If you’ve been doing endless crunches, sit-ups, or ab exercises but still aren’t seeing the results you want, you’re probably making one of the biggest mistakes in core training.
In this video, I’ll show you how to train your abs and core more effectively by explaining what most people get wrong and how to fix it. Whether your goal is building stronger abs, improving athletic performance, reducing back pain, or working toward visible six-pack abs, understanding how your core actually functions can completely change the way you train.
In this video, you’ll learn:
✅ The biggest mistake people make when training abs
✅ How your core muscles actually work
✅ Better exercises for building a stronger core
✅ How to make every ab workout more effective
✅ Common myths about ab training
✅ Tips to maximize your results
I’ve been training for over 20 years and coaching people from complete beginners to experienced athletes. These are the same principles I use to build a stronger, more functional core without wasting time on ineffective exercises.
If this video helps you, be sure to subscribe for more home workouts, fitness education, exercise tips, and honest fitness product reviews every week.
Quick at home core workout :
1. 50 crunches - slow and steady focus on the form
2. 1 minute plank
3. 25 crunches
4. 1 minute plank Repeat all steps 1 time. Take 1 minute rest between each.
This video provides a comprehensive guide to training the core, debunking common myths about \"six-packs\" and explaining the mechanics of effective abdominal workouts. The speaker emphasizes that while genetics determine the shape of your abs, strength is built through proper spinal movement and consistency, regardless of visible body fat percentage.
Today's topic of discussion,
abs and everything that you need to know about training the core
muscles, what goes into building strong abs,
and also the biggest mistake that most people make
when it comes to training abs. Six pack, six pack, six pack.
Before we get into the training,
let's discuss what your abdominal muscles
are actually made of and how they look underneath.
Your core is everything that holds your body up.
So think front, sides, and back is part of your
core. Whether you have a six pack, four pack,
eight pack actually is purely genetic. So what
you were born with is what you're going to have.
So if somebody ever told you that you need to do
more exercises to get a six pack,
but you were born with a four pack, no amount of abdominal
exercises are going to get you to reveal a six pack.
It's not possible, but how they look is
going to depend on how much work you put into them and your diet.
So your body fat percentage.
and that is a perfect segue
into today's sponsor let's talk about today's sponsor
and they are the creator of the Hume Health Body Pod
this is much more than just a smart scale
this is exactly how you can track your progress
and track exactly what's going on with your body
this full body analyzer lets you see exactly what
is going on when it comes to lean mass fat mass
water mass, all the things that are going on deeper in your body.
This is a professional
grade full body analyzer and this is the proper
and most efficient way for anybody to track their
progress from home. A lot of gyms will have these machines in the gym.
They will charge you every
time you want to use it to generate the report
and see what's going on with your progress. With
Hume Health BodyPod, you can have one at home to use
at your discretion whenever you want and track
your progress over a period of time.
On their app, everything gets tracked. You can see exactly where
you started, where you're at today,
and where you're headed to make sure your progress is headed
in the right direction. I like the fact
that I can easily pull it out and use it. Check my phone,
see all the progress and all the reports right from my phone.
And on top of that, they have more
to offer on the app beyond just the tracking capabilities.
If you guys are interested,
check them out. I'll have them linked in the description.
Hume Health, thank you for sponsoring
this video. Now back to the video.
Now let's talk about the abdominal muscles specifically
and how we can train these muscles.
Now your core is responsible for a lot of things, a lot more
than just having a good looking six pack.
Your core is essentially what holds your body up. When
you're doing any kind of a heavy lift,
any kind of strain on your body, your core is what supports
you. It's what keeps you upright.
It's what keeps you from falling apart and just collapsing on
yourself your core is also like a sheet of armor
so if you have a strong core you can withstand
a force like a punch
or a kick to the stomach most people care more about how their abs look
and i want you to get out of that mindset
and get away from that there's actually people with higher
body fat percentages who have much stronger cores than
those skinny dudes who have those washboard
abs having them look a certain way isn't necessarily
an indicator of their strength
But having a strong core is what's going to allow you
to do specific exercises that require that
strong core to hold your body up in certain positions,
maintain and support your body in
those crazy positions, in those crazy exercises
that you see people doing. But let's talk about
basics. We're going to get into the most common core exercises
that most people do and the wrong
things they're focusing on with those core exercises.
The most common core exercise that
most people know about is going to be sit-ups.
That is what 99% of people think about, but even
those people are doing the exercise wrong.
Now, a lot of times people will just spam crunches
just like this, and they think they're getting a good core exercise.
And while yes, you are
engaging the core a little bit,
you are not maximizing how effective that core or that
ab exercise can be.
The abs are no different than any other muscle group. Two main parts
to that movement, the stretch of the abs
and the contraction of the abs. A lot of people mistake
hip hinging exercises for core exercises,
and that's just, they're not even working their abs
that much. They're actually working their hips
and their hip flexors. When there's no movement
of that spine and no bend of that spine,
that is where you are not maximizing how much contraction
you're getting out of those ab muscles.
Let's show you the crunch. I'm stretching my core muscles.
I'm stretching my abs, right?
That full spinal bend in the other way. And then when I do my
crunch, I'm coming up and my spine is bending up now
and I'm getting the abdominal crunch here.
Stretch, crunch, stretch, crunch.
And that should be the focus on just about any core
exercise where you're doing a stretch
and a contraction of the core. Now, another way to
train the core is in an isometric position, right?
Where we're holding our body in a specific
position with our core muscles,
keeping it tight and keeping our body straight like a plank.
And in this case, we would just hold
the core muscles in their position, flexing them and
keeping the body from collapsing down.
That's another way to build the core muscles. And this
is one way to build them without the contraction
and without the stretch it's just a hold right
here so most people when they do leg raises
from a hanging position they're just moving their legs
up like this and yes there's a little bit of core here
but you're not maximizing it all you're doing
is bringing the legs up and you're not getting
that spinal movement so what we want to see is
come up bring those hips up
and make that spine bend that's ultimately what's going to build those
core muscles way more than just moving your hips up and down.
Same thing goes from this position,
right? I could just move my legs like this.
I'm not going to feel the same that I'll feel
if I bring my hips in and I get my whole spine bending
into that core crunching position.
So even if we were to take a rope, we were to pull it down.
As long as we're holding that rope
and we're bending our spine to contract the core muscles,
we're going to be working those muscles.
And once you build a strong core and a strong foundation,
that's where you can get into those
fancy skills like the L-sit, like the planche,
like all these different exercises that require
an immense amount of core strength in order to do.
Next time you think abs and core,
remember how to properly train it.
And just because you can't see them doesn't mean the
muscle is not there.
Body fat percentage has a lot to do with whether or not you can see
the abdominal muscles. I'm going to put
in the description a quick workout that you can do for
your abs. Very simple. Anyone at home can do it.
And if you apply the things that you learned in
this video to those exercises, within a few weeks,
you can start seeing huge improvements
in your core strength. And once that becomes easy,
that's when you'll be ready to transition
into a lot harder things
and a lot more difficult things to challenge your muscles even more.
Hope to see you guys in the next video.
Smash that like, smash that subscribe.
I will see you in the next one.
Thanks for watching!
