It’s funny, as much as things change, some things remain the same. Without fail, one of the most common questions I get is, “How do I get abs?” or “What’s the best way to train my core?”
Even with all of the information out there, those two questions are still the most common. And even if people think they know what the answer is, they’re usually being pointed in the wrong direction.
So, here we go…how to get abs in 3 easy steps:
- Dial in your diet
- Dial in your diet
- Train your core in all movement patterns (see below)
Steps 1 and 2 for “how to get abs” will always be to get lean enough that your abs are visible. This will typically be somewhere around 10-12% body fat (or lower) for men and around 18-22% body fat (or lower) for women.
If you have a layer of fat covering your abs, no amount of sit ups, planks or any other exercise will help you.
Once you have your diet taken care of and you’re lean enough to actually see some definition in your abs, now you can focus on actual exercises, which we’ll cover in this guide.
In this Simple Guide For Effective Core Training we’ll cover:
- Training Your Core Properly
- How To Train Your Core & Get Abs
- Stability/Anti-Extension Exercises
- Hip Flexion Exercises
- Rotational Exercises
- Anti-Rotational/Anti-Lateral Flexion Exercises
- Putting It All Together
- Ready To Become The Strongest Version Of You? Here’s Your Next Steps
Teaching people how to train your core properly, and build strong, lean abs is something we help our BluePhoenix Fitness Coaching members with every day. If you’d like us to design a personalized training plan for you, click the button to apply & schedule a free Goal Setting Call:
How To Train Your Core Properly
When you look at your core training there are 4 movement patterns you’ll want to think about. These are:
- Stability/Anti-Flexion
- Hip Flexion
- Rotational
- Anti-Rotational/Anti-Lateral Flexion
And then we have 3 positions to initiate those movement patterns from:
- Supine (lying flat on our back)
- Suspended (think, a plank position)
- Stacked (upright, either standing or kneeling)
If you want a truly well developed core that not only looks good but performs well, you’ll want to train each movement pattern equally in your training program. You can use these in your regular strength training programs or during F.I.R.E. Workouts like density training, circuit training or complexes.
Let’s take a closer look at each of those movement patterns so that when you do get lean enough to see your abs, they not only look great but function properly also.
{RELATED: The Hierarchy Of Effective Fat Loss Workouts}
Core Training Exercises
Before we jump into the exercises for training your core, let’s take a second for a quick anatomy lesson.
Our “core” is made up of a group of muscles:
- Rectus Abdominis (your “abs”)
- Hip Flexors
- External/Internal Obliques
- Transverse Abdominis
- Erector Spinae (the muscle that runs down your spine)
- Quadratus Lumborum (your low back)
The main purpose of this group of muscles is to keep us standing upright, supporting our spine. Along with that, those muscles also allow for various movements – or resisting movements – like raising our legs (hip flexion) or twisting our torso (rotation).
Let’s take a look at those movements now along with some exercises for each.
1. Stability/Anti-Flexion Core Training Exercises
As mentioned above, the main purpose of our core is to provide stability for our torso when we’re not moving, as well as stabilizing our torso when our arms and legs are moving. Since this is a main function of those muscles, we should be training them accordingly so they function better with more strength and endurance.
We can accomplish this in a variety of ways but the most common would be plank and plank variations.
Once you have the basic plank down, you can start getting into different, more advanced plank variations for core training.
STABILITY BALL PLANKS
TRX PLANKS
You can also start incorporating dynamic stability exercises. In these exercises you’re holding a plank position while your limbs (i.e. legs or arms) are moving. Here’s a couple examples:
PLANK BODY SAW
TRX BODY SAW
TRX PLANK W/ ARM CIRCLES
ROLLING PLANK (one of my favorites)
PLANK W/ ARM REACH
TRX FALL OUT EXTENSIONS
STABILITY BALL FALL OUT EXTENSIONS
RENEGADE ROW
KETTLEBELL HALO
It’s important to incorporate some of these dynamic stability exercises because most of our lives are spent moving around in one way or another. So it’s crucial to train for stability and strength of our core muscles while we’re moving.
{RELATED: The KING Of Fat Burning Workouts}
2. Hip Flexion Exercises For Effective Core Training
The next function of our core muscles, specifically our rectus abdominis and hip flexors, is hip flexion. This is when we bring our legs forward (like when we walk) or raise your legs if you’re laying on your back or hanging on a bar.
This can be trained with a couple simple exercises like:
LYING LEG RAISES
MOUNTAIN CLIMBER VARIATIONS
Once you have those down, you can start getting into more advanced hip flexion core training exercises like these ones shown below.
TRX KNEE TUCKS
TRX PIKE
STABILITY BALL KNEE TUCKS
STABILITY BALL PIKE
HANGING LEG RAISES
3. Rotational Core Training Exercises
The primary function of your internal and external obliques (your “side abs”) are to lift and rotate your torso in a kind of twisting fashion.
Another silly thing people do are “side bending” with a heavy dumbbell in one hand.
If you’re not familiar with this, picture me standing straight up, holding a heavy dumbbell in one hand and then bending side to side.
Sure, you might “feel” this a little bit in the side portion of your obliques, but those muscles are definitely not fully contracting because they don’t run straight up and down the side of your body. They run at an angle across the side of your body, like fingers of a big hand wrapping around your torso from your ribcage to your hips.
Doing these “side bends” also places an enormous amount of stress on your spine. Again, not good. This is why the last movement pattern we’ll discuss is “ANTI-LATERAL FLEXION”, so we can train our core muscles to resist the exact “side bending” people do everyday in the gym.
A Better Approach
A better way to accomplish what we want is to incorporate “chopping” movements. My favorites are cable chop variations. These are fantastic for anyone from beginners to advanced lifters. Personally, I still use them as a primary rotation exercise in my training programs.
{RELATED: 10 Metabolic Workouts You Can Do In 4 Minutes!}
HORIZONTAL CABLE CHOP
LOW – HIGH CABLE CHOP
1/2 KNEELING HIGH – LOW CABLE CHOP
If you don’t have cables, some other options would be variations using dumbbells, weight plates or resistance bands.
1/2 KNEELING DUMBBELL/PLATE WOODCHOPPER
RESISTANCE BAND HIGH-LOW ROTATION
1/2 KNEEL RESISTANCE BAND HIGH-LOW CHOP
And if you have access to a landmine, you could add in some fun landmine rotation exercises.
LANDMINE ROTATION
4. Anti-Rotational & Anti-Lateral Flexion (i.e. Anti-Side Bending)
Just like how we talked about stability, anti-rotation and anti-lateral flexion is very similar. Except now we’re resisting rotation and side bending.
Some variations of the chops and rotations above would require a little bit of anti-rotation, but a true anti-rotation exercise would be something like a Paloff Press.
A Paloff Press is great because it’s basically a plank for your obliques. If you’re using a cable system you can slowly increase the weight over time to see noticeable strength-endurance improvements. It’s hard to do this with a regular plank as you’re just leveraging your bodyweight to make the exercise harder.
If you don’t have access to a cable system, you can also do a Paloff Press with resistance bands or even a TRX Suspension Trainer.
Loaded Carries For Real-World, Functional Core Strength
When we look at anti-lateral flexion and resisting that “side bend” motion, one of my favorite ways to accomplish this is with loaded carry variations. These fantastic because they build “real world”, functional strength. In loaded carry variations you’re carrying a heavy weight and walking with it, which is directly applicable to real life.
Need to carry 15 bags of groceries into the house? No problem, you got this!
But the most basic anti-lateral flexion exercise we can use to resist the “side bend” motion would be a simple side plank.
SIDE PLANK
SIDE PLANK W/ SINGLE ARM ROW
1/2 KNEELING CABLE PALOFF PRESS (a.k.a. CABLE ANTI-ROTATIONAL PRESS)
RESISTANCE BAND ANTI-ROTATIONAL PRESS
TRX ANTI-ROTATIONAL PRESS
FARMER WALK
LOADED OVERHEAD CARRY
DOUBLE RACKED CARRY
SINGLE ARM CARRY
OFFSET LOADED CARRY
Putting It All Together For Effective Core Workouts
Once you have your diet dialled in, and your body fat is low enough to actually see your abs, the key to having abs that function properly as well as look great is having balance through those 4 movement patterns using a variety of exercises. It’s also important to make sure your using effective workouts for your goals.
When I’m designing training programs for our 1-1 online Transformation Coaching Experience members, their workouts will typically start with core training. This way you get your core muscles activated early on in the workout, making them perform better when you’re doing more complex lifts later on.
For example, depending on a clients fitness level, the first 2 exercises of their Phase 1 workouts might start like this:
Strength Workout A
1A. Plank – 3 sets x 30sec hold x 0sec rest
1B. Horizontal Cable Rotation – 3 sets x 10 reps x 60sec rest
Strength Workout B
1A. Stability Ball Knee Tuck – 3 sets x 8 reps x 0sec rest
1B. Cable Paloff Press – 3 sets x 15sec hold x 60sec rest
As you can see, I like to pair a stability exercise (i.e. an exercise where you’re holding a position) with a dynamic exercise (i.e. an exercises where you’re moving).
Ready To Become The Strongest Version Of You?
If you’d like some help becoming your strongest, healthiest, and fittest version of you, I would encourage you to check out our 1-1 online Transformation Coaching Experience. This is an online fitness & wellness coaching experience that gives you properly designed, personalized, & effective workouts plus expert coaching right at your fingertips through the BluePhoenix Fitness smartphone app (plus a lot more!).
You can get 12 months of workouts custom built with progressive phases that constantly keep you moving forward, losing more body fat, moving better and becoming the strongest version of yourself.
Simply take 5 minutes to answer a couple of questions on the next page and then choose a time that works best for your free Goal Setting Call.
During your call, we’ll go over:
- Where things are at right now for you, what’s working/not working
- Where you’d like to be in the next 12 months
- Any obstacles or challenges you’re facing, and how to break through them to achieve your biggest goals!
At the end of your call you’ll have an opportunity to ask any questions you may have, and if it makes sense we can chat about getting involved with one of our coaching programs.
But either way, you’ll you have crystal clear clarity on exactly what you need to do to moving forward to achieve your biggest fitness, weight loss or transformation goals.
It only takes 5 minutes to schedule a call and there’s zero-risk, so do it now before it gets lost in the shuffle of life:
Looking forward to chatting!
Live awesome,
-Cam