The ONLY 2 Exercises That Built My Six Pack Abs

there's over 500 ab exercises out there but only two that actually help me build my six-pack because to get welldefined abs it's not just about having low body fat that were true why is it that some people get really lean yet you still can't see their abs whereas others with just as much or even more body fat have abs that pop of course there's a genetic aspect to this but it also comes down to how you train them so back in 2017 researchers had 28 soccer players trained their abs for 10 weeks and measured how

much their abs grew now the ABS exercises they used weren't the best options I'll show you later on but it still led to some pretty good results on average their upper abs grew by 2.1 mm their middle ABS by 1.9 mm and their lower abs grew the most by 2.7 mm this might not sound like much but even a few millimet can make a big difference in terms of how defined your abs are you see you can make them more B ible by reducing the layer of fat between your abs and your skin but another

overlooked way is just to increase the size of your abs so they poke through that fat more this is especially useful if like me you're a hard Gainer who wasn't naturally blessed with thick ABS to begin with but here's the thing most app exercises you see online won't help you actually build your six-pack take planks or even butterfly kaks for instance these are both great core strengthening exercises but they'll do next to nothing for actually grow in your abs why well all they're really doing is stabilizing your core like they would during a compound movement

trying to plank your way to bigger ABS is kind of like trying to wallit your way to bigger quads see the main function of your abs is to bring your rib cage and pelvis together by rounding the spine and so this brings us to one of the most common myths I hear about effective AB training when performing ab exercises you've got to keep your back straight take leg raises for instance for you years these were my go-to app exercise and it turns out I was doing them wrong pretty much all of the time because of

this advice see if your back stays flat and all you do is you swing your legs up and down into an l-shape then your abs will contract to stabilize but really it's going to be your hip flexors that do all the work and it's not just leg raises this is a common problem with most ab exercises at least with how they're typically done but the thing is it's actually pretty easy to build your abs once you stop letting your hip flexes do all the work and the nice part is you can emphasize either your upper

abs or your lower abs more based on the type of exercise you do so to keep things simple let me just share my two favorite exercises for both and the ones I really credit for building my six-pack let's start with the lower abs so a lot of new research suggests that muscle regions closest to the moving body part will grow the most so for example leg curls have been found to grow the lower hamstrings more than deadlifts which seem to emphasize the upper hamstrings more so to Target the lower abs we just want an exercise

where the bottom half of our body moves towards the top half and even though I now know how to do leg raises with correct form I actually still prefer another exercise see if you've been keeping up with my recent videos especially the one where I explained how to build muscle twice as fast you know that muscles seem to grow best when they're challenged in their most stretch position and I'm actually funding and helping run a study start in this month to investigate this further but so far the evidence is quite promising but the problem with

leg raises is they challenge your abs closer to the top when they're contracted we want an exercise that does the opposite so how do we accomplish that simple we can make it more difficult at the start by laying back on a bench and doing reverse crunches but you've got to remember what I just said about your hip flexors if your back stays straight they're going to be doing most of the work so instead bend your knees in towards your body and think about raising your hips up and crunching your knees towards your chest to actually

round your spine think c-shape instead of l-shape go up as far as you can then slowly control the way down but I'll admit this is a tough exercise so let me first show you a more beginner friendly version followed by a more advanced version that you can gradually work up to for beginners bring your knees closer to your chest and try to just lift your tailbone Off the Bench without swinging your legs if you can do that you'll still be effectively hitting your low ABS once it get stronger try to get higher and higher and

then gradually straighten your legs up more to simulate the effect of adding weight to the movement and if you want to make this even more effective then you want to increase the stretch your abs get at the bottom and for that I'd highly recommend getting an ABM and placing that between your lower back and the bench and I'll leave an Amazon link to the one I recommend in the description box down below but now let's move on to the upper abs so for the lower abs we wanted to bring the lower body up towards the

Torso but now we want the opposite an exercise where we're now folding the upper body towards the lower body again I'll show a beginner version first and then a more advanced version I've personally been seeing amazing results with now the easiest way to hit the upper abs as a beginner is with crunches but again you've got to avoid the all too common mistake of flattening your spine and moving in an l-shape instead think about folding your chest down towards your pelvis into a c-shape your spine should extend out to stretch your abs and then your

abs should contract to fold your chest over your pelvis now with crunches just try to get your shoulder blades off the ground any higher and it's just going to be your hip flexors taken over but again if you want even better results from each rep then you need to use an appat trust me this fixes a lot of issues with these ab exercises as it gives them enough of a stretch and challenge in that bottom position you can also always use a stability ball Bosa ball or at the very least a rolled up towel with

which as you can see still lengthens the ABS just a little bit more but once crunches become too easy I'd highly recommend moving onto a rope cable Crunch and last time I'll say it but you've got to pay attention to your hip flexes with this one too if your hips are swinging back to your heels of your rep you're just using momentum and your hip flexes to move the weight again focus on the spine lock your hips at 90° lock your arms next to your ears and then contract your upper abs as you try to

fold your chest down onto your abs when done properly your hips should remain in one position while your spine extends and arches on the way up to stretch your abs and then rounds on the way down as your abs fully contract now it might take a few reps to get the hang of these if you've never done them before but once you do feel comfortable I'd highly recommend making them even more effective by turning around and crunching away from the cable now all the same tips apply you just have to get used to balancing and

maybe go a little bit lighter to start out a longer rope also helps with this one but once you do get it right you should feel that the movement is now a lot harder in that beginning position exactly what we're going for but here's an important tip you should know about growing your abs train them like any other muscle hard with Progressive overload but also give them time to rest I personally recommend doing three sets of each exercise for six to 12 reps once you can do 12 Reps for all three sets then bump up

the difficulty or add a little bit more weight start with training them once a week and if you're really serious bump it up to twice a week but honestly you can have the largest ABS in the world and they'll still remain hidden if they're covered by too much fat to get the best results you want to combine AB training with a proper plan to get rid of the excess bat covering your abs so give this video watch next where I cover the best science back approach to do just that but if you're looking for more

guidance and just want a proven step-by-step plan that takes care of all the guest work for you just head over to build to science.com to find the best program for you and your body thanks for watching and see you next time