As spring begins to feel like summer, you may be in a panic about your abs having morphed into one large ab.
While etching your midsection is a lot about diet, the right exercises can get the dividing tendons to sit deeper for a more chiseled-abs appearance…
By the way, your main abdominal muscle is not a bunch of knotty, cubed masses sitting around your bellybutton. It’s one long muscle that runs from your ribcage to your pelvis. It looks cubed because of tendons that secure the muscle…
So what’s the best ab exercise? Crunches are at the top of the list, but not flat. The better version is on an incline bench with your head at the top…
That provides an optimal resistance curve—harder at the top stretch and easier at contraction…
With a flat crunch, you get too much resistance in the contracted position—it’s more difficult at the top and not ideal; however, it’s a great add-on contracted-position exercise…
As you get stronger on incline crunches, you can set up an incline bench and a cable to simulate the incline crunch. Just be sure the cable runs straight back or even a bit below your shoulders—like the Ab Bench demonstrated by Jonathan Lawson here…
Contrary to popular belief, the hanging leg raise is mostly hip-flexor action—the rectus abdominis is not connected to your hips, NOT your legs…
That means the abs work isometrically until the top. So you only involve your abs dynamically if you can curl your hips up toward your torso at the top. Even the most seasoned bodybuilders can’t perform correctly…
A better version and add-on-exercise choice is flat or incline hip rolls. The better resistance curve allows you to curl your hips toward your torso at the top, although you do still involve your hip flexors.
So your ideal acid-etched abs routine is:
Incline crunches (ideal/stretch) +
Flat-bench crunches (contracted) OR
Incline hip rolls (contracted)
Use it consistently with a reduced-calorie diet. Then when summer hits, you’ll peel off your shirt and watch jaws hit the dirt.
NOTE: The ideal exercise identified and described in the past few newsletters—and ones coming up—are NOT the result of my genius. They come from Mr. America and biomechanics expert Doug Brignole…
His analytic brilliance helped me understand how these exercises are the best of the best for getting the most mass bang for your effort buck…
To prove it, he won the 2019 AAU Drug-Free Mr. Universe at age 59, using only ONE IDEAL EXERCISE for each muscle group…
For more on his training and how it evolved—including sets, reps, ideal exercises and more—see Never Stop Growing.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
X-Rep.com
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