Cardio to Abs?

holly55555 · May 2015

My trainer insists I should be doing cardio 5x a week (for an hour!) to get to my goal of having abs. I'm 5'8, 130 lbs, still too much fat on my stomach to see any ab lines. I weight train 3x a week.

However, I hate hate hate cardio with a fiery passion.

Will I get abs if I just keep up with my deficit and weight training? Or is so much cardio really necessary? Anyone gets abs without cardio?

TR0berts · May 2015

Your trainer is a f'ing moron. Cardio is absolutely not necessary - especially that much. There are many people here that have done minimal (if any) cardio and gotten great abs.

kpodaru · May 2015

^^ this. i loathe cardio but i do it; not as often or as long as your "trainer" tells you because frankly, ain't nobody got time for that! i do a mixture of weight lifting with 30-45secs cardio intervals (ie. i'll do one set of weights, then for 45s i'll crank out as many burpees as i can in those 45s etc) but i refuse to sit on a freaking bikes or those awful machines for an hour.

abs are made in the kitchen! your trainer should know better. get another person!

Sam_I_Am77 · May 2015

I would do cardio a couple times a week just for health and conditioning or any performance goals you may have. Aside from that, if you eat right and get some exercise in you should be fine. If you're goal is to be a competitive physique athlete then you may need to look at daily cardio to get at competition weight.

ndj1979 · May 2015

cosigned

ndj1979 · May 2015

OP - I do about twenty minutes of cardio a week. If you want ABs then you need to do the following:

1. eat in a deficit
2. pay close attention to macros and micros
3. be very strict with logging
4. lift heavy
5. train your abs at least once a week
6. cardio is not necessary but it will help with getting your burns up ...

dieselbyte · May 2015

^This. Caloric deficit to lose body fat and reveal abs. How you create the deficit is up to you (diet, training, combination of both), but anyone that says you need to do hours of cardio a day for abs doesn't know a damn thing. I'd stop paying your trainer, because sounds like he/she is stealing your money. Weight training with a focus on compound lifts will strengthen your core, but more importantly improve functional strength. Ab training in itself will do nothing to reveal muscles, but can serve to further strengthen you core.

branflakes1980 · May 2015

Yup, this!

AllanMisner · May 2015

First off, you have abs already, there is just a layer of fat keeping you from seeing any definition. Eating at a deficit and lifting weights can do the trick. The cardio will just have you burning more calories (which if you don’t eat back will eventually start adversely affecting your weight training). You can do both (and probably should do some cardio for health reasons), just keep your deficit reasonable, and work up the intensity of the weights and cardio.

Patience, persistence, and progression.

Fentyman · May 2015

I'm confused!? Wouldn't that much cardio put her in a bigger calorie deficit, helping her reach her goals faster granted she is accurate with food logging? Maybe that's what her trainer is talking about.

ndj1979 · May 2015

yes, but it is totally unnecessary.

and 5x a week for an hour a session???? Please...

I would rather eat less and do minimal cardio then run five hours a week ...and that much cardio + deficit is going to start eating away at muscle ...

juggernaut1974 · May 2015

Generally - it's recommended to eat back the calories you burn from cardio exercise, so (at least in theory) it should be a net wash.

AllanMisner · May 2015

If you get into too much of a calorie deficit, you’ll lose muscle and fat. Yes, that is weight loss, but not an improvement in body composition. There is no reason she can’t set a decent calorie deficit without all that cardio. In fact, when I do significant cardio (yes, 1 hour five times a week is significant), my appetite goes through the roof. Two or three reasonable sessions makes sense, but five hours a week from nothing is out of line.

dieselbyte · May 2015

A trainer stating you NEED to do a minimum of 1 hour of cardio 5x a week in order to "have" abs is a clear indication that said trainer doesn't understand training or nutrition. Fat loss is the key to reveal abs, as we all "have" abs. That much cardio, in addition to OP's deficit, will most likely affect her lifts. Will cardio create a bigger deficit? Yes. Is it necessary to do that much to reveal abs? No. The advice is false and lazy. And since when is "faster" necessarily better??

mccindy72 · May 2015

Chieflrg · May 2015

If you want visible abs, you must have a low enough body fat % plain and simple. You don't have to do cardio if you hate it so much. You don't have to train your abs doing crunches, planks or anything for them to be visible no matter what you read or hear.

christykae82 · May 2015

HIIT is what you should be doing for cardio. It's been proven to burn more fat than steady state cardio. You're done in 20 minutes and it's not as boring. Plus you can do it on any machine you prefer or with weight and body exercises (pushups, jumping jacks etc). You only need to do it a few times a week. Not absolutely necessary for abs as mentioned above, but will help with the fat burning.

holly55555 · May 2015

THANK YOU ALL for these responses. Yeah I think my trainer was saying it was necessary because he wants me to get to my goal faster. Maybe he knows I'll get eventually but wants me to put maximum effort in... However, 5 hours a week is so much and I don't like it.

I'll still do cardio but I'm sooo glad to hear from other sources that I don't need to kill myself with it.

Cardio to Abs?

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