So you tack on some extra time to the end of your workout to hit your abs, sure that those extra crunches will result in a six-pack sooner than later. Before we go any further, there are a handful of notions about your core training that you need to ditch immediately. If any of these sound familiar to you, don’t sweat it.
You’ve likely heard about thousands of ab-building techniques, and it’s no easy feat to sift through all that information in search of the truth. What’s important is understanding what ab results are possible through consistent training. This will save you during those moments five weeks into this program when you’re questioning if you should keep going.
You’ll remember what the process is, why it works, and why you really do have to log that day’s sets. I can’t stress this enough: the abs should be treated no differently than other muscles in the body. A muscle is a muscle, and that means three things: muscles don’t work independently, muscles adapt to resistance training, and muscles need appropriate recovery to develop.
Unfortunately, when you have a topic like abs, which are arguably the most Googled and sought-after body part, you will get a large mix of opinions on how to approach training. The approach I want you to take with me as your coach is the science-based one. We aren’t going to live in the anecdotal world of “my one friend did this and got great results.” When it comes to exercise, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, but there are some tried-and-true facts we have learned over the years with science and research.
These are the key principles I share with my clients when it comes to breaking down the misinformation about abs. I AM NOT sure when this myth started, but for some reason people are under the impression that abs are uniquely different from other muscles in that you can train them every day. That is absolutely not true.
Overuse of any muscle actually leads to atrophy (deterioration) of the muscle, which is the exact opposite of what you want when you are trying to build your abs. When it comes to core training and core conditioning, it’s more effective to have a mix of higher and lower intensity days, as you’ll see later in the program. Going all out is an outdated approach to training.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
