Transcription
There's over 500 ab exercises out there, but only two that actually help me build my six-pack. Because to get well-defined abs, it's not just about having low body fat. That were true. Why is it that some people get really lean, yet you still can't see their abs? Whereas others, with just as much or even more body fat, have abs that pop? Of course, there's a genetic aspect to this, but it also comes down to how you train them.
So, back in 2017, researchers had 28 soccer players train their abs for 10 weeks and measured how much their abs grew. Now, the ab exercises they used weren't the best options, I'll show you later on, but it still led to some pretty good results. On average, their upper abs grew by 2.1 mm, their middle abs by 1.9 mm, and their lower abs grew the most by 2.7 mm. This might not sound like much, but even a few millimeters can make a big difference in terms of how defined your abs are.
You see, you can make them more visible by reducing the layer of fat between your abs and your skin. But another overlooked way is just to increase the size of your abs so they poke through that fat more. This is especially useful if, like me, you're a hard gainer who wasn't naturally blessed with thick abs to begin with.
But here's the thing: most ab exercises you see online won't help you actually build your six-pack. Take planks or even butterfly crunches, for instance. These are both great core strengthening exercises, but they'll do next to nothing for actually growing your abs. Why? Well, all they're really doing is stabilizing your core, like they would during a compound movement. Trying to plank your way to bigger abs is kind of like trying to wall sit your way to bigger quads.
See, the main function of your abs is to bring your rib cage and pelvis together by rounding the spine. And so, this brings us to one of the most common myths I hear about effective ab training: when performing ab exercises, you've got to keep your back straight. Take leg raises, for instance. For years, these were my go-to ab exercise, and it turns out I was doing them wrong, pretty much all of the time, because of this advice.
See, if your back stays flat and all you do is you swing your legs up and down into an L-shape, then your abs will contract to stabilize, but really, it's going to be your hip flexors that do all the work. And it's not just leg raises. This is a common problem with most ab exercises, at least with how they're typically done.
But the thing is, it's actually pretty easy to build your abs once you stop letting your hip flexors do all the work. And the nice part is, you can emphasize either your upper abs or your lower abs more based on the type of exercise you do. So, to keep things simple, let me just share my two favorite exercises for both, and the ones I really credit for building my six-pack.
Let's start with the lower abs. So, a lot of new research suggests that muscle regions closest to the moving body part will grow the most. So, for example, leg curls have been found to grow the lower hamstrings more than deadlifts, which seem to emphasize the upper hamstrings more. So, to target the lower abs, we just want an exercise where the bottom half of our body moves towards the top half.
And even though I now know how to do leg raises with correct form, I actually still prefer another exercise. See, if you've been keeping up with my recent videos, especially the one where I explained how to build muscle twice as fast, you know that muscles seem to grow best when they're challenged in their most stretched position. And I'm actually funding and helping run a study starting this month to investigate this further, but so far, the evidence is quite promising.
But the problem with leg raises is they challenge your abs closer to the top when they're contracted. We want an exercise that does the opposite. So, how do we accomplish that? Simple. We can make it more difficult at the start by laying back on a bench and doing reverse crunches. But you've got to remember what I just said about your hip flexors. If your back stays straight, they're going to be doing most of the work.
So instead, bend your knees in towards your body and think about raising your hips up and crunching your knees towards your chest to actually round your spine. Think C-shape instead of L-shape. Go up as far as you can, then slowly control the way down.
But I'll admit, this is a tough exercise. So let me first show you a more beginner-friendly version, followed by a more advanced version that you can gradually work up to. For beginners, bring your knees closer to your chest and try to just lift your tailbone off the bench without swinging your legs. If you can do that, you'll still be effectively hitting your low abs. Once it gets stronger, try to get higher and higher, and then gradually straighten your legs up more to simulate the effect of adding weight to the movement.
And if you want to make this even more effective, then you want to increase the stretch your abs get at the bottom. And for that, I'd highly recommend getting an ab mat and placing that between your lower back and the bench. And I'll leave an Amazon link to the one I recommend in the description box down below.
But now, let's move on to the upper abs. So, for the lower abs, we wanted to bring the lower body up towards the torso. But now we want the opposite: an exercise where we're now folding the upper body towards the lower body. Again, I'll show a beginner version first, and then a more advanced version I've personally been seeing amazing results with.
Now, the easiest way to hit the upper abs as a beginner is with crunches. But again, you've got to avoid the all too common mistake of flattening your spine and moving in an L-shape. Instead, think about folding your chest down towards your pelvis into a C-shape. Your spine should extend out to stretch your abs, and then your abs should contract to fold your chest over your pelvis.
Now, with crunches, just try to get your shoulder blades off the ground. Any higher and it's just going to be your hip flexors taken over. But again, if you want even better results from each rep, then you need to use an ab mat. Trust me, this fixes a lot of issues with these ab exercises, as it gives them enough of a stretch and challenge in that bottom position. You can also always use a stability ball, Bosu ball, or at the very least, a rolled-up towel, with which, as you can see, still lengthens the abs just a little bit more.
But once crunches become too easy, I'd highly recommend moving onto a rope cable crunch. And last time, I'll say it, but you've got to pay attention to your hip flexes with this one too. If your hips are swinging back to your heels on your rep, you're just using momentum and your hip flexes to move the weight. Again, focus on the spine. Lock your hips at 90 degrees, lock your arms next to your ears, and then contract your upper abs as you try to fold your chest down onto your abs.
When done properly, your hips should remain in one position while your spine extends and arches on the way up to stretch your abs, and then rounds on the way down as your abs fully contract. Now, it might take a few reps to get the hang of these if you've never done them before, but once you do feel comfortable, I'd highly recommend making them even more effective by turning around and crunching away from the cable.
Now, all the same tips apply. You just have to get used to balancing and maybe go a little bit lighter to start out. A longer rope also helps with this one. But once you do get it right, you should feel that the movement is now a lot harder in that beginning position, exactly what we're going for.
But here's an important tip you should know about growing your abs: train them like any other muscle. Hard, with progressive overload, but also give them time to rest. I personally recommend doing three sets of each exercise for six to 12 reps. Once you can do 12 reps for all three sets, then bump up the difficulty or add a little bit more weight. Start with training them once a week, and if you're really serious, bump it up to twice a week.
But honestly, you can have the largest abs in the world, and they'll still remain hidden if they're covered by too much fat. To get the best results, you want to combine ab training with a proper plan to get rid of the excess fat covering your abs. So, give this video a watch next, where I cover the best science-backed approach to do just that.
But if you're looking for more guidance and just want a proven, step-by-step plan that takes care of all the guesswork for you, just head over to buildtoscience.com to find the best program for you and your body. Thanks for watching, and see you next time.