There are so many myths out there about abs so we decided to cut to the chase and dispel six of them for you. Change up your game with these tips, and in four weeks the other guys will still be doing crunches while you reap the benefits.
1. The more crunches, the better
It doesn’t matter how many crunches you do. Seeing abs is all about body fat, and you need to have 10% or less to see the six-pack. Replace the six-pack in your fridge with green, leafy veggies to start seeing the six-pack on your midsection.
2. You need to train abs every day to see improvement
Just like doing endless crunches, training abs every day won’t reduce the amount of body fat you carry. You’ll eventually reach an overtrained state, which can keep you out of the gym for a while, therefore slowing your progress even more.
3. You can specifically target the lower abs
Just like in all other exercises, the lower abs work in conjunction with other muscles. Despite being innervated with several different nerves, there’s no way to really isolate any portion of the abs. Certain moves—such as hanging knee raises—hit the lower abs harder, but they also hit the whole midsection.
4. You don’t need weight to train abs
As is the case with all muscles, there needs to be some kind of stimulus in order for the abs to grow, and without size, the abs will not be visible anyway. Moves like weighted situps and resisted leg raises will build the abs better than any unweighted version of the crunch.
5. The only way to train abs is with spinal flexion/bending forward
The best ab exercises out there don’t involve a crunching motion at all. Moves such as the overhead press, squat, deadlift, and pull-up hit the abs harder than anything that involves spinal flexion. Plus, spinal flexion puts the back in a terrible position that can lead to serious injury. Swap the crunches for more overhead presses and watch heads turn this summer.
6. Cutting water weight will help abs show
The body is smarter than you think it is. It removes water from skeletal muscles (the ones people can see) before anything else, because water is vital to several bodily processes that are much more important than flexing your abs. That means the water from your muscles will go toward things like the creation of new blood cells and your brain telling your heart to beat.
