In my opinion, sculpted abs aren’t so difficult to achieve. But most people are going about it the wrong way. The ab muscles are not like the biceps or chest or shoulders. They are unique and you need to train them that way.
Most of the body’s fat is stored in the mid-section, which is why so many people are struggling with belly fat, yet they are not realising that. Unlike your arms, shoulders and legs, which bad nutrition does not affect that much, in order to see definition in your abs, you have to really focus on them.
There are, of course, some common misunderstandings about abs training. But the first and most important thing to do is to get your nutrition in check. This is because what you’re eating will determine the visibility of the midsection. Your nutrition, therefore, plays a crucial role in building your abs. You should know by now which foods are good and which aren’t. But in case you need reminding, you should avoid oily, greasy foods and beverages and snacks loaded with sugar as much as possible. You can do your own research on the internet as well. Change the way you eat and you will be one step closer to getting your abs defined.
Training frequency
How often you train your abs is important as well. Abs are just one part of our core and a strong core is important as it will ensure that you have better posture. So overall core training is part of what you ought to be doing. You can also train your abs indirectly, while targeting other muscle groups by contracting your core. How often you directly target your abs, I personally think is a matter of choice and genetics. Some people train their abs every day, while some train them two to three times a week. Find what works best for you.
Intensity and time
Some people will say that you should dedicate 15 to 20 or more minutes on training your abs. Again, this is all a matter of choice. A great set of abs are built with high intensity workouts. And if you are doing high intensity ab workouts, then they should be short. Believe me, I’ve trained my abs for 7–8 minutes a day doing high intensity workouts and I can tell you that there is no way that you can do that for 20 and more minutes. The key is to train them short and intensely and try to be as consistent as possible.
Breathing
Breathing is really important. If you don’t do it right then you won’t be able to contract your abs as much as possible. When doing basic crunches, for example, most people just focus on lifting their shoulders off the ground. However, they’re not contracting their abs enough to cause change. I urge you to try this at home. Before you start doing your crunches, breathe out, contract your abs and then perform the crunches. You will see how much more effort is provided when you’re contracting your abs versus just lifting your shoulders. And that is the key for every ab exercise. Breathe out, contract your abs and then do the rep. You won’t be able to do many reps, but you don’t need to. In fact, forget about the reps and focus on your form instead. It’s better to do 7 reps with good form than 20 reps with bad form.
Follow these tips, be consistent, train all ab muscles, lower, middle, upper abs and obliques and you will start to see changes.
