I want Abs, Help!
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soldiergrl_101
Posts: 2,205 Member
So I know Abs are made in the kitchen, that being said on top of my healthy eating I do 100 sit-ups a day holding a 8 pound medicine ball. I was only able to do half of 1 sit up when I started lol.
Right now I have like a two pac, my obliques look great and feel hard as a rock as does my upper and mid abdomen....Its the lower one that sits on top of your jeans I cant seem to get anywhere with. I dont feel any muscle in their at all. As I loose weight its going down but I want to help build muscle there and move this process along haha.
Is their any specific exercises or sit-ups I should try that will target this area specifically. What worked for you?
Right now I have like a two pac, my obliques look great and feel hard as a rock as does my upper and mid abdomen....Its the lower one that sits on top of your jeans I cant seem to get anywhere with. I dont feel any muscle in their at all. As I loose weight its going down but I want to help build muscle there and move this process along haha.
Is their any specific exercises or sit-ups I should try that will target this area specifically. What worked for you?
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holy crapola those jack knives look hard, I just googled it. I can barley get my legs off the ground for a flutter kick0
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Thank you, Ive seen this article, its helpful but im looking for like specific exercises. I already do strong lifts 3 days a week and cardio the other two days
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soldiergrl_101 wrote: »Right now I have like a two pac, my obliques look great and feel hard as a rock as does my upper and mid abdomen....Its the lower one that sits on top of your jeans I cant seem to get anywhere with. I dont feel any muscle in their at all. As I loose weight its going down but I want to help build muscle there and move this process along haha.
Honestly, until you lose the fat you don't know what's under there. You may not feel the muscle, but it may be there. Do you know how to effectively engage your core?0 -
Pushups & Squats, maybe throw in some Burpee Pushups too.
I did a move from P90X called the Prison Cell Push Up, and those kicked my rear.
All should be effective at building muscle, hence burning the fat around your midsection, hence displaying what abs you have.0 -
soldiergrl_101 wrote: »
Thank you, Ive seen this article, its helpful but im looking for like specific exercises. I already do strong lifts 3 days a week and cardio the other two days
Specific exercises won't remove the fat that is currently covering your abs, and you won't be building much in the way of muscle size while eating at a deficit.0 -
soldiergrl_101 wrote: »Right now I have like a two pac, my obliques look great and feel hard as a rock as does my upper and mid abdomen....Its the lower one that sits on top of your jeans I cant seem to get anywhere with. I dont feel any muscle in their at all. As I loose weight its going down but I want to help build muscle there and move this process along haha.
Honestly, until you lose the fat you don't know what's under there. You may not feel the muscle, but it may be there. Do you know how to effectively engage your core?
I have been trying to concentrate on this now that I have lost 40lbs because the workouts become easier. So I am trying to expand and build on my workouts while focusing more on things like tightening my core as I run and lift and stuff like that. But before I dont think I was, I was just trying to push through it without dying lol0 -
jeremywm1977 wrote: »Pushups & Squats, maybe throw in some Burpee Pushups too.
I did a move from P90X called the Prison Cell Push Up, and those kicked my rear.
All should be effective at building muscle, hence burning the fat around your midsection, hence displaying what abs you have.
Pushups help your midsection, I thought that was for your arms0 -
You don't really have upper and lower abs, they're all one muscle - you can't work out parts of them and not others. So if you have upper abs, you have lower ones, you just need to lower fat to reveal them.0
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amyrebeccah wrote: »soldiergrl_101 wrote: »jeremywm1977 wrote: »Pushups & Squats, maybe throw in some Burpee Pushups too.
I did a move from P90X called the Prison Cell Push Up, and those kicked my rear.
All should be effective at building muscle, hence burning the fat around your midsection, hence displaying what abs you have.
Pushups help your midsection, I thought that was for your arms
Actually, they help your chest the most, but they're a full-body exercise, and engage your core to keep to the proper plank-like form.
Interesting. I started doing planks last week, I keep trying to get my butt lower, currently I look like a cat in heat, the butt goes up the head and back go down lol0 -
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Abs are so ambitious, I'd be happy with a collarbone.0
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All this isolation work advice and mentality is ill-advised. Sounds like you have stubborn fat in your lower abs. What worked for me (6 pack at age 46) is heavy-compound movements that work the core. For example: Deadlifts. With heavy weight. Squats (heavy barbell squats). Add in 2 times a week of high intensity cardio such as jump rope or sprints or stationary bike sprint intervals. Keep the calories in check (slight deficit). I do not do "ab work" because I lift heavy weight off the ground, and the abs are stabilizers. Build muscle, torch fat, and your abs will show up one day.0
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I was replying to the original post. But having read that, I put an exclamation point on my original recommendation. With the exception of actual 'weakness' in the lower abs (as opposed to just not feeling muscle there) isolation work in general is a waste of energy when you are doing a program like strong lifts, and doing so at a caloric deficit (which limits your volume). Strong lifts are OK, but I'm a bigger fan of other programs. Even so, strong lifts are pretty legit, and focusing on that should eventually address the lower ab weakness. You simply can't squat and deadlift heavy without a strong core. So focusing even more energy and focus on increasing squat and deadlift will do a lot more than any isolation work. The only exception is if you are FAILING on squat and/or deadlift due to weak abs. In which case, the supplementary isolation work would be helpful and even more important than the cardio. Why? Because the deadlifts and squats are more important to the cardio an you have to to support those lifts first (while in a caloric deficit). So I wouldn't go by how your abs look or feel while you're a work in progress. My abs totally sucked about a year ago, they were flabby and weak. I haven't done any ab work at all, just heavy weights, and my abs are made of steel now. Deadlifts, heavy--all the way. Best core exercise there is.0
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...deadlifts are more important THAN the cardio*0
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I was replying to the original post. But having read that, I put an exclamation point on my original recommendation. With the exception of actual 'weakness' in the lower abs (as opposed to just not feeling muscle there) isolation work in general is a waste of energy when you are doing a program like strong lifts, and doing so at a caloric deficit (which limits your volume). Strong lifts are OK, but I'm a bigger fan of other programs. Even so, strong lifts are pretty legit, and focusing on that should eventually address the lower ab weakness. You simply can't squat and deadlift heavy without a strong core. So focusing even more energy and focus on increasing squat and deadlift will do a lot more than any isolation work. The only exception is if you are FAILING on squat and/or deadlift due to weak abs. In which case, the supplementary isolation work would be helpful and even more important than the cardio. Why? Because the deadlifts and squats are more important to the cardio an you have to to support those lifts first (while in a caloric deficit). So I wouldn't go by how your abs look or feel while you're a work in progress. My abs totally sucked about a year ago, they were flabby and weak. I haven't done any ab work at all, just heavy weights, and my abs are made of steel now. Deadlifts, heavy--all the way. Best core exercise there is.
Strong =\= developed in terms of aesthetics unfortunately. I have a "strong" core, and can pull upper 400's without a belt, but my abs are very shallow and you cannot really see the tendinious inscriptions unless under certain lighting. This is also hovering around 10% BF too...0 -
I was replying to the original post. But having read that, I put an exclamation point on my original recommendation. With the exception of actual 'weakness' in the lower abs (as opposed to just not feeling muscle there) isolation work in general is a waste of energy when you are doing a program like strong lifts, and doing so at a caloric deficit (which limits your volume). Strong lifts are OK, but I'm a bigger fan of other programs. Even so, strong lifts are pretty legit, and focusing on that should eventually address the lower ab weakness. You simply can't squat and deadlift heavy without a strong core. So focusing even more energy and focus on increasing squat and deadlift will do a lot more than any isolation work. The only exception is if you are FAILING on squat and/or deadlift due to weak abs. In which case, the supplementary isolation work would be helpful and even more important than the cardio. Why? Because the deadlifts and squats are more important to the cardio an you have to to support those lifts first (while in a caloric deficit). So I wouldn't go by how your abs look or feel while you're a work in progress. My abs totally sucked about a year ago, they were flabby and weak. I haven't done any ab work at all, just heavy weights, and my abs are made of steel now. Deadlifts, heavy--all the way. Best core exercise there is.
A strong core doesn't mean visible abs. Building abdominal aesthetics does take isolation work. In her case, she wants to add volume to the abdominal muscles which means more isolation work is needed in the hypertrophy range. She's not aiming to be a powerlifter with a strong core, she's aiming for added volume in the muscles. There's a big difference between sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar hypertrophy.0 -
I was replying to the original post. But having read that, I put an exclamation point on my original recommendation. With the exception of actual 'weakness' in the lower abs (as opposed to just not feeling muscle there) isolation work in general is a waste of energy when you are doing a program like strong lifts, and doing so at a caloric deficit (which limits your volume). Strong lifts are OK, but I'm a bigger fan of other programs. Even so, strong lifts are pretty legit, and focusing on that should eventually address the lower ab weakness. You simply can't squat and deadlift heavy without a strong core. So focusing even more energy and focus on increasing squat and deadlift will do a lot more than any isolation work. The only exception is if you are FAILING on squat and/or deadlift due to weak abs. In which case, the supplementary isolation work would be helpful and even more important than the cardio. Why? Because the deadlifts and squats are more important to the cardio an you have to to support those lifts first (while in a caloric deficit). So I wouldn't go by how your abs look or feel while you're a work in progress. My abs totally sucked about a year ago, they were flabby and weak. I haven't done any ab work at all, just heavy weights, and my abs are made of steel now. Deadlifts, heavy--all the way. Best core exercise there is.
A strong core doesn't mean visible abs. Building abdominal aesthetics does take isolation work. In her case, she wants to add volume to the abdominal muscles which means more isolation work is needed in the hypertrophy range. She's not aiming to be a powerlifter with a strong core, she's aiming for added volume in the muscles. There's a big difference between sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar hypertrophy.
This!!!0 -
I was replying to the original post. But having read that, I put an exclamation point on my original recommendation. With the exception of actual 'weakness' in the lower abs (as opposed to just not feeling muscle there) isolation work in general is a waste of energy when you are doing a program like strong lifts, and doing so at a caloric deficit (which limits your volume). Strong lifts are OK, but I'm a bigger fan of other programs. Even so, strong lifts are pretty legit, and focusing on that should eventually address the lower ab weakness. You simply can't squat and deadlift heavy without a strong core. So focusing even more energy and focus on increasing squat and deadlift will do a lot more than any isolation work. The only exception is if you are FAILING on squat and/or deadlift due to weak abs. In which case, the supplementary isolation work would be helpful and even more important than the cardio. Why? Because the deadlifts and squats are more important to the cardio an you have to to support those lifts first (while in a caloric deficit). So I wouldn't go by how your abs look or feel while you're a work in progress. My abs totally sucked about a year ago, they were flabby and weak. I haven't done any ab work at all, just heavy weights, and my abs are made of steel now. Deadlifts, heavy--all the way. Best core exercise there is.
A strong core doesn't mean visible abs. Building abdominal aesthetics does take isolation work. In her case, she wants to add volume to the abdominal muscles which means more isolation work is needed in the hypertrophy range. She's not aiming to be a powerlifter with a strong core, she's aiming for added volume in the muscles. There's a big difference between sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar hypertrophy.
awww @usmcmp I do love it when you use big words....
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