Training Your Abs

Overview

Abs are the only muscle most people train hoping to see rather than hoping to grow. Everything confusing about them comes from that.

You cannot see a muscle by training it. You see it by removing what is over it, and the training only decides how much there is to see once you do.

Key Points

• Visibility is body fat. Training is thickness. Two different jobs.
• No amount of ab work reduces abdominal fat.
• "Upper" and "lower" abs are one muscle, with some regional emphasis possible.
• Abs respond to load and progression like any other muscle.
• If you cannot feel them, slow down and shorten the range before you add exercises.

The two separate things

Roughly, abs become visible around 10 to 12 percent body fat in men and 18 to 20 percent in women, though where you store fat is genetic and some people see them several points higher or lower. See how to estimate body fat.

Crunches do not burn abdominal fat. Spot reduction is not a thing, and abs are where it gets believed most.

Upper and lower abs

The rectus abdominis is one muscle sheet running from the ribs to the pelvis. The "six pack" look comes from bands of connective tissue crossing it, not from separate muscles.

That said, the honest answer is not "you cannot target regions at all". Exercises that move the pelvis toward the ribs — leg raises, reverse crunches — put relatively more work through the lower portion, and exercises that move the ribs toward the pelvis — crunches, cable crunches — put relatively more through the upper. The emphasis is partial, not separate.

The practical version: do both movement directions, stop worrying about it.

"I cannot feel my abs"

Common enough to be its own question, and it is nearly always one of four things.

You are using your hip flexors. Leg raises and sit-ups are largely hip flexion with the abs along for the ride. Posterior pelvic tilt — tucking the pelvis under at the top — is what turns a leg raise into an ab exercise, and almost nobody does it without being told.

Your range is too big. Abs have a short working range. A full sit-up spends most of its travel out of that range. A crunch that moves eight inches, slowly, with a hard squeeze at the top, does more than a sit-up that moves two feet.

You are going too fast. Two seconds up, two seconds down. Momentum removes the muscle from the movement more completely here than anywhere else.

You are already fatigued. Abs at the end of a leg session are a tired trunk. That is also why they go last — see exercise order.

Also worth saying: feeling a muscle is not required for it to grow. It helps with technique and it is not the outcome.

Programming them

Like any other muscle, which is the part people skip. Nobody does 100 bodyweight bicep curls and expects growth, then does 100 crunches.

Progression is the whole thing. Move from bodyweight crunches to cable crunches, hanging knee raises to hanging leg raises, kneeling ab wheel to standing. If you have done the same set of 20 crunches for a year, that is why nothing changed.

And the heavy compounds already train the trunk hard. Squats, deadlifts and carries load it isometrically under real weight, which is part of why some people have decent abs having never trained them directly.

Common Mistakes

Frequently Asked Questions

Why can I not feel my abs working?

Usually hip flexors doing the work, too large a range, or too much speed. Tuck the pelvis, shorten the movement and slow it down.

At what body fat do abs show?

Typically around 10 to 12 percent for men and 18 to 20 percent for women, varying with where you store fat.

Are there separate upper and lower abs?

It is one muscle, but movement direction does shift the emphasis: leg raises load the lower portion relatively more, crunches the upper.

How often should I train abs?

Two or three times a week, six to twelve hard sets in total, with the load progressing.

Do I need to train abs if I squat and deadlift?

They get trained isometrically by heavy compounds, which is meaningful. Direct work still adds thickness.