There’s a ton of confusion about abdominal muscles. Once you understand muscle physiology and how the human body works, it’s all pretty simple. Let’s 1st go over some of the nonsense when it comes to training abdominal muscles.
1st: High reps get your abdominal muscles leaner. So you should do 100’s or 1,000’s of crunches per day. WRONG!
Abdominal muscles grow like any other muscle on the human body. They develop by providing maximal resistance over a period of time. Creating the proper time under tension relationship is about balance – so not too many reps or too few. Muscle grows best when provided moderate resistance within an 8-12 rep range for the best muscular hypertrophy.
You also need to alter this rep range occasionally because your body adapts to training a certain rep or resistance level. Change is good; otherwise the body adapts though predominately you should train with heavier weights you go to failure with good form within a 8-12 rep range.
You only can get lean, tone, ripped, shredded, etc., by first losing body fat. The lower body fat percentage you have the more visible your abs will look. Then you can focus more on building the abdominal muscles more to have that visible 6-8 pack lookings.
How do you lose body fat? Well, that’s a whole other article. The simple method is to eat clean and train hard and smart to get your body to burn through body fat and maintain muscle mass.
2nd: If I do the ab program as that hot guy or gal, I will get the same results. FALSE.
We assume people who have great bodies know what they are talking about when it comes to fitness, nutrition, bodybuilding, etc. Which couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s like saying the person with the most expensive car is the best mechanic.
Just because you have a great body doesn’t mean you are qualified or have any education in the field of Exercise Science. I see this all the time with all the wrong information that’s given to sell some bogus product.
Just because people may have great genetics, take performance enhancing supplements, or look the part doesn’t mean you should listen to them. Unless, of course, they’re educated in the field and have credentials such as a certification or degree. They should also look fit – we should practice what we preach. Just don’t get caught up with the B.S. of people who shouldn’t be providing advice.
Weighted Swiss Ball Crunches:
Abdominal Hip Thrusts:
Swiss Ball Side Crunches:
Cross Crawl:
