Eat Train Sleep

“I don’t train abs, I’m bulking up. I’ll train them when I’m on a diet.”

I hear this statement in the gym often. It’s said by people who believe that when they are bulking, they will inevitably be carrying a bit of fat, so there is no point in building up the abs as they won’t be visible. They may as well only concentrate on them when they get lean enough to actually be able to see them.

I have to admit, I’ve been guilty of this as well. Abs are always the muscle group to get missed out when you are concentrating on the heavy poundage. Use all that energy to push the big weights on the big muscles, why waste it on a few reps on the 6 pack which you won’t be able to see anyway.

But, having just come off a very successful 6 month diet phase, I can tell you, from experience, the flaws in this thinking.

Three reasons why train abs all year round

Firstly, we are body builders and body building involves equal development of overall muscle groups - whether they are small or big. Would you not train triceps, simply because you can’t see the separation between the tricep heads while your bulking?

Secondly, the abdominal muscle is like any other - it requires constant work over a long period of time to develop. You can’t simply hit them for a 3 month period and expect them to grow in proportion to the rest of the body. This is especially true when you are dieting - the fact that you are in a calorie deficit makes it extremely difficult to retain muscle, never mind put on any new muscle mass - point that I found out when attempting to develop my abdominals purely during the diet phase.

The third point, I found to be of particular importance. By developing your abdominals when you are “bulking”, they will quickly become increasingly visible as you shed the fat during a diet phase. This helps with the perception, from a mental aspect - that your diet is working - as the abdominal section is often people’s reference for how lean they are. However, if you attempt to try to develop abdominals during the diet, it may be a long time before you see any real definition in the mid section, even though you may be optimally shedding fat. Mentally, this can be disheartening and can lead to premature ends to diets or, worse yet, overly extreme diets which result in muscle loss. As everyone knows, being in the right mindset is half the battle when cutting.

My ab training advice

So, my advice: put together a quick and effective abdominal routine which you will happily and consistently perform whether you’re bulking or dieting. Perform this twice a week. If you can still put in the focus at the end of a workout, add it to the end of bigger muscle group routines. If you find it difficult to consistently stick to the abdominal routine at the end of these workouts, perform it on your “days off”. This may be in the house (get the appropriate equipment you need) or in the gym - by itself or with cardio.

Abs are for life, not just for diets.

Eat. Train. Sleep.