Becoming more muscular

Anniebotnen

Front squats, deadlifts, and pull ups are my favorite ab exercises, Pushups are good too, but mainly work your hip flexors.

Rigger

If you're working your hip flexors when you do push-ups, something is not right...

AllOutof_Bubblegum

If I were to guess, my caloric intake would be about 1500-2000 calories a day.

Stop guessing. You need to know for sure, because you'd be absolutely floored to learn how quickly those few extra unlogged calories add up to several hundred by the end of the day. Weigh everything. Log everything. It's the only way to know for SURE you are eating at a deficit.

Showcase_Brodown

Your abs will be achieved mainly by lowering body fat % and focusing on compound lifts. You can isolate if you get bored and are doing the first two.

Leadfoot_Lewis

If I were to guess, my caloric intake would be about 1500-2000 calories a day.

Stop guessing. You need to know for sure, because you'd be absolutely floored to learn how quickly those few extra unlogged calories add up to several hundred by the end of the day. Weigh everything. Log everything. It's the only way to know for SURE you are eating at a deficit.

^I agree with this. If you really want to get serious about this you really need to know with as much certainty as you can how many calories you're taking in.

July 8, 2014 2:42 PM

Your abs will be achieved mainly by lowering body fat % and focusing on compound lifts.

I put an emphasis on the "and" because good abs (especially on a female who has enough trouble gaining muscle) are not "just made in the kitchen". While that's very important so is strength training, not only from compound lifts, but also heavy isolated ab work.

kdiamond

Get on a good "tried and true" program and eat 200-300 calories above maintenance. You'll need to gain some weight which will be a mixture of both fat and muscle. It will probably take a good amount of time, say 6-12 months.

MrTolerable

If I were to guess, my caloric intake would be about 1500-2000 calories a day.

Stop guessing. You need to know for sure, because you'd be absolutely floored to learn how quickly those few extra unlogged calories add up to several hundred by the end of the day. Weigh everything. Log everything. It's the only way to know for SURE you are eating at a deficit.

^I agree with this. If you really want to get serious about this you really need to know with as much certainty as you can how many calories you're taking in.

July 8, 2014 2:42 PM

Your abs will be achieved mainly by lowering body fat % and focusing on compound lifts.

I put an emphasis on the "and" because good abs (especially on a female who has enough trouble gaining muscle) are not "just made in the kitchen". While that's very important so is strength training, not only from compound lifts, but also heavy isolated ab work.

^solid advice

Chibigirl01

Thanks everyone for your tips and advice! I've been trying to eat about 1800 calories a day and drinking protein shakes to meet my protein requirements. It might sound silly to folks who have been working out for a while, but I've learned that the main reason I have trouble gaining muscle is because of a lack of protein intake. For now, I've been focusing on primarily lifting and HIIT with very minimal steady state cardio.

yoovie

the big compound lifts have worked my midsection more than anything ive done that was isolated work.

evilokc

Been said a lot here and i dont wanna feel left out so i will say again. Treat your abs like every other muscle. Weight makes muscles bigger. Im working on this myself right now. I got leaner and leaner and as i did i noticed my abs were not the big bricks of muscle i wanted. A flat stomach is nice but i want 3d abs. So im doing weighted rope crunches as my main focus.