10 Lies You Still Believe About 6 Pack Abs

Check out my client Seth’s transformation where he gained a whole bunch of muscle

Unfortunately, as I’m sure many of you already know there are a lot of myths misconceptions

and flat-out lies in the fitness industry especially when it comes to the topic of six pack abs.

Today I’m going to touch on everything that you need to know to separate fact from fiction when it comes to abs even highly of Whitted topics

like how much of impact genetics play in your ability to get abs and by learning what’s real and what’s not you’ll be able to focus your efforts

on things that actually work allowing you to see a shredded midsection in no time.

So let’s start with the number one lie that’s told again and again the idea that there are certain foods and exercises that will burn your belly fat and help you see your abs faster.

This is completely untrue due to the fact that there is no way to spot reduce. This means you can’t just pick an area of your body that you would like to lose fat from.

In fact due to the way that gaining body fat and fat loss works you’re more likely to store fat in your midsection first and lose fat from that area last

because your body prefers to burn fat from distal areas like your hands and your face before it starts burning fat from proximal areas like your belly.

There’s a large list of foods and supplements all over the Internet that uninformed people believe can help burn specifically belly fat such as broccoli almonds beans all kinds of Miracle fat burning creams

and the list can go on and on but the only way to burn the fat on top of your abs is by burning the fat from your whole body.

Eating healthy food  will help you do this but there is no healthy food that targets specifically belly fat.

Let’s move on to number 2 you cannot isolate just your lower abs or just your upper abs. There are multiple layers of muscles in your abdominal region

but when most people are talking about abs they’re referring to the rectus abdominis which is the external six-pack looking muscle.

That rectus abdominis is one layer of muscle meaning that one layer of muscle both the lower part of it and the upper part have the same insertion points.

This means that when you’re doing lower ab exercises you’re still hitting your upper abs. And the same goes vice versa.

There are certain exercises that put more pressure and stress on one part of your rectus abdominis over the other but there is no way to absolutely isolate lower from upper.

Exercises that are really great for your lower abs tend to also be really great for your upper abs.

Next is the idea that if you have a nicely defined six-pack it automatically means that you have a strong core.

And if you have a poorly-defined midsection it means you have a weak core. The strength and functional capacity of your core have very little to do with what it looks like from the outside.

Like I said there are multiple layers to your abdominal muscles. The very outside layer is the rectus abdominis

but there are deep layers like the transverse abdominis for example as well as other deep tissue muscles that are used for stabilization.

Stabilization of the trunk area is one of the primary functions of the core and it’s one of the main factors that influence core strength.

The rectus abdominis is mostly responsible for trunk flexion while the deeper tissue abdominal muscles are more responsible for the stabilization.

So you can have very little rectus abdominis definition whether that be because you don’t have a bulky enough rectus abdominis

or because you have extra body fat on your stomach but that doesn’t change the fact that you can still have plenty of core strength.

There are many examples of athletes and especially Fighters that don’t exactly have the nicest most defined ABS but it’s clear that they have plenty of core strength.

This actually leads me right into my next abdominal myth and it stems from the saying that abs are made in the kitchen.

It seems that a lot of magazines and experts believe that everyone has a beautiful set of abs and if they’re not showing they’re under a layer of fat.

This is simply untrue for many reasons. Don’t get me the wrong diet is extremely important for burning enough body fat to be able to see your abs.

If you do happen to have abs under a layer of body fat No matter how nice of a six-pack you have if it’s covered with a layer of fat due to the fact that you have a poor diet you’ll never really get to see that nice six pack.

However, diet and the kitchen is not entirely where abs are made. Developing and growing your ab muscles is just as important as cutting the fat around them.

Without the proper development you’ll just end up with a flat stomach but no abs. To claim that abs are made in the kitchen is similar to claiming that shoulders are made in the kitchen.

Of course, if you want to see really great shoulder definition you will have to maintain a low enough body fat percentage

but to create that separation between your shoulder and the rest of your arm you’ll first have to build that shoulder up.

Now this concept makes perfect sense to most people when we’re talking about any other muscle but the ABS.

For some reason, people are under the impression that abs are some special muscle that grows and pops out differently than other muscles in your body.

But that’s absolutely not the case you will have to spend time doing both… bulking up your ab muscles and cutting down the fat around them if you want to see a really nice six pack.

And if you want to properly build up your abs we have to address another myth which is this idea that higher reps will help you build nicely defined abs better then lower reps with heavy weight.

This myth stems from an old-school belief that to get definition and to tone any muscle you should go with lighter weight for higher reps.

This myth has long since been debunked. Anybody that knows even a little bit about building muscle understands that the guy that’s standing there curling 10-pound dumbbells endlessly is wasting their time and

their biceps are not going to grow by much unless they increase the intensity of that workout.

And even though most people understand this concept when dealing with biceps or legs or the chest or any muscle this concept still continues to elude people when it comes to abs.

Again if the goal of the workout is to bulk the ABS up so we can see the muscle once we cut the fat down then we should be doing the same things that we would do to other muscles in our body if we were trying to bulk them.

So You’re going to want to grab a heavy enough weight and use it during your ab exercises.

And the other thing that you’ll have to do to effectively bulk up the ABS is progressively increase that weight load every time you can.

Overtime whatever weight you originally chose to start with will become less and less challenging as your body adapts.

So it’s very important that once you can do that old weight for 12 reps you move up to the next weight and it’s very important to do this constantly to force your abs into growth.

Now I’m not saying you can never mix in some lighter-weight for more reps but it’s a much better idea to save that for the end of your workout

after you’ve already exhausted your abs with other exercises using the heavier weight that requires more energy and effort to lift.

Again you want to treat your abs like other muscles because that’s what they are. And this brings me to another myth centered around this same idea that abs should be treated differently from other muscles.

It’s this belief that you could work your abs every single day. In fact, some experts believe that not only CAN you work ABS every day but they believe that you SHOULD work them every day for maximal results and this is completely wrong.

before I explain why this is wrong let’s take that same idea and apply it to any other muscle in the body.

You should work your chest every day to build nicer pecs in the shortest amount of time. You should work your biceps every day.

You should work your legs everyday. None of these make sense. The reason why some people believe that you can work ABS everyday is because you use your core on a daily basis just to stabilize your body.

however just because your core can be used for stabilization everyday doesn’t mean that you should be doing a full-out weighted ab workout that’s designed to specifically Target  and break down your ab muscles on a daily basis.

when you do a proper ab workout your goal should be to absolutely break down and destroy those ab muscles but understand that is not when they’re going to grow.

just like any other muscle, they’re going to grow and get stronger during the rest and recovery process.

so you should give your abs at least 48 Hours of rest if not a full 72 hours of rest before you work on breaking them down again.

if you feel like you don’t need any rest at all after your ab workouts then increase the intensity of your ab workouts but don’t work them Daily give them a chance to recover and grow.

Let’s move on to the next myth which has to do with the touchy subject of genetics. And I just want to be straight up with you guys it’s absolutely a myth

that everyone can get perfectly symmetrical 8 pack abs that resemble the perfect shape of some fitness model.

Everyone can build more AB muscle and everyone can burn more body fat to increase abdominal definition but you cannot control the shape and symmetry of your ab muscles.

 The shape of your muscle bellies themselves, as well as your muscle to tendon length and even your insertion points, are all largely controlled by genetics.

so if you have uneven or asymmetrical ABS there’s no amount of crunches that you can do to make them symmetrical that’s just the shape of your muscle.

Another thing that you have no control of is where your body preferentially stores fat first and where it preferentially burns fat first.

I’ve trained a lot of people that dropped just a little bit of body fat and their abs started coming out.

On the other hand, I’ve trained other people that dieted for over 12 weeks and still could barely see any AB definition.

they had a flat stomach but as far as the definition you can only see the top two abs. This is once again genetic and this is why some people can see their abs at higher body fat percentages and other people have to get to very low levels to have their abs pop out.

Again you can’t choose where your body’s going to burn fat and for some people the belly area is the very last spot to go.

Because your abs don’t have to look exactly the way that somebody else’s does in a magazine.

Like I said everyone can improve their abdominal definition everyone can burn enough fat to get a flat stomach and everyone can build more AB muscle.

Focus on these things that are in your control rather than things like having a perfectly symmetrical 8 pack that you saw in a magazine.

Next, I want to break down a myth that a lot of beginners believe in and it’s that you need special equipment to get nice ab muscles.

this is what leads a lot of people to join a gym in order to go through one selectorized ab machine to the next in the hope that they end up with abs.

this is also the thing that generates Millions if not billions of dollars in sales for late-night infomercials advertising the next greatest ab machine or product that can slide right under your bed or fit in a closet.

The irony is that once you realize that the infomercial ab machines don’t work they do nicely fit in your closet and that’s exactly where they’ll stay.

the only thing you’ll need is your body and some additional weight that can make the exercises more challenging for you.

That’s it. Exercises like decline situps hanging leg raise and bicycle crunches especially when done with weight will beat almost any ab machine.

speaking of machines lets talk about cardio machines …another myth is that you absolutely need to do cardio to see your abs.

you can throw in some cardio to help you burn some additional calories but the number one way that you’re going to burn fat is with diet and unless you’re running marathons you won’t be able to outrun a bad diet.

you will need weight training to build your abs and you will need to diet to lower your body fat percentage.

cardio even though you can use it.. it’s not required. and this is very similar to our last AB myth,  you can’t get abs with a high carb diet.

the truth is that there are so many different ways that you could structure your diet to burn fat get lean and see your abs.

there are plenty of people that are on high carb diets right now that have ripped six packs. even though you may be able to lose some fat faster with certain low-carb diets it is entirely possible to have abs even with a diet very high in carbs.

that’s a guy’s I really hope you enjoyed this video if you did make sure you subscribe to this channel and I know I just gave you guys a lot of information and a lot of times when we have too much information we don’t take action.

And you guys know as well as I know that this stuff only will work if you take action on it. So for those of you that want a done for you step by a step action plan that will help you get abs fast

and in fact has my clients losing either 20 pounds or five percent of their body fat in only 6 weeks while building solid AB muscle then check out my 6-week challenge.

it comes with a customized diet plan a done for you 42-day workout plan and you own accountability coach to help guide you through the entire process.

the best part is by sticking to the plan for a limited time you can have all the challenge material for free but the catch is that you have to actually follow the plan.