Thread: abs that show

6' 145 is pretty thin. Strength and size do not always go hand in hand. If he wants visible abs he'll probably have to gain weight.

I can think of three reasons. First, some people's abs are just more attractive looking than others - the shape of the muscles themselves that is. Second, it's possible that your friend is overtraining his abs and therefore they don't grow to the right size to really stick out. I always found that I can develop better abs by training them two to three times a week and giving them rest to develop on rest days just like any other muscle group. Lastly, it's possible that he can be totally skinny and ripped everywhere but around his abdomen is where genetially he just stores some fat that refuses to go away. Everyone has problem fat areas and for some people the fat around the abdomen refuses to go away no matter how slim they are.

<- this was 20 minutes of cardio four days a week.

Oh, and heavy squats and deads - and my secret weapon: the "away from the refrigerator push"

Abs are made in the kitchen.

Originally Posted by Built

<- this was 20 minutes of cardio four days a week.

Oh, and heavy squats and deads - and my secret weapon: the "away from the refrigerator push"

Abs are made in the kitchen.

Not to be confused with the Cookie Curl. Thats bad.

maybe i'll get him to post here, but some of the comments make no sense to me. one comment said train abs only 2 days a week. any more is overtraining.. (he does train them 2 days a week)
another post said 20 minutes cardio.
the dudes a nationallty ranked runner.
20 minutes is a warmup for him.
common sense says heavy squats and deads will take away hids specific training needed to stay at his level..he does do weights using these 2 great exercises in his short off season..
thats why i said genetics.

who knows. some guys have the great 6pack, some dont..

I have seen a lot of marathon runners that have very low bodyfat and no abs. Genetics definately plays into this, but to much cardio is not good for muscle definition. Look at Builts midsection - you cant argue with those results can you????

Originally Posted by stepaukas

maybe i'll get him to post here, but some of the comments make no sense to me. one comment said train abs only 2 days a week. any more is overtraining.. (he does train them 2 days a week)
another post said 20 minutes cardio.
the dudes a nationallty ranked runner.
20 minutes is a warmup for him.
common sense says heavy squats and deads will take away hids specific training needed to stay at his level..he does do weights using these 2 great exercises in his short off season..
thats why i said genetics.

who knows. some guys have the great 6pack, some dont..

The simplest explanation is probably the correct one - he has fat covering his midsection so his abs aren't visible, despite being fairly lean everywhere else.

I agree with the previous posts. Everyone "has" abs. There is always some amount of fat covering the abs. His being athletic and fit doesn't mean that he will have visible abs. Being 6' 145lbs, he probably has relatively small abs, despite them being strong. If he wants to see abs, I would probably recommend that he starts to eat a little more and work on gaining some muscle first. It would be best if he gained muscle everywhere, and didn't only work his abs. Then, when he has gained significant muscle mass, go on a caloric deficit while still lifting (low rep, high weight, low frequency). Once he starts to lose the fat from his diet, his abs will show more.

Originally Posted by Built

<- this was 20 minutes of cardio four days a week.

Oh, and heavy squats and deads - and my secret weapon: the "away from the refrigerator push"

Abs are made in the kitchen.

What's the recipe. I'm handy in the kitchen.

Originally Posted by zarrin77

I agree with the previous posts. Everyone "has" abs. There is always some amount of fat covering the abs. His being athletic and fit doesn't mean that he will have visible abs. Being 6' 145lbs, he probably has relatively small abs, despite them being strong. If he wants to see abs, I would probably recommend that he starts to eat a little more and work on gaining some muscle first. It would be best if he gained muscle everywhere, and didn't only work his abs. Then, when he has gained significant muscle mass, go on a caloric deficit while still lifting (low rep, high weight, low frequency). Once he starts to lose the fat from his diet, his abs will show more.

That's basically what I came in to type.

What did he use to asses the strength of his abs? Sounds to me like he does the same really light endurance stuff for high repetitions, which gives no indication of strength, that every other person who bases their workouts off conventional gym wisdom does.

Stop looking at magazines and competition photos. When bodybuilders step on stage they are in a severely depleted state on several levels, and that look is not maintained a day beyond the competition. They even have special hydration and sodium intake protocols to manipulate water retention and step on stage looking just right. Don't forget all the tanning and dieting leading up to it either.

Same thing goes for models. They diet down for shoots, dehydrate themselves, get the perfect lighting, and then CGI enhance the photos. Don't use there images as a basis for what you want to achieve.

Also, at 6' and 145 pounds, I highly doubt this guy is strong at anything. He must have very little muscle mass.

My question is why do you care? Everyone is different. If you want to see your abs, stop eating so much. If you want to build them up, eat and work out heavy with full body work like deads and squats or flip some tires or some real shit. Then cut again. Yours will appear they way they are meant to. Comparing or contrasting will only lead to confusion and envy. And yea I'd also like to know how someone is gauging ab strength.

cowpimp
a bit harsh saying this guys not strong at anything. can you run a 1:51 800 meters or a 14:05 5000 meters?
it takes a bit of strength to do this.
his original question was why no visible abs .. he's lean, on a great diet. no fat over his abs, and has good looking abs, but i guess he was just wondering why the killer look isnt there. no big deal, as running is his main goal, not the look . just a curious question he had.

Originally Posted by stepaukas

cowpimp
a bit harsh saying this guys not strong at anything. can you run a 1:51 800 meters or a 14:05 5000 meters?
it takes a bit of strength to do this.
his original question was why no visible abs .. he's lean, on a great diet. no fat over his abs, and has good looking abs, but i guess he was just wondering why the killer look isnt there. no big deal, as running is his main goal, not the look . just a curious question he had.

A - How does strength have anything to do with his achievements in distance running?

B - The "Killer Look" is usually down to what Cowpimp already said - depletion, incredibly low bodyfat which can only usually be maintained for a day, and in the case of magazines photoshop and image manipulation is used to make the abs look better.

Just wanted to throw in my two cents..

Regarding major compounds like squats as good lifts for developing the abs through isometric tension, I suspect that many "lifters" don't experience the typical ab element so much during squats because they don't perform the lift properly. My abs took off during the 4 months I used box squats with a focus on negatives last fall, as I was controlling the weight so much more (and for the first time to parallel...I used to be a half'er).

On the other hand, so many guys (again, it's usually guys with the ego issues) practice terrible squat form, particularly on the eccentric; they just drop to the bottom and use (shit, what's it called again?? elastic something..) the momentum on the way back up that they're mostly just shocking their legs erratically but not really using their core (actual core!) to stabalize. These are the same guys who are teetering all over the squat rack, whereas controlled squatters are smooth.

Maybe if more people took the time to control their compound lifts rather than jerk, swing, and drop then they would actually notice their torso working hard. Just a thought.

Originally Posted by stepaukas

cowpimp
a bit harsh saying this guys not strong at anything. can you run a 1:51 800 meters or a 14:05 5000 meters?
it takes a bit of strength to do this.
his original question was why no visible abs .. he's lean, on a great diet. no fat over his abs, and has good looking abs, but i guess he was just wondering why the killer look isnt there. no big deal, as running is his main goal, not the look . just a curious question he had.

I just had this discussion with my brother the other day.

He's a painter, a smoker, and a stoner. He doesn't exercise and he eats very little and pays little attention to proper nutrition. However, he has a very low body fat...about 8%. You can see what little foundational muscle he has as well as ribs and other bones.

He asked me why his abs aren't really noticeable. I saif it's simple: you don't have much ab muscle. I said for instance, I squat, dead, all sorts of other compounds, etc, three times a week. I have a lot of muscle mass in the torso. However, as I'm bulking, my BF is about 15% and my abs are visible only as an outline (i.e. shape but no detail). I said if he had my abs with his BF then he'd look awesome, but because he has no muscle mass in that region it doesn't matter how lean he is.

Same thing with runners. I used to be a distancr runner. And, I mean serious distance: marathons. At one point I was about 4% BF, yet I had NO abs or other muscle. So, even though I was BB'er competition kind of lean I looked very flat and unmuscular because I had no muscle mass from all that running.

I will back up what everyone else said. The abs are like any other muscle. If they are not WORKED with heavier weight they will not grow. I used to work a lot of physical jobs. I even worked at a log home business doing very physical work. Always lifting heavy weight. So my abs always got a constant HEAVY workout. The abs you see to the left in my avatar are when I was around 14% bf. I am at 22%bf right now and my abs are still very visible.

Just doing crunches or situps and things like that will not make the abs bigger. The abs need abuse from heavier weight. Its just like any other muscle. If you curled 5# with your arm week after week after week, that thing would never get bigger. Its the same with abs. If you just crunch your own weight or do situps thats not going to make them any bigger. Get some heavy weight into those things if you want them to "stick out". As suggested do deadlifts, squats, and lift heavy weight. Even when I am doing something like 1 arm bumbbell bent over rows I can feel my abs getting a massive workout from that. Or if you want to do situps hold weight on your chest while you do it. Start with a 5# weight and if thats too easy go to 10# weight. Keep going up until you can only do a few reps and they will get bigger for sure.

I mean their could be a ton of reasons....

But one that comes to mind first is testosterone levels....
I have high testosterone which gives my abs some great SEX APPEAL....
(And Im around 11% body fat!)

He's fit which sounds like a a lot of cardio. Which births soft twitch muscle fibers unlike my many fast twitch! (Soft fibers are dull and not as striated)

Hope this helps...
No spam

Originally Posted by maseco63

I mean their could be a ton of reasons....

But one that comes to mind first is testosterone levels....
I have high testosterone which gives my abs some great SEX APPEAL....
(And Im around 11% body fat!)

He's fit which sounds like a a lot of cardio. Which births soft twitch muscle fibers unlike my many fast twitch! (Soft fibers are dull and not as striated)

Hope this helps...
No spam

WOW...

Originally Posted by Phineas

WOW...

I know...come on

There is no "secret"....abs are made in the kitchen. Proper macronutrients and cardio.

Originally Posted by chesty4

There is no "secret"....abs are made in the kitchen. Heavy compound lifting and a caloric deficit.

Fixed.

That's why i have my stash of cast iron pans next to the Clad. Heavy sons of beeches