Six-Pack Abs 101: How to Obtain a Midsection Worthy of Zeus Himself

Building a strong core should be a staple in every strength training regimen. It doesn’t require much focus because it’s utilized in almost every movement you do in the gym and in daily life but a few sets of an exercise or two at the end of a session at least 3 times a week is beneficial. The core is made up of a ridiculous amount of muscles including, but not limited to, the rectus abdominus, transverse abdominus, external obliques, internal obliques, lumbar muscles, pelvic floor muscles, and the diaphragm. It’s main function is stabilizing the torso to allow for adequate power transfer and prevention of injury to the vertebral column. A weak core is a common culprit of rounding of the lumbar during a squat or deadlift and instability during any overhead movements. It forces much of the stress that it should be handling onto the lower back ligamenture and is a recipe for disaster.

Almost as disastrous as casting fucking Luke Evans as Zeus...

 

The reason I said the core doesn’t require much volume is because it puts forth such a huge effort during the squat and deadlift (movements that should have ample focus in your program) that you shouldn’t be looking to tax it with hundreds of reps of crunches. Crunches, by the way, don’t do a damn thing in terms of strengthening the core for stability purposes during heavy barbell lifts. Just because you can feel it burn doesn’t mean it’s helping you achieve your goals at all. I could squeeze my chest and triceps until my eyes pop out of their sockets and it would burn like hell eventually but that won’t give me a stronger bench press. And if you're worried about your "ab peaks" (which is something I've been asked about), you're definitely a phaggot.

Too busy hurling lightning and impregnating women to worry about ab peaks.

Digression aside, I’ve carefully selected 4 exercises that I recommend to contribute to the construction of a solid core. Pick 1 or 2 of them and perform at the end of each workout for 2-5 sets of 8-20 reps. It's really all up to you. Be smart and don't overdo it but if you want a stack of bricks for a midsection then hit 'em hard.

Ab Wheel Roll-outs

You can get one of these for like $10 at Walmart and it's definitely a worthy investment. Just get on your knees, roll it out, and pull it back in. Make sure your abs are doing most of the work and the stress isn't on your lumbar. A good way to make sure of this is to maintain a slight "ab crunch" position to prevent your lumbar from hyperextending as you roll out.

Some variations:

I prefer to roll into a wall at the limit of my ability to stay tight for a few reps and then do a rep-out kneeling at full ROM.

 

Hanging Leg Raises

Grab the pull-up bar and bring your legs up to the bar. Again, make sure you don't hyperextend and that the load is on the abdominal muscles.

If bringing your feet to the bar is too hard, just bring them halfway. If that's too hard, keep your legs bent and bring your knees as high as you can.

 

Weighted Decline Sit-ups

 Pretty self explanatory, here. Add weight if you want to up the intensity.

Cable Twisties

Good for working the core in the transverse plane. Although none of the fantastic 4 lifts really occur in this plane, I feel it's not a bad idea to hit some different angles every now and then. Not really sure what to call them so I'll just show you the video that motivated me to do these.

That’s really all you need. Obviously if you want your powerfully built midsection to show with glaring clarity you'll have to lower your bodyfat so the chiseled muscle isn't covered by a layer of adipose. I'm sure we'll cover cutting and dieting in depth in the future.

Crush your fears. Crush your enemies.

Questions? Complaints? Thoughts? Accusations? Post a comment below.