The peak of fitness. Whatever thoughts ran through your head, chiseled abs was one of the first, earned through an intense ab workout. Righteously so, impressive six packs take dedication and frequent intense training. If you can achieve an impressive midsection, you likely have reached multiple fitness benchmarks. To garner that overall shirtless visual impact, the six pack is a must. These ab workouts are crafted to do just that, create the maximum visual impact. They’re designed to bring out definition by building up the abs while targeting separation and definition.

The Method Behind the Madness

To properly train your abs it’s important to understand how the abdominals work. As with any fitness goal, diet plays a key role in revealing your midsection.  Low body fat levels will let the muscles show but a proper ab workout is what separates the midsection of boys and men.  To obtain optimal results you have to build the mind muscle connection to your abs. This includes contracting them as forcefully as possible with each rep. This will ensure you are using your abs and not other muscles like hip flexors. A quick trick is to think about your abs stretching then contracting as you close the gap between your hips and shoulders. Since the abs are located very close to the heart they have a very fast recovery rate from the oxygen rich blood they receive. Faster recovery time means that rest periods can be shortened; making circuits the way to go. Fitness models like Rob Riches and Greg Plitt utilize circuits with exceptional results.

Designing Your Ultimate Ab Workout

From a visual and training perspective the abs are comprised of three basic areas: upper abs, lower abs and obliques.

With that in mind there are two main ways you can structure your workout: Choose three exercises to either focus on one specific area or one exercise per area for an overall ab workout. To maximize hypertrophy and definition vary the reps for each exercise from 10 reps to 30 reps.

To start off, do each circuit 3 times with a one-minute rest in-between each set. Advanced trainees should shoot for doing each circuit 5 times with no rest between sets for a total of 10-15 minutes. Here are some sample workouts to try both focusing on one area of the abdominals as well as a complete routine.

Ab Workouts Focusing On One Specific Area:

Lower Abs:ab workout

  • Decline sit-up- 20 reps (Use weight if needed)
  • Hip Thrust- 30 reps
  • Hanging leg raise- 15 reps

Upper Abs:

  • Kneeling cable crunch- 12-15 reps
  • Decline crunces-15-20 reps
  • Explosive crunches- 30 reps

Obliques:

  • Cable Wood-chops- 15 reps each way
  • Side Cable Crunch- 25 reps each side
  • Russian Twists- 30 reps

 

Total Ab Workout:

Circuit #1

  • Standing single arm cable crunches- 15-20 reps – Adjust a cable handle so that it is above your head. Draw the cable down to your shoulder height so your forearm is pressed against your chest. Crunch your upper down as if you were performing a standard crunch using the cable for resistance. Then, switch sides.
  • Decline Hip Thrusts- 12-15 reps – Lay face up on a decline bench so that your head is up by the foot hold. Raise your legs directly above your hips keeping your legs straight. Holding this form, thrust your hips straight up so that it feels like you’re pressing against the ceiling with your feet and lower very slowly.
  • Hanging Leg Raises- 20-25 reps – Using a pull-up bar grab a shoulder width grip. Keeping the upper-body completely still, raise your legs straight out so it forms a 90 degree angle with the upper-body.

Circuit #2

  • TRX Pike– 15 reps – With feet strapped in the TRX, go into a push-up position, raise the hips straight to the ceiling keeping the legs straight forming an upside V at the top then lower down.
  • TRX Knee Tuck- 20 reps – With feet strapped in the TRX, go into a push-up position. Keeping the upper body still, tuck the knees up to the chest and extend the legs back out.
  • Kneeling Band Crunches- 30 reps – With both knees on the ground, keep the upper body straight up and grab a super band attached to a pull-up bar overhead with both hands. Drawing it down to chest height crunch the shoulders down to the ground closing the gap between the shoulders and hips.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *