Focus on your diet to get abs.

Article by Rob Maxwell, M.A. Exercise Physiology, CSCS, ASCM CPT from fittothemax.net

Abs are made in the kitchen

Repeat after me, "Abs are made in the kitchen!"

Crunches aren't enough for abs.

What does it mean that abs are made in the kitchen? 

Many people want abs. If you know what this statement means, then you know what that means. If you do not, let me explain.

The term abs is short for abdominal muscles. And when I say that many people want abs, what I mean is that they want their abdominal muscles to show. They want definition. They want what is often called a six pack.

This just means that abdominal muscles are showing very clearly. In short, many people want to have a defined looking midsection. To get that look it comes down to diet and not spot reduction. Abs are made in the kitchen because you need to focus on diet to have your abs showing. It's more about fat reduction than it is about muscle growth to get abs.

Ab definition is relative to fat mass.

Spot reduction doesn't work 

Spot reduction refers to the idea that you can exercise a certain part of your body to make it smaller. You cannot. To be more specific with what I am talking about, spot reduction of the abs is a belief that if you do a lot of stomach exercises such as hundreds of crunches, you will make your midsection smaller.

Simply put, this is not true. When we strength train (and that is what a crunch is), we make an area stronger and make it hypertrophy (grow the muscle). We do not make it smaller. If anything, we make the specific area bigger!

Don't worry, though. The abdominal muscles are such that even as they get bigger, they do not grow outward. But the obliques on the sides of the lower torso can get bigger and stick out more. Many top bodybuilders that are looking for more symmetry do not train their obliques for this reason - because they do not want to look "blockier.”

A 6 pack doesn't come from crunches.

When we exercise any area - whether we are working our abs or our arms - we are making them stronger and adding muscle tissue (even if it is just the slightest bit). That is a good thing.

The abdominal muscles are such that as you get leaner and have any abdominal muscles at all (which we all do) they will show up. You cannot make your abs smaller with ab exercises. You can stop exercising them and they will atrophy (get smaller), but you do not want that.

We need strong abdominal muscles to support other areas of our bodies like our lower back. But all that ab work you may be doing is not doing a thing to help you with that goal of defined abs. It can even be counterproductive.

I often see people doing all these different abdominal routines where people are doing set after set with many different ab exercises. They are not doing that, I guarantee you, because they are obsessed with making their abs stronger. They are doing this because they think that they are making their look skinnier.

All these extra exercises can be a waste of time. The abdominal muscles are responsible for spinal flexion. The spine flexes down. That is what they do. That is the job of the abs. The transverse abdominal muscles hold the spine in place (think about doing a plank).

All that you need to do is pick a few basic abdominal exercises and work the abs with the same set and rep ranges that you would any other muscle group. They are not special. You want them to look special? Focus on diet and cardio.

Don't waste your time for limited results.

How to get a 6 pack - the right way

When I tell people that many top bodybuilders hardly work their abs, they do not believe me.

But it is true. They have awesome looking midsections because they stay so lean. They work their core by keeping great focus on their abs as they do their other exercises.

For example, if they are doing rows, they focus on keeping their spine nice and straight and contracting their abs to help them do this. They understand that the abdominal muscles are a major stabilizer muscle, and that they are using them when they strength train regardless of the exercise.

Use your abs in every exercise.

By doing that, hardly any work at all is needed to keep your abs strong. The bodybuilder understands that to get their abs to look defined has nothing to do with the exercise, but everything to do with being lean.

If you are a male with 5% body fat (females should have a higher percentage of body fat by about 10%), you will have an awesome midsection and a six pack irrespective of whether you have ever done a crunch.

If you are 20% body fat (which is average for a male) and you do abdominal work every day, no one will see these abdominal muscles.

Having great abs is about being lean. To be lean, you must take in fewer calories than you use, period.

If you want the abs to look better, you really need to eat clean and eat just what you need (a calorie deficit). Once you reach that goal, you eat just the amount you need to maintain. 

I have competed. I do some core work, but not a lot. I should clarify that. I do focus hard on the lower back because I want that muscle to be strong. The lower back is part of the “core.” But I do not do a lot of anterior abdominal exercises. I do some to maintain their strength.

As I said above, I really focus on keeping my core engaged on every exercise, so I do not need to do a lot.

Why don’t I do more? It is boring to me. I do not like doing it. And I know how pointless it is overall. It is hard for me to get motivated to do something that I know is not really benefiting me.

I really hit the lower back muscles hard, though. I do not want my back to be weak.

Let's go back to competing. When I competed, my abs looked good. I have a six pack and I do try to stay lean like that. I do not want to go up and down. But there have been times when I have not been as lean, and guess what? My abs are not what you would call ripped when I am not as lean.

Abs are made in the kitchen. I tell any client who wants to lose body fat. We must watch what we eat (the quality and the quantity of food) and we need to do our cardio to burn the fat and reduce the calories.

If we do that and we do it consistently, we will get lean and the abs will show up! How much they show up is 100% dependent on how lean they are. Women will need to be around 14-17% body fat to show that kind of development and men around 5-8%.

Get lean to get abs.

Keep in mind that all of our bodies have a set point. Not everybody can get lean enough to show the abdominal leanness. And that is okay!

I am not writing this with the motive to shame people into thinking that a 6 pack is the be all and end all. It is not! I have seen abs on both men and women that are shredded and, to me, look very unattractive. It is about taste.

I am just saying that if you’re on a quest for six pack abs, you’ll find them in the kitchen and on the treadmill!

Muscle imbalances

So, what? Do not be a buzzkill, Rob. “I like doing a ton of abs!”

Here is the problem. You can work your anterior abdominal muscles so much that you begin to get a bit of a forward tilt because that is what the abdominal muscles do. They flex the spine. Flex means to reduce the angle of a joint.

So, in the case of the abdominal muscles, they flex the spine forward and pull your upper torso downward. We have seen in recent years that studies are showing that the low back is getting weaker on those people that do so much anterior abdominal training. It creates a muscle imbalance.

Every muscle has what is called a “forced couple.” This means is every muscle has an antagonistic muscle group that opposes it. In the case of the anterior abdominal muscles, rectus abdominis, it is the erector spinae or lower back.

When this muscle gets worked harder or more than the muscle that opposes it, a muscle imbalance occurs and it can weaken the lower back.

I have seen that a lot with people that have come to me with low back pain or injury. They defend themselves right away and say, “I work my core all the time.” I have them explain. Sure enough, they do a boat load of crunches and do not work the lower back.

To have a strong lower back, you need to work the lower back! And the entire core needs to be kept in balance. We do that by making the lower back more of a priority and if you are a typical gym goer, making the anterior core less of one.

Get lower back strength.

How to train it right

Let us say that your motive to exercise the core is because you want to train the core for strength. Good!

Again, my first tip is for you to really engage the core in all that you do. That is truly the best core exercise you can do. It is like doing a plank all the time! And work your core muscles (rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, obliques, and erector spinae) all in balance. Pick an exercise for each (you can vary it).

Work the rectus abdominis by doing a crunch or a reverse crunch—any movement that flexes the spine. Work the transverse abdominals by doing a plank type movement. Work the obliques by doing side bends or rotations. Work the lower back by doing spinal extensions either on a machine or with your own body weight.

Do the 1-3 sets of 10-30 reps (and 45-60 seconds for plank). Do NOT do 100 crunches or 1000 or whatever. That is just silly!

If you do follow these principles, and do it mindfully with enough load, your core will get stronger.

Speaking of load, here is another issue with the 1000 crunches guy, it is not enough load! Would you do that for your biceps?

You still need enough of a load to fatigue the muscle in a low enough rep range. If you can do more than 30 abdominal flexion reps and you are not feeling it, you need to find a way to add load. The abdominal muscles are made of the same tissues as any other muscle in your body.

For them to make progress, they need to be overloaded. Regarding the plank, holding the plank longer (more than a minute) is not making progress. If you want to effectively overload the plank exercise you make the planks harder not longer. For example, doing a plank on a stability ball would be a good overload.

Find what actually works.

Focus on what you eat

The core exercises discussed above are for strengthening the core. If you want defined abs, spend a lot more time focusing on how you eat and how much your shoes are contacting the ground.

If you create a calorie deficit over time and you have the genetics to get lean enough, your abdominal muscles will look cut!

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that it is a lot easier to do 2000 crunches than watch what you eat. I know. I get it.

A lot of people train abdominal muscles because they are easy to do. But easy isn’t worth it, right? It is hard to flex those muscles of discipline and tell yourself to really watch and control what you eat.

Again, I get it. But it is the only way. It is hard for almost everyone. Why almost? Come on, we’ve all seen the little surfer teen with a rock hard six pack park his bike and go grab a big gulp and a pack of ding dongs. Keep in mind, he is 15!

But for everybody else who is not full of testosterone due to puberty, it takes work. But as I always say, the work is worth it. Do not shoot the messenger. Abs are made in the kitchen. 

Rob Maxwell 

Rob Maxwell from fittothemax.net owns Maxwell’s Fitness Programs in Port Orange, Florida. He's been in business for 25 years.  He runs a personal training studio and they do virtual training. Follow him on Twitter for more.