Hi Question about abs?

Question

Hi i really dont understand why i dont have abs. Im a 16 year old male with a height of 5f 6i and i have a very high athletic ability... i can run down the stairs up and down without stopping 3 times in my 22 floor building, do 20 laps of swimming in a 50 feet swimming pool, i got 12 on the beep test and can do 85 pushups but still cannot understand why i dont have abs even tho i do crunches. please help

Answer 1

Bil, one of the biggest mistakes people make is treating their abs differently than other bodyparts when training. They do tons of reps without any resistance which builds up endurance in your abs, but not necessarily additional muscle. In the end, even with a super-low body fat level, your abs don't show because ... well ... there's not much there.

I would try a different approach to building your abs. First, if you are doing high reps (more than 20-25+ reps per set), stop. Instead, increase your intensity by adding some resistance. This can be done by holding a weight plate or light dumbbell across your chest while performing crunches.

If you have access to a gym, try doing your crunches bent over a high cable pulley with some weight on the stack. Or do a variation on a low pulley, but balance on a swiss ball. This will call more of your stablizers into action (including your obliques) and the additional resistance will build muscle.

If you have access to a pull-up bar at school, try performing hanging knee lifts to strengthed the lower portion of your abs. Once you've mastered this with your own body weight, try adding a little weight by placing a very light dumbbell between your feet when performing the lift.

Also, consider buying a swiss ball (one of the those large rubber blow up balls) and do your crunches on the ball every other workout. Research has shown that crunches on a stability/swiss ball are superior to standard crunches in terms of over muscle recruitment.

Realize that as you make the movement more challenging or add resistance to your ab work, you will probably have to reduce your total reps. Again, this is a good thing. Provided that you are eating clean and have bodyfat in the single digits, you will begin to add additional mass in your abs and will really be able to feel those muscles "crunch" -- which is a sign that you are on your way to the coveted six pack.

Here are some links to the exercises I discussed above:

- Swiss Ball Crunch: http://exercise.about.com/od/abs/ss/abexercises_3.htm
- Cable Crunch: http://www.mensfitness.com/fitness/ab_exercises/127
- Hanging Leg Raise: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/simon7.htm
- Lying Stability Ball Cable Crunch (low pulley): http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/RectusAbdominis/CBLyingCrunchStabilityBall.html



Best of luck!

Answer 2

Crunches only make your stomach firm. You have to work the ENTIRE muscle group to get abs: Upper (crunches), lower (reverse crunches), obliques (sides lifts) and lower back (back raises).

Answer 3

read tips on some great ab workouts and more to help you better on this site