Abs aren’t only made in the kitchen – 5 Reasons you don’t have abs

One of the most sought after accomplishments and most common body goals that people have when they start an exercise program is to get a 6 pack or to have a really defined stomach. Considering how many people wish for this feature, it is a relatively rare thing to find. Why is this?
The saying “Abs are made in the kitchen” only tells half the story. While it is important to eat clean and control your calorie intake, to get an amazing set of abs requires serious training and dedication, not just diet.
There are many reasons that people are unable to build the abs that they wish for. Here are my top ones…….

1. Your body fat % is too high

This one is fairly easy to understand and doesn’t need too much explaining. If you are carrying excess body fat then no matter how amazing your abs may be, you will never be able to enjoy them the way you’d like to because they are hiding under a wall of fat. It always grabs me when I see overweight people doing crunches and other variations of floor based stomach exercises. This time would be much better spent in the cardio area, and in particular performing some high intensity intervals. 10 mins of high intensity training at the end of your weights session, instead of 10 mins of crunches and air bikes will do a hell of a lot more to help you get a defined midsection. Remember, you can’t spot reduce fat, and no amount of sit ups or leg raises will erase that stomach fat.

2. You don’t prioritise your Ab training

Even though having abs is high on the priority list for many avid gym goers, the training of abs is often relegated to the final 10 minutes of the session, thrown in after whatever other muscle group has been trained that day. People can train legs and abs in the same day and they perform 3-5 sets of squats, lunges, leg press, leg extensions and hamstring curls for their legs, and then do a few sets of 10-20 hanging knee raises and Russian twists for their abs. Would you expect your legs to look amazing if you did 3 sets here and there of bodyweight squats at the end of your session? I doubt you would, and if you do then you need more help than this article will provide. Throwing your ab training in to your workout at the end after you are mentally and physically fatigued from training your other muscle groups, does not lend to any sort of intensity. Usually by this stage we are already thinking about heading for the door, and training abs becomes more of an afterthought.
Treat your ab training the same way you would for any other muscle group that you are trying to develop. Multiple exercises, with multiple sets and with the same intensity that you do your bench press or your squats. If your primary goal is for to get a 6 pack, even give your abs a day of their own, or train them for 30 mins before you do your conditioning sessions.

3. You don’t train your abs heavy enough

It has always amazed me the thought process behind doing 100’s of reps on the abs. It is a false assumption that performing many, many repetitions will grow “long and lean muscles”. All muscle is lean, that’s the beauty of it. It seems counter intuitive to me that we perform heavy deadlifts for the trunk extensors (lower back) usually in the 5-15 rep range, but then when we are working the opposite (antagonist) muscles, we change to 20-50 rep sets and begin working huge burn sets with little to no resistance. We wouldn’t do this for the bicep vs tricep, so why is it done for the torso flexors and extensors??
A relatively unknown fact about the rectus abdominus muscles, which are your 6 pack muscles, is that they are predominantly fast twitch muscle fibers. What this means is that they respond very well to explosive movements with low rep ranges and heavy loads. To grow great abs, we need to choose exercises that use heavy weights, or that manipulate the lever lengths of our own body In order to increase the intensity (for example straightening the legs on leg raises or windscreen wipers rather than having your knees bent). We need to aim to fail at between 5-12 reps, the same way we grow every other muscle of the body.

4. You don’t train in enough planes of motion

The abs are a complicated group of muscles that require a large variety of training stimuli. The abdominal wall is made up of the rectus abdominus, internal and external obliques and transverse abdominus. I also include the serratus anterior in this group as well. The Serratus anterior is a scapula stabilizer and while technically not part of the abs, if you have ever seen people who look like they have “extra abs” then its these bad boys you are seeing. They make the torso look amazing when they pop.
The function of all these muscles is more than just flexing the torso forward as in the traditional crunch exercise. They also assist in rotation, and stabilize the torso against extension and rotational forces.
It is for this reason that you need to train your abs in a wide range of different planes of motion including twists, knee raises, planks, reverse crunches, roll outs etc ensuring that each muscle of the abdominal wall is being stimulated in some way. This will also give you legitimate “core strength” which can assist in reducing back pain.

5. You eat too much sugar

This one links back to the #1 point I made about body fat. In this case I am referring specifically to abdominal fat stores. Many people have quite reasonable to low body fat percentages and yet still carry that stubborn fat roll on the bottom of the stomach which hinders any hope of achieving that amazing stomach. This can be a genetic factor in that the lower abs could be your primary fat deposit site, however a dominant reason that many people carry fat specifically on our stomach is due to insulin sensitivity. When we eat a lot of sugar and high glycemic foods our body releases high amounts of insulin, our body then starts to become resistant to insulin, and therefore more and more insulin is needed to be released to do the same job as smaller amounts previously could (to learn more about insulin and its effects on the body, please read this article I wrote previously HERE. ).
High insulin levels have been linked in particular to abdominal fat storage. The fat cells in the stomach become damaged by high volumes of insulin, become hypoxic and then become very difficult to get rid of.
So keep your hands off the chocolates, lollies and cokes if you are serious about getting that head turning mid-section.