Have you heard of the four stages of learning? If not, here they are:

Unconscious incompetence
Conscious incompetence
Conscious competence
Unconscious competence

The first stage means you don’t know what you don’t know. At stage two, you are aware of what you don’t know. You are aware of your incompetence. The third stage comes when you are aware of what you now know. The fourth and final stage signifies a place of learning where what you now know is automatic.

The four stages of learning applies in health and fitness just as much as any other realm in this world. When you first start exercising, there is a lot you don’t know, and you don’t know that you don’t know it. There is also a lot that you do know, and it’s automatic. Along a health and fitness journey, you can be at stage one with some things, and stage four with others. That is where I find beauty in health and fitness. There really is no state of arrival. There is always something to learn and improve upon. There is always room to improve, meaning you can get better and better and better.

I see the four stages of learning come to play when I am observing other people in the gym. Most people in the gym are at the first stage of learning, especially if it is a new exercise or if they weren’t taught how to do the exercise or workout properly in the first place. They don’t know what they don’t know.

This is especially true when it comes to ab training, and building abs that are lean and defined. Abs that pop require you to be at stage three and four, and that’s why we are here today. We’ll be going through three different steps that will get you to those stages of learning as well as abs that you’ve never had before.

STEP #1. Train Your Abs Like Any Other Muscle Group

You have to remember that your abs are muscles. That means they respond to exercise the same way your other muscles do. If you want to make your abs pop, you need to make them grow.

Let’s say you wanted to build better arms. Would you grab really light weights or bands and do 30 reps? Probably not. odds are you would grab heavier weight and focus on building the muscles. You have to do the same thing with your abs. They respond best to heavier weight and lower reps.

Instead of doing sets of 30 crunches, try really slow and controlled decline sit-ups for 8-10 reps. Instead of doing 50 bicycles, try 10 slow reps of kneeling cable crunches.

Train your abs just like any other muscle group, and focus on strength training. As a result, your abs will get thicker, and they will pop a lot more.

I want to note that this is not always true. More often than not, our muscles respond best to what they’re not used to. So, if you’ve only trained your abs with really low reps and super heavy weight, they may respond from lighter weights and more reps.

STEP #2: Train Ab Movements Properly

Misunderstanding the design and purpose of the abs is one of the more common mistakes out there. Many believe that the abs are designed to bring your upper body closer to your lower body. This isn’t quite true.

Your abs are designed to bring your ribs closer to your pelvis, and your pelvis closer to your ribs. When you contract your abs, the distance between your ribs and pelvis begins to shorten, and your spine should begin to curl.

When doing ab movements, especially sit-ups, many people make the mistake of keeping their back straight, and sitting all the way up with the goal of brining their chest to their knees. When doing this, they rush the most important part of the sit-up, which is the initial crunch. It’s that initial portion of the sit-up where your spine curls that is extremely important.

Another mistake that most people make (even outside of ab training) is moving way too fast. Each rep should be slow and controlled, done with intent and focus on getting maximum squeeze out of the abs to bring the ribs closer to the pelvis, and the pelvis closer to the ribs.

There are a few cues I like to give when doing any sort of ab work.

Press your lower back against the bench, ground, or whatever surface you are lying on. Do not let your lower back leave the ground. This will help you fully engage those abs and prevent you from having any strain on your low back.
Tuck your tailbone in like a scared dog. This will help you contract the abs, taking your hip flexors out of the equation.
Think about slowly curling each vertebrae of your spine off the surface as you contract your abs on the way up, and slowly placing each vertebrae back on the surface as your let your abs lengthen on the way down.

When you are training your abs with heavier weight and lower reps, be sure your intent is sound. Don’t focus on getting as low and high as you can. Focus on moving as much weight as possible by brining your ribs closer to your pelvis, and pelvis closer to your ribs.

Check out this video from Muscle and Motion on the difference between using your abs and using your hip flexors.

STEP #3: Get Leaner

Do you have to get absolutely shredded to have visible abs? Absolutely not. This is why I emphasize the importance of building your abs. The thicker your abs are, the more visible they will be at higher body fat percentages. This will make your life so much easier when it comes time to be beach/summer ready. Instead of having to lose 10% body fat in order to see your abs, you may only need to lose 2 or 3% body fat. The thicker those abs are, the more body fat you can carry while still being able to have those abs pop a bit.

However, this does not mean you don’t have to worry about being lean in order to make your abs visible. You can have the thickest abs in the world, but if you have too much body fat, they’re not going to show. Getting leaner is one of the most surefire ways to have those abs pop.

There are tons and tons of different ways to get leaner, but I have found that what has worked best for the hundreds I’ve trained is building a faster metabolism. When you have a faster metabolism, it is easier to lose body fat.

To lose body fat, focus on these things

Strength train. Strength training will promote a faster metabolism
Eat less than you burn in the day. This does NOT mean hours of cardio and very little food. Slow and steady, my friend.
Use cardio as a last-resort. The more you expose yourself to chronic cardio, the slower your metabolism can get. If you’re not used to cardio, it can be a very good tool for fat loss. If you abuse it, it may slow your progress down.
Focus on eating whole, natural foods and eat when you’re hungry. Stop eating when you’re satiated, not full.
Get enough protein. .6-1g of protein per pound of bodyweight is a good range. Stay on the low end if you are overweight, and the higher end if you are leaner and training hard/often. This will help promote lean muscle growth/preservation and keep you feeling fuller for longer periods of time.
Slowly increase your steps. Increasing your daily steps is much easier and more realistic than adding another 30 minutes of cardio. Slow and steady wins the race. Make small achievable increases to your step goal each week.

THE TAKEAWAYS

If you want to build better abs, here’s what you gotta do.

Move more weight for less reps. Take your focus off of feeling the burn, and put it on building strength in your abs.
Control each rep. Go slowly and focus on the task at hand which is contracting your abs.
Get leaner by slowly implementing more of the bullet points I discussed above.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.

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