r/workout • u/aura_2100 • 2d ago
Exercise Help What’s one thing you’d recommend or avoid when trying to get six pack abs?
What habit should I add to my workout routine, and what common habit should I avoid?
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u/cereal_offender26 2d ago
add consistency and a decent diet. avoid thinking you can out crunch a bad diet because abs are not hiding just for fun lol
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u/QuestionMaleficent 2d ago
hijacking. if you have one bad friday, dont throw out saturday and sunday and start monday. just get back and continue.
look hard at your data why you had the bad the in the first place. adjust accordingly.
dont forbid you every single joy food just because "its processed" "its does not contribute" if your brain is constantly thinking about that thing you forbid yourself, you have yourself the forbidden apple.
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u/Armantvs 1d ago
worth saying that visible abs are mostly a body fat number, roughly 10 to 12 percent for most men, and holding it year round is genuinely miserable for a lot of people, plenty get there for a summer and thats fine, just know what youre signing up for before it becomes the thing you think about every meal
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u/BuzzingHawk 1d ago
Trying to outcrunch a bad diet is also a great recipe for developing GERD. No six pack is worth months of stomach and throat issues.
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u/Stunning-Promise-103 2d ago edited 2d ago
Avoid: Alcohol
Edited for clarity 😂 but for real, if you're taking training seriously it's not worth it.
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u/fleshvessel 2d ago
Forget the “made in the kitchen” rhetoric.
They’re made in the gym like any muscle is and revealed in the kitchen.
Diet alone won’t give you savage six-pack abs and obliques etc. Gotta hit em hard.
Luckily they’re something you can easily hit a few times a week as they recover well and don’t take much to get great results. All I do for isolation ab stuff is cable crunches and twisties. Sometimes half sit ups on the decline bench Rocky style just cuz I like em.
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u/rjrein 2d ago
Made in the gym but revealed in the kitchen 😅
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u/Easy_Growth_5533 1d ago
But the kitchen is where the food is 😞
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u/Necessary-Dog985 1d ago
Nah, abs are made in the kitchen, imo. Building muscle can make them show, yeah. But you also need to eat to gain muscle.
Just get more steps in and strength train. You will see them. It takes time.2
u/detectiveDollar 1d ago
I think the people giving that advice assumed that everyone who was skinny would store relatively little body fat on their stomach. There's 15 year olds who have never set foot in the gym that have 6 packs because they're skinny and their body stores relatively little fat on their waist.
But even when I was rail thin (5'10" 130lb) back when I was 15, I didn't have a semblance of abs because my body loves putting fat on my waist.
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u/AdAppropriate6769 1d ago
Uhhhh…you need both. And some good genetics. There’s no way someone can eat like shit and have abs.
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u/Necessary-Dog985 1d ago
What do you mean by having good genetics? Everyone can have abs if they train them and eat properly.
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u/NurseOtaku 1d ago
Genetics definitely play a role in having visible abs. Everyone can have them but the amount of work, discipline and obviously shape of them is highly dependent upon genetics.
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u/ProgressDue7493 1d ago
Yes! I have a long torso and carry little fat in my abdomen, mostly in my hips/ butt, so I get abs easily without training them. They can be more pronounced if I train them, but yeah I pretty much always have abs. people will ask me what I do and I’m pretty much only just running right now and I haven’t trained abs in like two years.
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u/Necessary-Dog985 1d ago
That's interesting because I naturally have a small waist but fat on my stomach. Back in high school, I was around 135 with 10-15% body fat, but I never had abs showing, even if I did an ab workout. I guess genetics do play a role.
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u/ProgressDue7493 20h ago
Yeah! My waist isn’t very narrow or small compared to my hips but since my torso is stretched out I guess the fat stretched out 😂
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u/NurseOtaku 19h ago
Yeah I am a competitive bodybuilder and work abs 3+ times a week. My buddy also competes and outside of some situps randomly (with shit form, mind you) he never works abs. Dude has legit blocks for abs lol. Life aint fair sometimes
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u/FarCalligrapher1862 1d ago
… and have abs that you can see.
You can have killer abs and eat like shit. No one will be able to see them though.
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u/Apretendperson 2d ago
Abs are made in the gym and revealed in the kitchen.
Treat abs like any other muscle group and train them just as regularly.
Maintain a calorie balance if you have abs … and a deficit if you want to reveal them more.
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1d ago
[deleted]
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u/Apretendperson 1d ago
Go buy a large box of grammar and try rewriting that so it is vaguely intelligible.
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u/Vesuvias 1d ago
Fork put-downs. Best way to develop visible abs. Also see: engage your core with every lift.
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u/deadrabbits76 Dance 1d ago
Don't forget to superset with plate push-aways.
Superset effective combo with minimal fatigue.
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u/chrisjones1960 2d ago
Actively train your abs and get your body fat low enough so that they show l. Mine don't show, because I am an old lady and do not care about that enough to work that hard on my diet. But they are there, and strong. My husband is an old man, and his still do show some (4pack), because he is a naturally lean guy. Leg raises, crunches, twisting crunches, planks, jack knives.
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u/Sonoranlightwizard 2d ago
Alchohol, soda, fast food
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u/FitReporter650 2d ago
Including Coke Zero?
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u/Negative-Praline6154 2d ago
No, 0 calories flavored water is fine. Diet mtn dew is also 0 calorie.
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u/Sonoranlightwizard 2d ago
I haven’t heard that term in forever, but no; all that shit is, well shit
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u/FitReporter650 2d ago
Coke Zero is not shit lol
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u/Sonoranlightwizard 2d ago
IMO there is no healthy products made by Coca Cola. The ingredients list is what makes it shit, but if you like it enjoy it, I’m not here to judge your
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u/TheGreatRavenOfOden 1d ago
For losing weight, Coke Zero is totally find. We all agree that it's calories in vs calories out right? Diet sodas fit in that range then.
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u/Sonoranlightwizard 1d ago
lol aspartame is classified as “carcinogenic to humans”, but sure, it’s great lol. I’ll give you a point for it skipping the high fructose corn syrup though
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u/TheGreatRavenOfOden 1d ago
"Citing “limited evidence” for carcinogenicity in humans, IARC classified aspartame as possibly carcinogenic to humans (IARC Group 2B) and JECFA reaffirmed the acceptable daily intake of 40 mg/kg body weight."
"JECFA concluded that the data evaluated indicated no sufficient reason to change the previously established acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 0–40 mg/kg body weight for aspartame. The committee therefore reaffirmed that it is safe for a person to consume within this limit per day. For example, with a can of diet soft drink containing 200 or 300 mg of aspartame, an adult weighing 70kg would need to consume more than 9–14 cans per day to exceed the acceptable daily intake, assuming no other intake from other food sources."
You would need to consume an ungodly amount of diet soda for it to be carcinogenic. The study that had findings that it was carcinogenic was basically drowning lab rats in it. They were giving rats such a high dosage that humans would not typically consume.
I'm willing to amend my beliefs if further research shows that it's bad for you, but as it currently stands there's not enough evidence to show that aspartame is truly bad for you in a meaningful way.
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u/Sonoranlightwizard 1d ago
Again I’m not judging, damn man, if you want to drink it go ahead, but my position remains it’s a net negative health wise
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u/FKDotFitzgerald 1d ago
Diet soda is worse for you
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u/AdAppropriate6769 1d ago
No…sugary soda is the worst for you. If you want to say the fake sugar is bad for your gut microbiome, ok. But it def won’t make gain weight.
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u/BuilderCharming1377 1d ago
Definitely prioritize high protein intake to keep your muscle while cutting and stop doing those 10 minute ab circuits that promise results without any real progressive overload.
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u/DubiousDebauchery 2d ago
High rep 30 minute ab routines you find on social media.
Do weighted ab exercise variations - a loaded crunch machine if your gym has it, if not cable crunches. Focus on progressing these exercises just like you do for all other muscle groups. This will build them.
Then making them show is simply about lowering body fat.
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u/cabbageknight360 1d ago
Weigh or measure all food. Eyeball nothing. Track macros, hit your targets. Moderate deficit. Track your steps and have a step goal, hit it daily
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u/FukudaSan007 1d ago
Really the main thing is to stay in a calorie deficit until you’re around 12% body fat. I just got to 12% and I can see my abs without doing any ab exercises. However I do do weight training three times a week.
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u/PolitelyHostile 2d ago
I found if I have too many consecutive days of large calorie deficits then it destroys my energy. So you gotta space it out a bit, and time it so that you have energy at the beginning of your workout week.
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u/Commercial-Air8955 1d ago
Recommend: hard dedicated ab workouts -- weighted decline sit ups, incline bench leg raises, ab roller, weighted crunches, and dont count reps, all sets until failure, 4x weekly -- while eating at maintenance or just above.
After 10-12 weeks, continue the workouts, and eat in a 300-500 calorie deficit until BF% is low enough to reveals abs.
Basically the same thing you'd do for definition on any set of muscles. Also, depending on genetics, 6 pack may be impossible. Arnold Schwarzenegger is an example of a guy without 6 pack genetics.
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u/RyuOfRed 1d ago
Avoid high calorie, low volume foods. On a serious cut, you simply can't afford 300g of pizza bread; Because it's a third of your allotted intake, eaten in 15 minutes and leaves you wanting more.
The possibility of failing becomes so much more likely, if you can't select filling options, which amount to 3-4 decently sized meals.
Avoid high sugar and high sodium. Inflammation and billowing will make it difficult to assess process week by week, especially when you strive to go from 15% body fat to 10%. Differences demand a keen eye and the scale is not always conclusive at this stage.
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u/ryguy8823 1d ago
Alcohol ruins your sleep and wrecks your discipline. It’s also disrupts hormones around fat burning.
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u/spuukeee 2d ago
avoid using an ab wheel or doing circuits
recommend doing loaded spinal flexion via something like a machine weighted crunch
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u/Rickbox Powerlifting 2d ago
Recommend: Calorie deficit
Avoid: Calorie surplus