the top of your hips. That’s a real crunch.
When you do leg lifts, the rules are the same. Ribs to hip, breathe out, hold, and breathe in. I can maybe do 15 before I absolutely have to rest.
7. Train your abs like any other muscle
Because they are like any other muscle. That means, once a week, hard, with weights if possible, and then rest them for the rest of the week.
Here is my once a week ab ritual:
- 5 sets of 10 leg lifts
- 8 sets of 25 flat crunches
- 4 sets of 10 incline crunches
- 3 sets of cable crunches (see video below)
- 300 wood chops with weight (see video below)
The cable crunches are the ab killer. Since I added those, I really feel like my abdominals are being punished. Scooby had the best video on cable crunches I could find:
The woodchops are easily the most brutal, probably because I do so many of them. I break them down into sets. 25 in each set, lower-to-upper, side-to-side, and upper-to-lower, then repeat.
Here is a video of the upper-to-lower woodchop:
The most effective of these for me has been the woodchops, which work the obliques. Since doing those, I don’t have to worry at all about love handles, and I’ve got that weird ken doll thing going on around my hips.
No, that isn’t me. The obliques are under the armpit down to the hip. And my obliques do look like that (my abs, not so much).
If you want to develop your abs, what I think you need to do is figure your own body out, so you can figure out what you need to do to it.
Is fat your problem? Then eat better and do more cardio.
Are your abs too small? This is rare, but in my case, true. Then work them hard like any other muscle.
Is your bone and/or muscular structure just not made for this? Then stop trying, and build up the rest of your body.
Most importantly, I think, is to not focus so much on your abs. Work out your entire body, and once you get to a level of lean muscularity you are happy with, you can start to focus on your abs. Then go over the stuff above and focus on the areas you need to pay special attention to.
After adjusting my focus and routine a little bit, I am FINALLY starting to see my abs. Not much, but they are starting to show. Two years of daily crunches didn’t do it. A diet change and a slight modification to my workout routine did.
So the most important thing:
8. Get your body fat % as low as you can
For men, that means around 8% or less. For women, maybe around 12% or less. Anecdotal: this is easier for women to attain than men. Men tend to store fat on the stomach first, and lose it there last. Women have preferential storage elsewhere.
To get your body fat low: cardio, and diet. That’s it.
