Athletitude

The most important facts in brief:

• No abdominal muscle training is necessary for a visible six-pack.
• How to train the abdominal muscles effectively. The abdominal muscles do not require a different approach to other muscles. The same muscle building principles apply.
• We'll show you a few effective abdominal exercises. If we had to name a favorite, it would be crunches on the machine.
• The time investment vs. return is not good for many people. Here we show you not only how to train your abs effectively, but also time-efficiently.
• How the principle of "core stability" and "functional training" makes your abdominal muscle training worse.
• Why planks and pallof press are completely overrated exercises.
• Additional exercises for the oblique abdominal muscles.

Do I need to train my abs at all to have a visible six-pack? How do you train your abs effectively? What are the most effective exercises for the abdominal muscles? What myths are there and what are the most common mistakes? We answer these questions in this article. It doesn't matter whether you are an athlete or an amateur sportsperson. As an athlete, you must of course take your sport training into account, i.e. avoid accumulating too much fatigue through additional training.

In fact, the reason for writing this article is the following: Every time we go to the gym, we see people not training their abs effectively at all. This is not a criticism of these people, because it's not their fault. We believe this is due in part to bullshit abdominal training marketing, Hollywood movies and "tradition", which has led people to subconsciously or consciously assume that the abs need to be trained differently than other muscles. This can also lead to a lot of time being invested in this training, which is completely unnecessary. That's why we want to show you in this article how to train your abdominal muscles effectively and therefore not invest a lot of time.

Do I have to train my abdominal muscles at all to have a visible six-pack?

The answer is no. In fact, many bodybuilders do not do any six-pack exercises and yet they still have fantastic abs. There are at least three reasons for this: Firstly, the abdominal muscles can grow without doing six-pack exercises. Certain lower body exercises and pull-ups, for example, stimulate the abdominal muscles to a certain degree. The second reason is genetics. You don't become a bodybuilder unless you have incredible genetics for building muscle. The third reason is body fat percentage, which is also influenced by genetics (some people find it much easier to be lean). Most of the time you see photos of bodybuilders who have an extremely low (and unhealthy) body fat percentage. The lower the body fat percentage, the better you can see the six-pack. Most people don't have a visible six-pack because their body fat percentage is too high. Reducing your body fat percentage is already enough to have a visible six-pack. That's all you need. Here comes the bad news: a very defined six-pack is unfortunately very difficult for the average person and not a realistic goal. A somewhat pronounced six-pack, especially in good light and visible when tensing up, is much more realistic and healthier for most people.

Picture from July 10, 2022. No abdominal muscle training from 2020-2022.

Although a low enough body fat percentage is enough to have a visible six-pack, this six-pack will look better if it is well trained. It is usually already well trained without doing any six-pack exercises at all, as mentioned above. But if you want the best abs possible, we believe that six-pack exercises are necessary. Whether you want to give abs this priority is entirely up to you. However, we also like ab workouts because you actively move your spine instead of minimizing its movement like most exercises (e.g. squats or deadlifts).

Pro bodybuilder Jared Feather does no ab exercises and has arguably one of the best six-packs around. In this picture he was still natural (no performance enhancing drugs such as testosterone).

How do you train your abdominal muscles effectively?

How to train any other muscle effectively. That means you have to change your mentality: There is no data or anatomical/physiological reason why you should train the six-pack differently than other muscles. Yet you see it every day in the gym: planks that are way too easy, for a few minutes, then just a short rest (which usually doesn't make much sense in muscle training either) before doing another set of planks; quantity over quality; dozens of crunches with poor range of motion very far away from muscle failure. Would you train your pecs this way too? Very light weight; very far away from muscle failure; >30 repetitions per set; only hold one position and not dynamically perform the range of motion; too many sets? Or rather what really works for muscle building? I.e. firstly close to muscle failure, secondly in the repetition range that is effective for muscle building (approx. 5-30, we prefer 5-15⁾¹, enough rest between sets and a limited number of sets? The answer to the question of how to train your abs effectively is simple: you apply the same muscle-building principles. You choose exercises that allow you to train close to muscle failure without leaving the effective repetition range of 5-30 and that allow you to make the exercise more difficult over time. Additionally, the exercises should be stable. In the next section we have listed these four conditions and show you the most effective ab exercises.

What are the most effective exercises for the abdominal muscles?

An effective chest muscle exercise fulfills the same conditions as an effective abdominal muscle exercise:

1. The exercise allows you to train close to muscle failure.
2. The exercise allows you to train close to muscle failure within the effective repetition range (approx. 5-30) for muscle building.
3. The exercise allows for progression. This means that over time you can increase the weight/resistance as you get stronger.
4. High stability. Machines usually allow this. This is important because too little stability (imagine squats on the Bosu) hinders the full activation of muscles and therefore strength production^.2

These are the four most important conditions. So why, for example, is a plank not an effective exercise for many or becomes an ineffective exercise relatively quickly? It does not fulfill the first or second condition. The world record for the plank is over 9 hours and 38 minutes. That is well above the effective repetition range for muscle building^.1 Here are our favorite abdominal exercises:

1. Crunches on the machine.
2. Crunches on the cable pulley
3. Hanging knee raises
4. Hanging Leg Raises
5. Off-wheel rollout

Crunches on the machine is our favorite and fulfills all four of the above conditions excellently. You can choose the weight that allows you to train close to muscle failure within the effective repetition range. It also allows for easy progression as you can increase the weight but you don't have to make too big jumps. If you train with a machine loaded with weight plates, you can increase the weight by 1.25-2.5 kg, making it easy to get stronger with this exercise. The exercise is also very stable as it is a machine. Crunches on the cable pulley are a little less stable and therefore perhaps a slightly worse exercise than crunches on the machine. This means that the fourth condition is less well fulfilled.

End position for crunches on the machine.

If you are already very strong, it may be more difficult to get into the starting position and you are already "wasting" energy. We like hanging knee raises or hanging leg raises, but perfect execution is too difficult for many people. However, you get stronger over time and can perform the exercise better and better (better/larger range of motion), which makes the exercise more difficult. Therefore, it is ok if the number of repetitions per set remains constant over time. You want to bend your spine in this exercise. As you get stronger, you manage to bend your spine more and your knees get closer and closer to your ears. This is good. Over time, you will also be able to better control the negative phase (lowering your legs back to the starting position) instead of just dropping your legs more or less. We'll come back to this mistake in the next section. Ab wheel rollout is also not the easiest exercise. Start on your knees and stop the movement before your lower back goes into a hollow back. For the inexperienced exerciser, we recommend starting with crunches on the machine to get stronger.

Mistakes and myths about abdominal muscle training

We have already discussed two mistakes. The first mistake is to perform exercises that do not or barely fulfill the four conditions mentioned above. Planks, for example, are very popular but too easy (do not fulfill the second condition). The second mistake is the belief/mindset that the abs should be trained differently than other muscles. Unless there is scientific data to suggest that the abs should be trained differently, we train the abs exactly the same as any other muscle to get them to grow. Another commonly observed mistake is the execution of the exercise: either the full range of motion is not performed (quite honestly, the observed range of motion is sometimes catastrophic) or the negative phase is not controlled enough (e.g. in hanging knee raises, the legs are simply dropped instead of slowly lowered). Or a combination of the two, resulting in, for example, doing crunches "pump style", i.e. very fast execution and incomplete range of motion. The last mistake we would like to mention is the time involved. Because exercises that are often too simple are performed far away from muscle failure, people try to compensate with many sets and repetitions. This takes a lot of time, but because the exercises are often too simple and don't fulfill the four exercises mentioned above, a lot of time is wasted. We don't like to see this and on Instagram we try to convey the message that you can train very time-efficiently and achieve very good results. 1 to 6 or at most 8 sets per workout twice or at most three times per week is more than enough for optimal results. 1-4 per workout twice a week (i.e. 2-8 sets per week) should be more than enough to make progress, provided you push yourself really close to muscle failure. Possibly even enough for optimal progress. More is not always better. On the contrary, it could be worse than fewer sets.

There are a few myths about abdominal training. With the advent of pseudo-scientific "functional training", crunches were often criticized. That they are not "functional", that there are better exercises or even that crunches are bad for the intervertebral discs. This is all nonsense. The term "functional training" is only used for marketing purposes and is very vague. There is no standard definition of what 'functional training' is, as we have already described in several posts on Instagram^.3 Another myth is 'core stability'⁴: the assumption that it is better to train the core isometrically/statically, e.g. with anti-rotation exercises. People forget that dynamic training of the abdominal muscles also improves anti-rotation. In other words, rotation exercises also improve your anti-rotation ability. "Core Stability" also assumes that the core only works isometrically/statically when sprinting, changing direction and decelerating, which is not true. This trend leads to people making their abdominal muscle training too complicated and worse. In our opinion, the Pallof Press, for example, is an extremely overrated exercise. We don't think it fulfills any of the above conditions well, especially the third point. Does this exercise really allow good progression, i.e. can you increase resistance well over time? Another myth is that you can/should train your abs every day because your abs are "designed that way". This is simply an unfounded claim. Where is the scientific data on this? As we've already mentioned, there is no data or plausible reason to train the abs differently. If in the future data shows that there is such a reason, we will change our mind.

Addition: oblique abdominal muscles

One of our favorite exercises to train the oblique abdominal muscles are "side-bends" with the barbell on your back. A much more difficult variation would be overhead side bends. This variation is probably too difficult for most people if they want to perform it with a good range of motion and good technique. "Side bends can also be done with the 45 degree hyperextension. Rotations on the twist machine would also be another good option. Some crunch machines allow you to adjust the seat at an angle so that you can do side crunches. Doing lateral crunches on the cable pulley is another option.

As mentioned above, rotation exercises can improve your anti-rotation ability. In our opinion, anti-rotation exercises are superfluous for both athletes and non-athletes. Also because e.g. deadlifts and squats already challenge your anti-rotation ability.

End position for "side-bends" with the barbell

References

1. Schoenfeld, B. J., Grgic, J., Van Every, D. W. & Plotkin, D. L. Loading Recommendations for Muscle Strength, Hypertrophy, and Local Endurance: A Re-Examination of the Repetition Continuum. Sports (Basel) 9, 32 (2021).
2. Chulvi-Medrano, I. et al. Deadlift muscle force and activation under stable and unstable conditions. J Strength Cond Res 24, 2723-2730 (2010).
3. Ide, B. N. et al. Is There Any Non-functional Training? A Conceptual Review. Front Sports Act Living 3, 803366 (2021).
4. Lederman, E. The myth of core stability. J Bodyw Mov Ther 14, 84-98 (2010).