it'simple

it'simple

Ultimate Abs Workout

6 Pack Promised?

Are six packs that important and do you really want six pack abs?

We believe that core strength is necessary for overall health and crucial to support your spine and prevents back injury and we definitely recommend abs workout to train your core regularly. But can you have good core strength without a 6-pack? Absolutely.
If you want to reveal your “six-pack” not only you need to exercise regularly, you also need to reduce your overall body fat percentage, which means following an intense exercise routine and a very strict diet.

Unless you want to be an underwear model, it might not be worth it.

You develop Ab muscles with training, and you reveal them with your diet. No matter how developed your ab muscles are, you can not see them while they're covered with a layer of fat.
Men need to get around 12% and women about 15% or less body fat to be able to show their six-packs and that means being really picky about your diet and giving up a lot of food that you like which is not something for everybody.

Can you lose belly fat by doing ab exercises?

NO!
There is no exercise that can "melt", "burn" or "torch" your belly fat and spot reduction is not a thing. When you eat less calories than your body burns, you will start to lose fat and unfortunately for most people, belly fat is the last source of the fat that body likes to burn. So be patient, think about your overall health and basically don't sweat it and enjoy your life.

How to train Abs effectively

let's take a look at the core anatomy. The entire core is made of four main muscles.

1 - Rectus Abdominis, upper and lower part

Rectus Abdominis is the largest core muscle. This is the muscle that makes up the six pack and is responsible for your torso flexion. When we talk about upper and lower abs, we are talking about two portions of this muscle.

2 - Obliques

The external and internal obliques help us in trunk rotation and well developed obliques provide a nice looking frame for your 6 packs.

3 - Serratus anterior

The serratus anterior is a fan-shaped muscle located on each of our sides keeping the shoulder blades in contact with the rib cage. Not only this muscle stabilizes and facilitates proper movement of the shoulder blades but it also helps to define the lower chest and obliques better to get you that boxer abs look.

4 - Transverse Abdominis

Transverse abdominis wrap around the trunk from front to back like a back support belt. It is not marked on the picture as it is a deep ab muscle that is not visible on the surface. When you suck in your abs or perform ab vacuums it’s the transverse abdominis doing the work. This muscle is a main stabilizer of the core and it helps to maintain proper spine support.

Abs workout guide


For training abs effectively you need to hit all these core muscles, which means you need to select Ab exercises correctly. At the bottom of this page we gathered some great Ab workout videos that you can use in your training.

The core is predominately made up of slow twitch muscle fibers, which are fibers known for their ability to handle prolonged work. These fibers produce less force and are slower to produce maximal tension. But they can maintain longer-term contractions. That's why we think it's better to work abs regularly and we implemented Ab workouts in every training day in our programs.

Abs workout and low-back pain

Do you feel pain in your lower back when you do ab exercises?
Unless you are suffering from a herniated disc or another back injury there is a good chance that tight hip flexors are the main cause for this low back pain.
The hip flexors are a group of muscles toward the front of the hip. They help you move or flex your leg and knee up towards your body. Hip flexor muscles attach to the front of the lower back (lumbar) vertebrae and the inside surface of the pelvis and run through the pelvis. When these muscles tighten up, they begin to pull on the vertebra in your lower back and lead to imbalances such as excessive posterior tilt and often times pain.
The problem with many ab exercises is that they engage hip flexors as the prime mover and instead of training the core muscles, they use hip flexors to perform the exercise. This will cause over strengthening of hip flexors and making them tighter. The key to resolve this issue is to use exercises that engage hip flexors less. You can find great examples in the videos below.

Two great at home Abs workout routines:

Here we brought two great Abs workout routines that are easy on the back and can be done with no equipment. First one is a great 10 minute follow along, no equipment ab workout from AthleanX. And the second video is from Jeremy Ethier. Exercises have been selected considering the hip flexor problem that were explained above, so even people with low back pain should be able to perform this routine without compromising the health of their backs.

Don't forget about serratus anterior

Serratus anterior or the boxer's muscle as we mentioned above is an important muscle that is often neglected. Make sure that some serratus exercises are included in your ab workouts.

Want more abs workout?

Check out our Youtube playlist for our favorite Ab workouts and videos. We keep looking for great videos about Ab workouts that are worth your time and keep updating this playlist.

Abs Workout Playlist