Having abdominal definition or washboard abs is attainable for everyone. There tends to be a misconception that doing intense, high volume core training sessions will make your abdominals more apparent and defined. While training core is important for muscle definition, strength, stability and hypertrophy, it is not the number one way to get more defined abs.
Calories in VS Calories out
What is a calorie? In short, calorie is a unit of energy or heat. In relation to us as humans, it is the amount of food (energy / fuel) we put into our body versus the amount of energy we burn off. We all have individualised calorie numbers that we need to consume to either gain weight, lose weight, or maintain weight in relation to the amount of calories we are burning.
Why is this important for getting defined abs? The stomach is a region of the body that tends to hold more fat than other areas making it hard to get muscle definition. The most effective way to decrease fat stores in the body is to be in a caloric deficit. A caloric deficit is when the amount of calories you are putting into your body are less than the calories you are burning. For example, if you consume 2000 calories in a day and you burn 2500 calories in a day, you are in a caloric deficit.
Being in a deficit will mean your body burns / metabolizes fat stores. This works as vice versa also – if you consume more calories than you are burning, you will be in a caloric surplus, and the excess calories will be stored as fat.
How are calories burnt?
There are three bodily processes that burn calories:
- Digestion – Digesting food requires the use of calories. This is called the thermal effect of food (TEF). The amount of calories you burn during digestion is dependent on the types of food you eat, so it can be less or more accordingly.
- Metabolism – Majority of the calories consumed are used to help the body with basic bodily functions such as breathing, heartbeat, blinking etc. This is commonly known as the basal metabolic rate.
- Physical activity / exertion. The residual calories left are used for other physical activities such as exercises, walking, performing daily tasks etc.
Looking at these ways calories are burnt, there are two that naturally occur, and one that you can manipulate to burn more or less calories. Through exercise you can increase the amount of calories you are burning. But if your consumption still outweighs the amount being burnt, you will not decrease fat stores.
The quality of the calories you consume is also important for health purposes. You want to be consuming high quality calories that contain good fats, sugars and proteins and avoiding high saturated fats.
Each individual person burns and processes calories differently so there will need to be a test and trial period with different quantities of food consumption as well as tracking physical exertion. Once you have established a solid foundation of how much calories you need to maintain your current state, then you can start to adjust them according to what your goals are.
Training for definition
Once you have established your calorie requirements and how to adjust them, then you can utilize core exercises that will help you gain muscle mass, making your abdominals more apparent. Some great core hypertrophy exercises are:
- Planks are great for creating a tighter, more defined core as well as increasing stability.
- V-ups
- Hanging leg/knee raises
- Hollow rocks
- Single arm farmers carry
- Pallof press
- GHD Sit-ups
- Hollow holds
- L-sits
