Damn You Abdominals!!

Oh Hi There Internets!

I’ve been trying for years to get a six pack. It’s much harder than it looks (I like beer to much). As you know, I strongly advise setting goals before you embark on your fitness journey. This blog post is to inform you about different types of abdominal definition, training and how to know what you want and get what you want.

So where to start.... hmm. I think a good place is to answer some questions regarding the elusive abdominals. Since you guys haven’t starting asking me questions yet *fist shake* I will do my best to answer what I think may be some queries you may have regarding this topic.

 Question 1: What Is a Six Pack Exactly?

Our trunk consists of 4 major muscle groups. The rectus abdominus (the front of your body running vertically), the external obliques, the interenal obliques (on the sides of your body) and the transverses abdominus (underneath the rectus abdominus running horizontally)(Fig. 1).

Now, the rectus abdominus’ “role” is primarily to help flex the trunk, which is the motion you are doing during a sit up. The obliques are for side bending and rotating primarily, and the transverses abdominus helps support the trunk and do stuff like poo...that wasn’t very scientific.... defecate. There is also a lot of interaction between them, and they are also used for stabilization and such, but for the purpose of this post we will keep it simple.

A four/six/eight pack is formed when the rectus abdominus hypertrophies or the muscle fibers of grow and increase in number. The different “packs” that you can see are caused by bundles of facia that run along the muscle (Fig. 1). You can kind of think of this as a sausage that is wrapped in string. As the sausage case fills with more sausage (muscle hypertrophy) the definition of sausage either side of the string (facia) is more noticeable. The same thing happens with your abs.

So if getting a set of packs is one of your goals, you are going to want to focus on muscle growth in the rectus abdominus. I will get to how to do this in the third question.

Figure 1

Question 2: Is there a difference between the abdominals of men and women?

A question I hear from women often is “how do I tone my lower abdominals?” The truth is the term lower abdominals is a falsity because as mentioned before the front of your trunk is lined with one big muscle separated by facia. That being said, this muscle is shaped differently between men and women. Men don’t have to bear children.... yet... so they have thinner hips and their rectus abdominus does not widen at the bottom like women’s. This makes it much more difficult to see definition in the lower half of the rectus abdominus for women because of its shape and due to the fact genetically we store fat in this area. Therefore, due to the different anatomical and physiological make up between men and women it is much easier for men to gain definition in their abs.

Question 3: How to I train my abdominals to get them a certain way?

In my mind there is mainly three different ways to train your abdominals, for endurance, for functional strength and for bulk.

Endurance: this is how I mainly train abdominals in my fitness classes. Essentially, training abdominals for endurance comprises of doing a lot of abdominal focused exercises in a row, or volume training. What this does for your abs (if your nutrition and cardio is sound) is define them without building bulk. So when training this way you will not get a 6 pack but a lean, flat looking core.

Example Endurance Circuit:

Pikes	20	**take a 30 sec rest in between circuits and do 3-4 times
Leg Raises	20
Bicycle Crunch	25
Plank Knee to Chest	10 each leg
Side Plank Dips	15
Plank Knee to Chest	10 each leg
Other Side Plank Dip	15
Full Sit Ups	25
Slow Lowers (10 sec)	5
Russian Twists	25

Function Training: Functional training for abdominals is mainly done with a purpose in mind. For example, if you are a golfer you want to train the rotational strength of your core by doing things like lumber jacks and cable twists focusing on explosive power and strength. What this will do to your abdominals aesthetic wise depends on the type of sport/activity you are training for. For example, when training the core for rock climbing we focus on tensile strength, i.e. being able to keep the core engaged to keep the body on the rock. To train for this we do a lot of static holds such as various planks, leg raise holds ect. This doesn’t show much aesthetically when not using the core, but when climbing the definition is prominent.

Bulk Training: This type of training should be focused on if you want the “pack” look. Just like with any other muscle you want to train the abdominals with high weight and 8-10 reps for 3-4 sets.

Bulk Training Example:

Sit Ups with 10-25lbs	**do each exercise for 3-4 sets and 8-10 reps
Cable Crunches
Cable Rotations
Lumber Jacks
Weighted Leg Raise

Question 4: I always hear that nutrition and cardio are important for abdominal definition, is this true?

The final question I’ll answer for this blog post is probably the most important one. When looking for definition in the abdominal region, sound nutrition and cardiovascular training is very important. You can do 500 sit ups but if you walk out of the gym open a beer and eat a burger you are not going to see the results you want. To learn more about what you should eat to see more definition in your muscles see my previous blog posts such as How Much To Eat To Attain Your Goals. As for cardio, you want to be doing your workouts often (4-5 times a week) and as hard as possible. I recommend 20-25 minutes of HIIT because it is fast, hard and effective. You might be saying to yourself “but Byn! I heard that you should work out at lower intensity for longer to burn fat!” This myth put forth by the fitness industry is based on a faulty theory. Without going into detail, the harder you work the more calories you will loose.

Try this program on the treadmill

Time	Speed/Incline	Time	Speed/Incline
0-2 min	4.0/0	12-13 min	3.5/0
2-5 min	5.2/0	13-13:30 min	6.0/3
5-6 min	6.0/0	13:30-14 min	6.5/3
6-7 min	5.2/0	14-15 min	3.9
7-8 min	6.5 / 0	15-16 min	7.5/1.5
8-9 min	4.0 / 0	16-17 min	3.9/0
9-9:30 min	6.5/0	17-18min	6.8/2.0
9:30- 10 min	6.5 / 2.5	18-19min	7.0/1.0
10- 11 min	3.5/ 0	19-20 min	5.2/0
11-12 min	7.2 /0	20-25 min	<4.0/0=cool down

So I think that is it! Next week I am moving into my new place in Kitchener but am hoping to have my first vlog workout up for you so you can keep going without me!

Stay Strong

Byn