Chiseled Abs Workout

Introduction

For today, we will give you a workout that will enable your girlfriend to grate her cheese on your abs! And vice versa! Now that’s a very cheeky introduction indeed to get you started with something!

We’ve picked 4 separate exercises, totaling in 9 sets. This specific workout is built for intermediate and advanced-intermediate trainees, who are looking to further develop their abs.

That is because, for the most part, we have weighted exercises and the workout finishes off with a bodyweight crunch exercise. It is important to note that you should properly warm up, prior to starting the workout. Yes. Even if you are more advanced!

Workout Priorities

The workout strictly prioritizes the development of the rectus abdominis, also known as the six-pack, as the set of exercises consists of ONLY crunching movements. And that is the exact movement during which the six-pack is most activated.

Besides helping for the definition of the abdominal area, this workout will substantially improve your abdominal strength.

And that is simply because, as we said, the workout mostly consists of weighted exercises.

The Workout

Exercise Map

Lever Crunch

Execution

• Sit on the machine and tuck your legs behind the pads
• Grab the handles and keep your back straight while looking forward
• Slightly flex your abs to place some tension on them, then crunch down
• Contract the abs and hold the contraction briefly
• Release and return to the original position, while keeping tension on the abdomen
• Repeat

Cable Standing Crunch

Execution

• Set up a lat pulldown bar on the upper cable pulley and stand in front of it
• Grab the bar with an underhand grip, keeping the arms at a 90-degree angle
• Stand stably on your feet and flex your abs mildly, to activate them
• Crunch down slowly, contracting the abs fully
• Hold the contraction briefly and go back up slowly, keeping the tension on the abs
• Repeat

Cable Kneeling Crunch

Execution

• Set up a rope on the upper pulley
• Grab the rope with an overhand grip and keep it in front of your face
• Kneel down and keep your hands static with the rope in front of you
• Crunch down and contract the abs, keeping a moderate pace of movement
• After holding the contraction for a split second, return to the initial kneeling position and repeat the whole movement

Lying Crunch with Hands Overhead

Execution

• Lie down flat and pull your heels closer to your hips
• Extend your arms up and above your head
• Crunch up, without letting your lower back come off the ground, to avoid excessive vertebrae tension
• Contract the abs and hold briefly
• Release and return back down
• Repeat

Workout Tips

Iso-Tension

To achieve better control and mind-muscle connection over the abs, you can do flexing every now and then, and basically anywhere. The flexing workouts help you significantly improve your awareness of the muscle and hence, improve contractions during the workout itself.

To apply this principle, simply contract the abs, then hold the contraction for up to 15 seconds. You can also play around with the surrounding muscle groups to achieve a better overall effect. If you want to learn more about iso-tension, check out our article on “Bodybuilding Posing”.

Warm-Up Properly

As we mentioned in the beginning, doing a proper warm up is a MUST, even for more advanced athletes. You can see in the table that this workout starts off with a weighted exercise, which is why it would be a good idea to activate the abdominal muscles with a lighter, bodyweight exercise prior to starting this workout.

We also recommend 3-5 minutes of moderate paced cardio like rope jumping or light jogging, just so you can get the blood flowing better throughout the whole body.

Full Range of Motion

It is mandatory to do every exercise correctly and go through the entire range of motion, even if that costs some working weight. For this workout, your goal is not using as much weight as possible, but rather making sure that each repetition is controlled.

That will ensure optimal muscle contraction and hence, a better development of the abdominal area.

Needless to say, abs are one of the muscle groups that don’t really require heavy weights, due to the fact they stabilize nearly every other movement that we do in and out of the gym.

Nutrition

In the beginning of this article we mentioned that using it, will make your girlfriend be able to grate her cheese on your abs. And while that still stands true, it is of prime importance to understand that the BIGGEST factor when it comes to having chiseled abs, is how much fat covers them.

If you are a more advanced trainee that struggles with the six-pack development, well, you probably have pretty strong and well-developed abs, but they might be hiding behind a layer of fat down there.

Make sure to pay attention to your diet and not just the workout plan, as the workout plan won’t cut it (pun intended), especially when it comes to abdominal definition!

Rest Times

Last but not least, rest times between sets, exercises and workouts are very important. Below, we have a table for you, where you can see our recommendations, depending on the period you are in.

Conclusion

To wrap up this workout, we can say that it is designed for more advanced trainees and beginners should consider looking at our other workouts, which are meant for less-trained individuals.

The workout helps develop definition in the abdominal area, as well as strength, mainly due to the fact the exercises are primarily weighted ones. The choice of exercises in this workout is entirely pointed at the activation of the six-pack, or in other words, the rectus abdominis – The most sought-after result from most trainees!

The workout is well combined with the iso-tension principle, which you can refer to our article on “Bodybuilding Posing”.

Proper preparation is a must and you should pay close attention to the execution of each exercise. If you still unsure on how to lose that belly fat, make sure to check out our article on “Physiology of Weight Loss”.

See you there!