Abdominal & Muscle advice

[rowan]

Hey, 

I'm using a photo with this question because I don't feel like people will be able to answer the question properly without seeing what I look like, a lot of people online say that if you have fat on your abdominal area that even if you do sit ups etc, that you won't be able to get visable muscles. Thing is, I really want to get toned and have a 2 pack if anything (at the top of my abs- this area is skinnier than my lower abs). I go to the gym 6 days a week and do cardio to lose weight. my goal is 9st (maybe 8.5 if I decide I don't look good enough), I'm 9.5 at the moment. I know 5 pounds of weight loss wont make that much difference, so If I'm going to start trying to get toned then I want to do it now.

I haven't really been able to get any yes or no answers yet, so, is anyone confident that I either will or will not be able to get ab muscles with the body that I have at the moment (or imagine it 5 pounds less). 

It's really bugging me because I've lost 3 stone now and want to start to get toned, I just don't know if it's the right time! 

If anyone thinks I can, then can you reccomend exercises, reps and how long it should take to get some definition? 

sorry if the picture isn't the best, I snapped it quickly after my work out today before anyone came in and saw me taking embarrasing photos of myself hahah. 

[Malpeg]

It's hard for me to imagine that you need to lose any weight. I don't have six pack abs by any stretch of the imagination but my workout has resulted in a visible difference in my abdomen. I spare you the picture of a overweight, middle aged man's belly. I work abs three says a week. I do 2 sets of 12 reps of each exercise. I rest 30 sec between sets. Exercises are crunches, leg raises, side bends, cross body crunches, decline crunches, decline oblique crunches. The last two require a decline bench. The side bends require a dumbbell.

[Heybales]

They are correct - you cannot spot reduce.

Now you may luck out and the body will draw the fat next from where you really happen to want it.

But working the underlying muscle doesn't help that at all. It merely prepares the underlying muscle for being seen.

The ab's aren the type of muscle with really deep definition that would show through a layer of fat. Some other muscles would start to show up easier even with a decent layer of fat. Especially if you compared to what it looked like prior.

So currently you ended up a smaller version of prior self - more fat where you don't want it, just not as much of it at least.

Many will call this skinny fat, because they lost muscle mass because of the diet and doing no resistance training, or never had it in the first place because of really lazy lifestyle prior.

Best way is to use the time building up the muscle. Because the only reason the stomach may be left with extra fat at a healthy weight is because you have less than average muscle everywhere else, so higher BF% than average.

So time spent doing full-body compound exercises, using legs muscle mostly. Because anything for the legs means standing, that means holding a strong core, that means totally engaging all the stomach muscles.

Many of those guys with 6 packs do NO ab work specifically. That all comes from the fact that when you are standing doing upper and lower body, you are engaging your core massively if done right.

Just like every pull lift engages the bicep, and every push engages the tricep - so bigger bang for time doing the bigger muscles that use those too.

And eating with NO deficit will allow body the biggest chance to make those improvements.

[flyboy]

While I'm far from skinny by anyone's definition I do have abs that show through my midsection padding.  I don't do much in the way of ab specific workouts but I do a ton of core work and as haybales pointed out that works the abs and back in the process.  I swim an average of 5 to 7 K a week most weeks and that is all core work to maintain body positioning in the water.  When I'm in prime swim shape which for me is the summer open water swim race season when I do 3-5 races a year of 1 mile to 5K or more, I have the best ab definition.  I also do a core workout that follows a regimine called "Foundation Training" you can get the book from Amazon, the author is Peter Park and you can search for Peter Park Foundation and see the book.  I follow that training which takes around 20 minutes a day to do when I'm not swimming much.  It works great to keep my core in shape and my abs toned.  As a 5 foot 9 inch 180 pound 43 year old guy this spring I had about a 4 pack showing before my Half Ironman Race in May. I have a big frame and probably could have lost another 5-10 pounds if I'd stayed on my starvation diet for another month or two and been able to see the full 6 pack but decided that living at 180 was more plesant that existing at 170-175 and being miserable all the time because of my diet and exercise regimine needed to hit and maintain that weight.

Ultimately, I'd say yes, start to work on your abs if that is imporant to you, you can do crunches, sit ups, and core work, especially balance and wobble training along with yoga and pilates to target the midsection and keep your body in balance.  If you can swim try adding that into your workout routine and see what happens and give the Foundation Training a try, it really helps me with my bad back and keeps my body lean and toned.  Good luck, you're doing great, congratulations on your weight loss.

[cammy_c]

Diet is key to developing a nice midsection. Make sure you cut out all the sugar and unhealthy food out of your diet. I honestly train abs just once a week. On my ab days I usually do 3-4 circuits of 2-4 exercises. I like using resistance (weight) instead of just doing plain old crunches. Working the abs from different angles is key, so include lot of different exercises such as planks, side planks, reverse crunches, leg raises, hanging leg raises, toe touches, etc. 

I also recommend doing a few HIIT sessions per week to get into 'fat burning mode' ... that's what really helps me burn fat and get the definition i want. 

I train 6 times a week and include compound exersises during every workout. So for example, when I train legs, I use my abs when I do squats for example, or when I train chest, I focus on really squeezing my core when I do push ups. 

So to sum it all up, make sure you eat a healthy diet, do some HIIT and focus on using your abs even when you're not doing exercises that specifically isolate your abs. Hope this helps 🙂

[Heybales]

---

@cammy_c wrote:

I also recommend doing a few HIIT sessions per week to get into 'fat burning mode' ... that's what really helps me burn fat and get the definition i want. 

I train 6 times a week and include compound exersises during every workout. So for example, when I train legs, I use my abs when I do squats for example, or when I train chest, I focus on really squeezing my core when I do push ups. 

So to sum it all up, make sure you eat a healthy diet, do some HIIT and focus on using your abs even when you're not doing exercises that specifically isolate your abs. Hope this helps 🙂

---

Actually, HIIT is about as far from fat-burning as you can get, because if done correctly not tired it's anaerobic (total carb burn) bursts followed by brief rests.

The reason the HIIT is having the effect it is, is because it's as close to a lifting type workout with same positive results as you can get with a cardio workout.

But if limited on time, just do the real thing - the lifting. Which is also mainly carb burning during the workout.

For both workouts it's the rest for repair and recovery that causes more fat burn, but it's a bigger effect with lifting heavy.