What is the secret to sculpting eye-catching six-pack abs? It is not just about dieting. Abs can be made in the kitchen to an extent, but in this episode we are going to dive into five practical strategies that we use in our evidence-based coaching to help clients achieve a strong, shredded and functional core. Welcome to the Whits and Weights podcast. I'm your host, philip Pape, and this twice a week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self mastery by getting stronger, optimizing your nutrition and upgrading your body composition. We'll uncover science-backed strategies for movement, metabolism, muscle and mindset with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry, so you can look and feel your absolute best. Let's dive right in. In this week's quick Whits episodes, I will be reading my contributions to Dr Bill Campbell's Body by Science research review. Today we're talking about ab training and development and then on the episode that drops Thursday, we'll be talking about fat loss and specifically how fats and carbs play into your fat loss protocol. In a special surprise that I mentioned on social media a couple times, but I was gonna keep it under wraps Dr Bill Campbell has given me permission to send everyone who joins my list this week from these episodes a copy of the March issue of Body by Science completely free. If you don't already subscribe and you want that entire issue for free, no strings attached, just go to the link in my show notes or go to WhitsandWeightscom slash bonus. In the research review, the first study was about spot reduction and we're not going to talk about spot reduction specifically, but I'm answering Bill's question to me and Sue Bush, who was the other expert contributor, and the question was since most people think of spot reduction to help promote a more defined midsection, what are some of your exercise programming tips and strategies for abdominal development? And I'm gonna read my response verbatim so you have it. Here we go.

Developing the abdominals for sculpted, eye catching abs requires an approach similar to developing any other muscle group. The adage abs are made in the kitchen implies that just by reducing your weight and body fat to a certain level you can reveal your abs. This is an oversimplification because unless you train the abs a you may not have sufficient muscle mass to reveal much of anything. B you may need to achieve a much lower than sustainable body fat level to do so. And c even if you do, they may disappoint you without spending time training them. Nutrition and training work together when it comes to getting shredded. For most people, midsection belly fat can be stubborn and hang around until deeper into a fat loss phase, coming off from the top down. Though not always the abs most people think of are the rectus abdominis, your six-pack, yet they function in tandem with other core muscles the external and internal obliques, transversus abdominis, muscles along your posterior chain, like the erector spinny and everything in the vicinity of your spine or hip area.

As an evidence-based coach who works with busy people, I prefer practical approaches that are efficient and save time, while more complex ab training approaches involve loaded carries, planks, rotational movements, breathing exercises and so on. I'll keep things simple yet still effective and share five practical strategies I use with clients for a strong, shredded and functional core. First, we design a nutrition plan for building muscle, unless a client needs to lower their weight and body fat for health reasons. First, with our data-driven approach, clients track calories, macros, trend weight, biofeedback and physique like body circumference measurements and photos to ensure an optimal surplus to build muscle, usually 0.2 to 0.3% of your body weight gained per week. Building muscle requires gaining some weight and we assume 50 to 50 muscle to fat when setting up a surplus to build those abs as fast as possible but minimize fat gain. Second, a solid core requires some heavy lifting, with the primary movement patterns that require maintaining a stable position and bracing the core Think squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press rows and their variations. These are already part of most strength and hypertrophy programs. These movements demand stability, isometric contractions, which develops the trunk musculature, and bracing with the Valsalva maneuver, which creates intra-abdominal pressure that translates to bigger lifts and a well-supported and safer back. Many people have built incredibly strong, aesthetic abs this way.

Third, we want to include direct ab training if abs are a priority. There is much confusion here, so let me reiterate two principles. The first is proximity to failure. The abs must be trained close to muscular failure, which is challenging to do without loading against gravity weights or a cable machine with sufficient reps or using intensity techniques like rest pause. The second is progressive overload. Volume must be increased gradually by adding weights, reps or sets over time to continue challenging those abs to adapt and grow. For example, if 12 hanging leg raises are the most you can do, aim for 13 next time.

Here are five direct ab exercises we often recommend to clients. You can add rotation to some of these to hit the obliques more directly. Number one hanging leg raises. Lift straight or bent legs from a hanging position. You can use lifting straps or arm slings. Number two decline sit-ups. With your feet secured, perform a sit-up, starting from a decline angle. You can hold a plate for load. Number three inclined bench reverse crunches. Sit on an inclined bench and lift your hips and knees to your chest with your butt fully off the bench. Number four cable ab crunches. Curl your torso to the floor while holding the cable rope attachment behind your head, facing away from the machine or in front facing the machine. And number five ab wheel. Roll out the ab wheel from a kneeling position with some back flexion.

Fourth, we want to program these movements into a weekly routine. Aim for 10 to 20 hard sets per week using a combination of the above exercises. Let's say you train three days a week. You could add one exercise at the end for four sets of 10 to 15. That's 12 sets for the week. For greater specialization, do two exercises with a similar set rep scheme to double the volume to 24 sets, since the abs can handle the frequency and recover quickly. Perform these in complementary pairs to hit upper and lower abs. For example, hanging leg raises and decline sit-ups Inclined, reverse crunches and cable crunches, ab wheel and hanging leg raises, etc.

Fifth and finally, we're back to nutrition. After you've spent some time in a muscle building phase our clients often run these for at least six months You're ready to drop some fat and reveal those harder and abs. At this point many clients are surprised they can see ab definition at a higher scale weight because of the added muscle mass, which means they don't have to get as lean as someone who only tried to make abs in the kitchen. I recommend bringing body fat down to a lifestyle lean level that you can sustain for months or even years if showing off those abs is a priority, without sacrificing your lifestyle. Those diehards who want to get totally shredded and are willing to make the trade-offs can get there with time, patience and consistency. Fat loss requires a calorie deficit while training hard to preserve muscle. A rate of loss of 0.5 to 0.75% body weight per week is a good balance between time to lose the fat and calories ata reasonable level for consistency. If your maintenance calories are higher, you can push to 1% per week or more for a short two to three week duration and then taper down as your metabolism adapts. Other factors include adequate protein 0.7 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, or higher if going more aggressive, and plenty of movement to maintain high energy flux, combined with sufficient sleep and self-care for the smoothest fat loss phase and ab definition possible.

Okay, that was my contribution to Bill's research review for the first study and again, all you have to do is, if you're already on my email list, you are going to get a copy of the March issue for free when I send it out. If you aren't, use the link in my show notes or go to witsandweightscom slash bonus, because this is bonus content that I'm giving only to my email list. Now, if you're listening to this episode and it's maybe a week or more after the episode came out, I may have already sent that to my list. In that case, I just want you to reply to the welcome email that you get from me and say hey, I joined this because I would love to get the Body by Science Research Review issue. Can you please send it to me and I will send it to you?

That's it for today's Quick Wits. Tomorrow is a full length episode, a very cool title. It's called how to Lose a Thousand Pounds, and then Thursday we'll be dropping the other Quick Wits about the Fatz vs Karbs Fat Loss Protocol contribution to the other study in Bill's review. As always, stay strong. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Wits and Weights. If you found value in today's episode and know someone else who's looking to level up their wits or weights, please take a moment to share this episode with them and make sure to hit the follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode. Until then, stay strong.