Abs, Abs, and more about Abs

Ah, "six packs," "eight packs," "tight and toned," "flat and firm," or however else you want to talk about it; Abs have been the crowd favorite of muscles for a few decades now. Yet most people's way of training them sucks.

First, let's talk some science.

There is no such thing as upper abs and lower abs!

There's one muscle, The Rectus Abdominis, and it stretches from the bottom of your sternum to the top of your pelvis. As seen below.

Notice that there's only one muscle there, highlighted in red. There is no upper, mid, or lower part. Just one part.

The reason why it appears to have more than one muscle is because of the tendons that stretch across it and connect it to your body. These tendons make your six-pack or eight-pack, not separate muscles.

Why is this important?

Simple, really. Because if you truly are working your rectus abdominis, you don't need to do an exercise for the upper part and an exercise for the lower part. You only have one muscle to work.

You may feel "the burn" in the top portion or lower portion of the muscle, but that doesn't mean shit. What matters is that you're are forcing your muscles to generate force against a particular resistance.

Alright, I'm off of that soapbox.

Second thing about ab training is this: You won't carve your abs through exercise. Being able to see your abs is all about having a low body fat percentage. The lower your body fat, the more you'll see your abs.

Now, if you build up your rectus abdominis you'll see your abs at a higher body fat percentage than if you don't work them. But you need to get rid of the fat in order to see them.

Also, just because someone has visible abs doesn't mean that they're in shape, fit, strong or healthy. I've seen junkies at a methadone clinic that have eaten away enough of their body that their abs stand out in bold relief, but it doesn't mean that they're fit or healthy.

Third, your abs are just like any muscle group around. It's funny that people can see the point of doing heavy weight, low rep sets for benching, squatting, deadlifting, etc. But almost everyone feels the need to do ultra light, hugely high rep sets for their abs. Guess what? It doesn't work, if it did, everyone would be walking around with killer abs.

If you overload the rectus abdominis with, let's say, 5 sets of 5 reps of weighted sit-ups using 300 pounds, they'll develop incredibly well. Much better than if you sit in a boat pose and wag your arms up and down 100 times.

Don't believe me, check out Kirk's abs. He built them up doing 1,000+ squats and heavy ass deads, not hundreds of crunches. And he didn't even try for a ripped tummy, he trained for strength:

Yet, he's shredded.

So, what I'm trying to say in this post is this:

Stop trying to work your upper and lower abs, just hit a heavy and hard movement.

Stop trying to work your abs everyday, treat them like any other part of your body.

Stop hitting 1,000 reps for them, instead focus on heavy ass movements for lower reps. Strengthen those abs for damn sake.

Stop trying to