First, I want to address some of the WRONG advice out there…
No amount of ab exercises alone will give you a great six pack.
No matter how simple or fancy the exercises, they are not the “shortcut to six pack abs.”
Yes, ab exercises are necessary for developing a solid core (more on that in a second), but it takes more than ab workouts to get the look you desire.
Just being lean isn’t enough.
It’s true that you need to have low levels of body fat for your abs to fully show. For us guys, they start really showing as you get under 10% body fat, and for gals, under 20% body fat.
But the reality is you can get very lean and still not have the “six pack” look you want. How so? The answer is simple: nobody’s core is naturally developed enough to have the deep cuts and pronounced lines that make for a truly outstanding six pack.
Look again to the second example of poor ab development I showed earlier, and to my 2-year-old pictures. Both he and I were lean when those pictures were taken, but what was wrong with our physiques would have been just as obvious even if we had stripped off another 1-2% body fat.
The full “six pack” look requires low body fat levels and well-developed core muscles.
Just deadlifting and squatting isn’t enough, either.
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the following: “I don’t train abs–I squat and deadlift.” And these guys and girls usually have unimpressive cores.
The reality is these two exercises, even when performed with heavy weight (80%+ of 1RM), just don’t involve the “show” muscles of the rectus abdominis, the tranversus abdominis, and the external obliques as much as people think.
Now, don’t get me wrong–heavy squatting and deadlifting do help build an all-around great core, but they aren’t enough on their own.
What does it take to get a killer core, then?
Having an outstanding six pack and core actually only requires two things:
1. Reducing your body fat percentage. For us guys, the rectus abdominis doesn’t really start showing until we reach the 10% range, and the rest of the core muscles don’t pop until we reach the 8% range. For girls, 20% is where the fun begins, and 18% is where their cores really start to shine.
Just know that no matter how great your core muscles are developed, you will not achieve the look you want if your body fat percentage is too high. If you’re not sure how to get leaner, check out my article series on how to lose body fat fast.
2. Regularly performing the right ab and core exercises. What are the right exercises? Let’s find out…
The Best Ab and Core Exercises
Building a great six pack requires that you do both ab exercises that train your rectus abdominis, and exercises that train the other core muscles that complete the look we want.
How to Develop Great Abs (Rectus Abdominis)
The biggest mistake most people make with ab training is they don’t perform any weighted ab exercises. The result is the ability to do a bazillion crunches or leg raises, but with abs that look small and underdeveloped.
The abs are like any other muscle: they require progressive overload to grow, and that can only be accomplished by adding resistance to exercises. You don’t have to add weight to all of your ab training, but you must add it to some if you want abs that really pop.
My favorite ab exercises are as follows:
- Cable Crunch
- Captain’s Chair Leg Raise (you can start with knees bent, but you want to work toward legs straight)
- Hanging Leg Raise
- Air Bicycle
- Ab Wheel Rollout
I didn’t just choose these at random–research has actually shown them to be the most effective for training the rectus abdominis and obliques (unfortunately the study disappeared off the Net, but it was led by Peter Francis, Ph.D., at the Biomechanics Lab at San Diego State University).
I’ve found that abs seem to respond best to a combination of weighted and unweighted work. Here’s how I like to do it:
- 1 set of a weighted exercise like the Cable Crunch, Captain’s Chair Leg Raise, or Hanging Leg Raise for 10-12 reps (you can add weight to the latter two by snatching a dumbbell in between your feet)
- Directly into 1 set of an unweighted exercise, to failure
- Directly into 1 set of an unweighted exercise, to failure
- Rest 2-3 minutes
For example:
- 1 set of Cable Crunches, 10-12 rep range
- Directly into 1 set of Captain’s Chair Leg Raises, to failure
- Directly into 1 set of Air Bicycles, to failure
- Rest 2-3 minutes
- Do 6 – 9 of these circuits 2 – 3 times per week, and your abs and obliques will develop. Let’s now look at how we can develop the rest of the core muscles.
How to Develop the Other Core Muscles
Heavy compound weightlifting trains your core better than special “core exercises,” and particularly when performed with heavy weight (80%+ your 1RM). My three favorite core exercises are the Deadlift, Squat, and Military Press or Overhead Press. If you perform each of these lifts every week, and perform them with heavy weight, you won’t need to do any other core exercises.
And last but not least, I’ve mentioned the serratus several times, so let’s talk about that.
How to Develop a Great Serratus
While you can target the serratus anterior with an exercise like the Dumbbell Pullover, I never found this necessary. The exercises that really helped my serratus grow are…
- Deadlift
- Barbell Row
- Dumbbell Bench Press
- Ab Wheel Rollout
Any good weightlifting routine will include the first three (and heavy weight will train your serratus better than lighter weights), and Ab Wheel Rollouts are one of the great all-around ab and core exercises.
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