Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 324: How To Build A 6-Pack

Episode Date: July 7, 2016

6-packs abs are not only coveted but rare among the general population. If you want impressive abs what is the best way to build them? In this episode, Sal, Adam & Justin break down what you must do and avoid to reach your 6-pack goals. Get MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, MAPS Aesthetic and the Butt Builder Blueprint (The RGB Super Bundle) packaged together at a substantial DISCOUNT at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Each week our favorite reviewers are announced on the show and sent Mind Pump T-shirts!

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salta Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. Booty program. Booty, booty. It's gonna expand, you know what? You know what, it's not. What?

It's not your beauty. It's your beauty. It's not your beauty, it's your beauty. It's not your beauty. It's your beauty, baby. Don't be an ass-build one. Oh, no. No. Adam, goddamn, you're brilliant sometimes.

Yeah, it was awesome. Can I make a comment real quick? Two things. First off, look at this new shoe. Look at these f**king... He thinks he's fast all of a sudden. He looks fast. I'm not gonna lie.

You know what? You don't have to lie. I never look fast. But, they're... So I always get a... You got like an ear desk. Are these your first pair of A6? No, I've had A6. But you weigh in the past.

They're comfortable shoe. Dude, you know what? I feel like I'm walking on. I feel like I'm walking on... Pylos. Yeah, like I'm walking on clouds. I'm like, I don't even feel like I'm walking. I feel like it's the shoe was walking for me. It's really weird. Yeah, they're taking a break one of the best

We're not even sponsored by a six by the way. No, they're one of the best all-around running shoes to in fact It's again. We've never even brought that up I don't think is the Nike is like the worst so if you're somebody who runs on night I love Nike's I wear mostly nickeys, but I also don't run So if you're somebody who wears I like runs a lot lot, you stand your ground, A6 are definitely one of the better running shoes out there. And I know there's some runners out there that are like talking about their one of those. I always forget the ones that start with an age that are the ugliest shoes. I have seen. They get crazy. Oh, the hookahs are what?

Yes, those are those are those shoes that's that's overboard. You know what? You know what those shoes remind me of? Double stuff Oreos. You know what I mean? Like you look inside, you're like, that's just too much. I like the middle, but I don't need double. Agrius shoes ever. You have to be a serious runner to wear those things because I don't care how comfortable and how great they are. Or spring you for always ugly. I know that's why I do wear Nike's because like at least they look good.

Yeah, that's how I look good walking. They're not as good. I see, I've seen a lot of, I see dead people. I've seen a lot of really small people wear those because they have so thick on the bottom that I think that they're like, oh, I'm taller. I've seen both. I've got a two inch lift. What I think it is, it's such a runner shoe

and it's like really, that's all it's for that, you know, it's kind of like a sense of like, probably like, yeah, I run, I run a lot. I need these shoes. I don't, I wear my Reebok plump. need these big Marshmallow shoes because I run so much You know what Justin? I miss Reebok pumps. Yeah Because when I was a kid I literally thought I'll if I pump my shoes shit was gonna go down like oh You want to play hide and go see you want to play

Yeah, hold on a recess You want to play? Hold on a sec. Yeah. Hold on. I just pumped up my shoes. You know, that was really like, I mean, that's what, that was what brought Reebok back when they were getting crushed by Michael Jordan and Nike. Oh, pumps.

Oh, pumps. I mean, that was like their last baby. It's like a Canadian brand, right? If I remember the story correctly, they were going to go under like right before that, and that kind of like revived the company. Do you want to know something funny that just came to me, though? It's a little basketball. Oh, it's brilliant. You know what just came to me right now?

What? Is that shoes in the 80s and 90s is like supplements right now. You know what I'm saying? They were the answer to that stuff. They were the answer to that stuff. Like remember the catapult? I forgot what company it was. I made the catapult.

It's like the strength shoes that had the platform, the duck platform, things, the jump shoes. But as a kid, I remember seeing the commercials for the shoes and be like, oh fuck, if I get those catapults, holy shit, I'm gonna get so much better. Dude, I had the bow jacks in like cross trainers. I was like, I'm gonna run like bow jacks in.

That's gonna happen. I don't think it's changed that much. It really followed like shoe, the shoe game with like, you just been removed from it. Yeah, exactly. Lebrons and all these things. Yeah, but do they talk about the technology that you're like, yeah, absolutely. Now it's like, yeah, but do they talk about the technology that you have? Yeah, absolutely.

Now it's about how light and supportive it can be. They use a lot of graph, the most support and the light issue you can make. That's like, that's what it's all about. Yeah, because in the 90s it was about how, like what carbon fiber? What was inside the heel that could propel your forward? Yeah, remember the,

this has air, this has a catapult and this has springs. Yeah, we'll never still do that with these like weird cushion things. Like, oh, what's that one where they have like different like the zooms? Yeah, yeah, the zoom has like little squares that like grab on the ground. It's weird. So it's kind of funny. She runs how fast and just runs.

She runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs. She runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and she runs how fast and I'm torn on like shoes now versus, I like shoes back then a lot. I mean, shoe to half my collection is old school Jordans and so. I feel like shoes now have just gotten like crazy. They're just over the top and it's hard to get. They're like space shoes. Yeah, they do. They look like you're getting ready to walk on the moon or something.

I remember the Larry Johnson's. Oh my god, yeah. Converse. No idea. I remember street ballins. I still have those too. Yeah, You know, right now that you know, the big joke right now is right with underarmors newest curries that just came out. You guys not seeing that? That there's all kinds of memes. There's all kinds of

stuff. Float. Of course, you didn't. There's a course out then, I should say. Yeah. What are you? He literally I'll find them for you guys and show you a picture and his new. He so if you don't know the backstory on Stephen Curry had was originally going to sign with Nike. And part of the deal was that he wanted to put that Bible verse on the bottom of his shoe. And Nike was like, not happening. So they pooped the deal.

And that word again, this pooping, you You know I do it all the time now. I'm gonna throw it an extra, extra now. So after they said no to it, here they are right here. Look at the white shoes and the ones that my buddy sent next to. Which one? Well, the ones that joke, the other ones like the real one. Oh, cause that's like, that's an orthopedic shoe.

Yeah, that's why. The one on the right? Yeah, see the underarmors. Yeah. So underarmors says yes, you can put whatever you Yeah, that's why the one on the right. Yeah, see the underarmors. Yeah. So, uh, so underarmors says yes, you can put whatever you want. It gets the wrong guy. I know. I know.

He's nothing wrong with it. You know what it looks like? It's fucking hideous. Yeah, it's not hideous. Yes it is. So you see they're comparing it to like those orthopedic shoes. Yes. There's big jokes going around about how simple and plain

and ugly they are, right? It's like you can go skiing with these things on. Yeah, so he signed with underarmor. The first shoe came out. It was pretty exotic and cool. Well, these most recent ones came out and everybody is just like making fun of them because they're so basic. It's like the most basic white.

You would think these are okay. I don't know. I don't understand. What do you want the fucking shoot to have? Fire's on. I don't know. When it's I want it to attach to the MVP of the fucking NBA. It's got some flash, bro.

Exactly. It's the most, it will be one of the most popular releases all year long. Well, that maybe so in itself. It just looks like it was belonging like JC Payne. So when big shoes like this come out, kids line up out the door, like waiting to purchase,

ain't no fucking kid line up the door to buy a pair of fucking white looking. This R or U1 that in in footlock. Yes, through it. Right now. Exactly. Yeah, five sporting goods. Yeah, big five.

Yeah. I remember the Chinese fucking. It was like a shoe source, but it was like a thing at one point to get really basic white clean shoes. It's still style. But I have I have at least five or six pairs of whites that never see outside that are purely for wearing a door. So white shoes.

What do you mean, how does that work? I only wear them indoors. And you're only out of dirty. No, like when I go like places, like if I'm traveling, okay, I'm, they go outside and they're like confused for a second. I don't do white sneakers for that reason. Yeah, yeah, and I wear them like if I'm going vagus or I'm going places that they're going to get they're going to stay clean, dude. Dude, would you, if somebody just walked

up and just stepped on them, would you like that's like a dick move. As I know, but what would you, would you do? It would depend if it was on purpose, then we'd have an issue. But if it was like you accidentally did it, I'd be like, Oh man, that's part of it. I mean, you're wearing shoes. You know, everyone's foot's been stepped on before. If it's an accident and you stepped into poop. But if you, if you saw that like I was a shoe guy and you're like, Oh, those are Yeezies and you walked over and you fucking stepped on my Yeezies. Like, yeah, you're I'm gonna easy. I'm gonna Yeezie my foot right in your ass. That's a It's not it's a not cheap shoe. Yeah, very expensive. But what is it? Not what is in it?

What is it? What is it? What do you mean is a shoe? Oh, it's just it's just that's just a general term for it's Kanye West's shoe? Oh, it's just that's just a general term for it. It's Kanye West's shoe. Oh, when Kanye, when Kanye, when Kanye, you bought Kanye shoes. Yeah. Oh, well, explain to me though, I can't know why they're so expensive and all that but explain to me

when like he released his first one. Bro, I have so much respect for you. So it's okay for me to lose a little bit of respect for you, but I just did. But there's still a lot. I'm not, he's fucking, that guy's, God damn it. Well, if you're a shoe collector like I am,

you buy some shoes because of, because of that, because I know it's got huge fat, like I bought those shoes and they're worth more than what I paid for, right? Yeah, everybody loves those. Oh, they're worth a lot of money now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, they're between 3,500 and 8,000 for that.

Fuck off. Yeah. A fucking shoe. Yeah. God, that makes me so angry. The tips, the tips of them have 14 care gold tips, like, laces, the tips of them have these little screw on. They screw on and they're gold on the bottoms glow and they're,

yeah, they're fancy, fancy, dude. So shoes like that, you hold on to them like those. This is the craziest thing of those lasers, the new, those retro floors that I just got those will, I mean, they were bought at 250. They, they would retail right now for, you could resell them for 500 easily right now. So some shoes are worth, you know, they go up in value now. The shoe get here. You guys want to watch a cool Ted. Actually, I don't know if you'll watch it, but whatever. A cool. There's a cool Ted talk on just the shoe industry now and what it's turned

into. They compare it to the stock market. And the way you, you have, you, you do take care of certain shoes. They'll go up and value and things that are sought after are really, really expensive. And even if they're worn and they have different levels, like is it in the box, the original box still, it's worth this much. It's not like cheese. Yeah. Is it out of its original boxes? This value? Is it been worn? It's still worth. Well, I mean, wear shoes and still sell them almost anything can have a value of perceived value. I mean, you ever go on eBay and look at like toys and shit like old toys. Yeah, no, exactly. I'm so angry. Mild he man's a worth so much. My eyes fingernails. I knew a kid when I was in high school that was collecting all the McDonald's toys. And I thought he was a weirdo.

He literally had thousands under his bed. He had this big ol' thing, and they were all in the bot. They were all in the bot. And I thought he had a little one's that. Oh, bro, there's like, there's an almond act for that. There's big money in it. Wow. Like some of the original,

the original hamburger helper guy, like the very first one ever. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, there's bobs, big boy. I remember like somebody was collected all the bobs, big boy. For Mickey D, there's an almond act for it, bro. there's Bob's big boy. I remember like somebody was collected all the Bob's big boy. Like for Mickey D's there's an Almanac for it, bro. There's money in it, especially if you have the original ones that

like a big or a big movie like a blockbuster movie where McDonald's partnered up with it. I don't know if they did Batman or one of those. I'm still collecting Star Wars figurings, but well, and I'm sure that I'm sure Mickey did is did they do a Star Wars collaboration? I'm sure they did it one for us. And if you had that Star Wars toy that came out. Are they doing it now? I'm sure.

Is it Disney right now? Maybe. I don't know who's, I don't know who's aligning with them or not right now. Marvel, I don't know. Who knows? I don't know. Maybe they'll call us, who knows.

Yeah, I know. So that's why. Maybe they'll call us. The Justin would, just that would shit and come at the same time. Whoa. If Star Wars called us, right? Hey guys, can we, Justin would just it would shit and come at the same time. Whoa if they if Star Wars called us for it's hey guys Can we just like I'm like that actually sounds amazing

Okay, it would be like My face It's faithful and it's good That's all or what the fuck I don't know what happened Did you just take a shower so now I had to go it was a worse analogy ever so so listen Is it I don't think it's possible like but it's like sneezing with your eyes open with your eyes open. I'm like, what is it? You're committing a scene, dude, that I swear to God.

It freaked me out. Oh, yeah. How's it going? You look at you, robot. What are you? You're a follow-up question. Can you shit and come at the same time? Kiss you.

Listen, it's possible. That's all I'm gonna say. Okay, I'm not going to detail. Have you, what about sneezing while you're taking a piss? Oh, God. Oh, no. That going to be too. Have you, what about sneezing while you're taking a piss? Oh god. Oh, no. That's horrible. It's like, you could, I think seriously.

It's day clean up, I don't think there's any science to about this, but I think it could literally split your dick in half. You know what I mean? That's how much pressure comes out when you sneeze. It's a lay it. When you're circling older, you just start sitting down as a man. No.

Yeah, you just sit back. You just go sit down. Oh, my Gravon article. My Gravon article or something going there. I'm reading some, you just said you got it. You just go sit down. I grab an article, I grab an article or something going there, I'm reading some, you know, Instagram shit or something like that. And I'm going to the bathroom like, I don't have to ship but I'm gonna sit down I think. I'm gonna be here for a minute.

Is that the only way we can get, that's the only place. It's like my escape zone. Exactly. It's the only way you, that's how we get away. We locked the door and nobody bothers us. That's when it's somebody walks by. I'm like messing with the toilet paper like

Tell me you don't do that. Yeah, you know, it's funny is I don't have kids and I do do that which I can imagine it's time 10 for you guys. Yeah, you go and just make like a random girl Oh, the kids are crew of forum questions. Hey, the kids sound like they're fighting upstairs. They're gonna go take a dump, you know, tell you where to work it. Dude, we started a little, we started a little controversy with our last episode.

We were ranking body parts on women. And then the someone put up, someone put out body parts on men, and unanimously, not unanimous, it was like a majority like abs, it's always near the top, it's always about abs. And you saw how many of those ladies brought up the chest though. The pectacles?

The pectacles. Yeah, they were there. Yeah, I know. No, it's important. Abs, it's funny, because it's like- But abs is so subjective, it's like, you could take like 100 women from anywhere and it's gonna be different. Oh yeah.

Yeah, I mean like any region, any like everything, everybody has their preference. Well, I was some random. I would think certain cultures are would be different, right? Different hair. The sexiest body parts of the wall, it must be real now. Boom. That's talking. Funny part is none of them say that.

You put science. They've put that out there. Bro They've done study chess the arm the abs or the wallet which one of those would be they they have done literal studies where women will rank a man's Contractiveness on a one to ten right? Yeah, and they'll rank these men and one guy will get consistent for across the board Then they'll show the same guy they put them in a suit. No, they'll put down like that their net worth is higher. Like, oh no, he earns over 250,000 year, whatever. Oh, it's worth, they actually figure out the number. I believe it was worth two or three points. Whoa.

So if you're a five, but you're making your millionaire, you're automatically now an eight. Wow. Yes, it's just, it's the way it is. You hear that guys? Quit spending so much time in the gym, probably spend that your job. The best of that. And then it's if you're like really, really well known for like some random skill or like, you know, if you're like

There's been so many ugly-ass musicians that have like like knockouts for wives. That's perceived. Yeah, it's the same thing perceived power. Well, maybe you'll write a song about me. Yeah, I just said there's something about a woman getting serenaded. I think that's something to do with it too. That's power there. Yeah, sure. You're lucky. You're good looking God Shit in that apartment But I'd be like America stop chef. I've had girls before asking that too. Could you sing me a song? Like you fucking game. You're lucky you get to look at my face

Be happy with that. Absolutely. Oh, so. Nobody's that perfect. Bobo. Bobo. But because we gave exercises and like what to do for the butt, I think we should talk about a little bit about how to build a six pack. Like how to really build a six pack because there's a lot just like the glutes and other

bodyguards going with it. Yeah, there's a lot of misconceptions on how the abs should be worked. For some reason, it's like abs need to be trained with high reps, abs need, you can't use weight with abs. Don't do heavy, really. You want to do full range of motion. Yeah, and one thing they do get right, however,

which is funny, because they only apply to abs is that you should train them frequently. Most bodybuilders agree, you hit your abs more frequently than the rest of the body. They think that like for some reason, just the core is the only one that recovers. Well, you know what we used to say. I mean, I remember as a trainer,

it used to say because it's comprised mostly of fast twitch fibers in comparison anywhere else. So, or slow twitch fibers, then you can take, they can take that higher repetition or it's more advantageous for you to be doing lots and lots of repetitions versus. It's not adding a whole lot of load to those movements. Well, that's what we used to say.

And we know that's a bunch of bullshit now, but I remember that's what we used to, dude, I used to work my core. I always work my core. It's not like I neglected it. And I've gotten very lean in the past. I've gotten down to single-digit body fat. And I would have very lean, I got very lean in the past, I've gotten down to single digit body fat. And I would have a six pack, but it would just,

it would kinda be there, it wouldn't really stick out. It was just kinda flat, you know? And when I figured out that using resistance on my abs was the same as using resistance anywhere else. And then I could build my abs out. It blew me away because all of a sudden I had a six pack at number one, higher body fat percentages.

And number two, my abs kind of stuck out without me flexing. They were just way more visible. But I didn't have, dude, I didn't have abs like that at all. Like now I have a six pack at 10 or 11% whereas before I have to get down to seven. This is why I think I don't. And that's why it's one of the things I struggle with is because I don't train them enough And I notice how often do you hit your your honest how often you hit your apps where rarely rarely ever wow? Yeah, rarely ever wow

It's it's probably the most neglected part as far as real your app So you don't work out your abs, but you'll you store very little body fat around your This is a per example how I tell people like, you know, in my opinion, right? This is my opinion. You guys can debate me on this or not, but I feel like, you know, when you're, when you're putting together your priority list, you know, and of course, overall health and balance is number one, but when you start building an aesthetic physique, you know, most my focus and emphasis are on all my, my weak points, you know, ask me what I do the most.

I do my legs and my calves more than anything else. And then my arms are the least amount. And then after my abs, like these are my strengths and my body. So for me, they get neglected the most. You know, and I'd love to say that I hit everything in the right amount and the most I possibly can, but no, in reality, there's times when,

you know, I miss a day in the gym or I only have so much time and so my priority is always going to be on my lagging body parts. Well, see, I wasn't the same camp as you as to where I'd be like, well, I'm just going to get lean. And the truth is, you're not going to have a six pack unless you get lean enough. You could build your abs and make them fantastic, but if you've got fat over them, they're just not going to be visible. That was always my mentality was, well, I'm just going to worry about getting lean. My core was plenty strong. I could deadlift a lot, I could squat a lot, I could overhead press a lot. I never really placed a ton of

emphasis on them, but I did work them. I did work them the way I thought you were supposed to, which was the high rep stuff. I'll never forget, it was like in epiphany, where I remember, I forgot where it was. I was maybe on social media and there was a guy just staying there and he was musketing, he had these just block abs. I remember thinking like my abs are just not, like I don't have a lot of muscle on my abs, you know what I mean?

And a lot of people, especially in the like physique world, they say don't build your core because you'll get a bigger waist. That's bullshit. My waist hasn't gotten bigger, but my core has become more pronounced from using resistance. So I went from doing like high rep crunches, high rep leg raises, high rep, you know, exercises to doing heavy, you know, Roman chair sit ups, heavy leg raises, you know,

exercises that are more designed to build muscle-like with any other body part. Now the key here, however, and I think the reason why high reps became a thing for abs in the beginning was because when you use a lot of weight on core exercises, it's really fucking easy to stop really flexing at the lumbar and just to start flexing at the hip. You know what I'm saying? Like it's easy for me to do a sit-up and just keep my body rigid, but bend at the hips using my hip flexors and have my core as a stabilizer. And I see people doing leg raises like this all the time. Like they'll hang on the bar, they'll do leg raises, and they get very little pelvic tilt at the top, which is what the abs do.

Right. The most important piece of the exercise. Yeah, it's all, it's like, all it's doing is stabilizing while the hip flexors do movement. And this ends up making you hip flexor dominant, and then you don't really build really muscular abdominals. And what you need to realize, especially with the abs, is the function of the abs is to bring the pelvis closer to the ribcage, or vice versa,

bring the ribcage closer to the pelvis. So it's that, it's that anterior pelvic tilt to posture your pelvic tilt, that the abs are doing. And they can't stabilize, but that's their full range of motion. So if you train in that full range of motion and you had resistance, you'll build abs and then you'll have visible abs at lower, excuse me, at higher body fat percentages.

Which is what blew me away. And what's interesting, like so for me, it revolves more around rotation. So I, you know, it's- Obliques. Yeah, obliques. I was talking about that. I guarantee I would work my obliques more than my abs.

Right. I don't do very many crunches per se. You know, if anything, it's like, you know, leg lifts or something along those lines, but very isometric. So for me, like, if anything, just because of the way that I've trained for performance and for doing any type of sports, my focus really is to be able to stabilize myself through all kinds of different planes and movement. And so a lot of that core training, quote unquote, is more based off of like wood chops

and trunk rotations and planks and stabilizing my entire body with my core as opposed to crunching and building and developing, which is, I feel like I'm neglecting it from that aspect. Well, let's be honest. I mean, obliques are extremely important, and they're forgotten. People tend to forget about how impressive,

good muscular obliques look. And when people talk about, especially women, we'll talk about the V, that the guy will get down the abs or whatever. Part of that is really nice developed obliques that kind of creates that illusion. And, you know, everybody's worried, especially in the physique world, in the bodybuilding world, like, don't work your a bleak,

because you'll get a bigger waist. Well, then you actually stabilize you, left or right. How much you're gonna build your... How much you're gonna build your fucking a bleak? You know what I'm saying? I'm sure if you're on a shit ton of growth hormone and your organs are growing and... Yeah, you're not getting that big.

And you're getting a big belly, that's different. But if you're everybody who's listening, 99% everyone's listening, and you build the hell out of your bleaks, your waist might get bigger one tenth of an inch, but you're gonna look smaller just because you have these developed muscular bleaks and core. And I would even say that a bleaks

are probably more impressive to me than super developed apps When I see like really good a bleak's on someone it just makes their core look it looks tight You know what I'm saying it looks really really tight. Well, I'm a lot like Justin that that's how I feel like I get a lot of my My court I mean if you ever done like you know speed deadlifts before my abs get fucking sore from some of that I mean you're bracing. Yeah, you're gonna rip, you're gonna rip 315 pounds off the ground, several times, like before, every time it before goes up, I may explode up. I mean, my abs are the first thing that engage.

And, you know, engaging those suckers hard before you pull that much weight up, I always get sore from things like that. So whenever I add a new movement, so I do a lot of explosive type things like that that really get my abs. So I don't directly train them enough. And I've only the only when I really do, I honestly do it as I get closer to show time. I've always had this kind of theory with my with my abs is that, okay, well, why I'm going to do all the big gross movements that's going to burn the most calories, burn the most fat, give me the most bang for my buck as far as

building this physique. And then as I start to lean down and tread, then I start to incorporate more of this, you know, this abdominal work because then they're going to start to reveal themselves so they'll be more pronounced. And for me, it's always been a mental game for myself because it's a muscle that's not small. It's the muscle that's covered by, you know, a layer of fat. Since most of us hold a lot of belly fat where if if we hold any fat at all, it's gonna go there and it's gonna cover those six pack abs.

So I find waiting until I can kinda see them a little bit, is more motivating for me to train them more and put more emphasis on it. Otherwise, you're doing a lot of movements that don't burn a lot of calories, don't give you a lot of bang for your buck, and I can be doing other things that get me faster to revealing those abs, so. Well, I'll tell you what, for me, it was huge because when I changed the way I trained,

and this is when... Well, you also have, in my opinion, you have the most pronounced abdominal area out of all of us for sure. Well, you can see that on you. You can see that even when you are at your highest body fat, your abdominals look way better than mine do, for sure. Well, it got to the point, like I said, when I started training in a particular way with resistance,

frequency as like we always prescribe in the maps programs, and focusing on that pelvic tilt, that's when I came up with the no BS6 pack formula, that's when I put that program together, because I saw on myself what a tremendous difference it made in how my midsection looked. I'm telling you, right now, I never had a six pack unless I got shredded before.

Now, I don't have to get nearly as lean and my abs will stick out of my shirt, which is crazy. It never happened before, but now if I eat like a big meal and I'm relatively lean, you can see my abs coming out of my shirt and that's only because I built them. I had to develop them. Which means total sense. It's crazy. No different than every other muscle when you think about it. I had to develop them. Which made this total sense. It's crazy.

No different than every other muscle when you think about it. It's crazy how much. And I don't know what it was that why I was, didn't even think of this, but you can develop your abs like any muscle or your bleak's like any muscle. You can develop them. And when they become developed, you're not gonna get huge. Like no matter what I do, I'm not gonna get massive.

I mean, the abs are not massive muscles, but they will become more kind of pronounced and visible. And so if you think of somebody at, let's say, 12% guy at 12% or 11% body fat, which is getting lean. Now, you're starting to get into the 10% range, we're starting to get lean, and you can kind of see an outline of his abs. Imagine if you just built them so they got bigger.

Boom, now you can see them at higher body fat percentages. I've had women who have done, follow the program, the No BS6 pack formula, and they've always, of course, been taught high reps. They've been taught high reps for everything, but especially for core, they applied some of the concepts of using more resistance and that full range of motion,

and they're like, I've never had a six pack office and I have one. And it's just because you built them out. And I think that's one of the biggest myths and app training is A, you need to train them with high reps because somehow you can spot reduce what you can't or B, don't ever use resistance with your abs or you're gonna get a bigger waist.

I would be shocked to see how your abs would respond if you trained that because you don't have a four body fat there. No, I'll tell you what, it's, it just hasn't been a focus. And, you know, since we've talked about this on a show, I always love taking some of the things and applying what we, you know, we've been recently sharing. And it's just, I have never, the most emphasis I've ever put on my abs is like I said, when I get about two weeks out from a show, you know, and a lot of that is just because I'm ramping up my activity and I'm living in the gym as I'm getting closer to show time and I'm finding other things to do and I'm like, hey,

why not work on my abs even if it is a strength of mine, I'm going to start to work on them. But I have never, you know, gone after it and really, you know, created as a focus session. So I'd tell you what I'll do is I'll take the R no BS and I'll implement it within like a focus session. So I'd tell you what I'll do is I'll take our no BS and I'll implement it within like a focus session. Did your abs gonna get crazy? Because you already had, like I said, you don't store body fat around your midsection, or the lean, it's just gonna get,

like you're gonna get like little bricks. You get some bricks. Yeah, you're gonna get some bricks. Well, I can, because I'm this dude who's all in aesthetics and stuff, I mean, I can see that on your body. I look at your physique and it's the very first thing that I notice right away is that,

you have these blocky abs. Do we just become best friends? Well, I notice that like my abdominal region will really change throughout the day just by my water and food and take. Right, right. You know, because they're not very pronounced, you know, and as I fill up, in fact, it actually, I get more water covering over them and they

don't look as good and as pronounced, where other muscles on my body, when I fill water and they look bigger and they look more full and they're more pronounced, where it's the opposite. My abs look the best in the morning time, right? Not after I feed and fuel them. So, I know if I were to train them like another muscle group, but I would get more out of them. It's just it's one of those things I've neglected for a long time. So maybe we'll put a little experiment to test it. I'd be interested to see that. I mean really really key is someone was just talking on the forum about you know it was fun watching

when I did my transformation just that it his transformation and falling along. We haven't done anything like that. So I'll volunteer myself to do something like that. We're in the middle of talking about lead and down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm myself to do something like that. We're in the middle of this time about leading down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm down to do. It's good timing too, because it's summertime. Yeah, that's why I think a lot of people right now, why not? Yeah, why not?

But I want to be clear, like if you don't, and because if you enroll in one of our, in the No BS 6 pack, we really break it all down. It's all programmed out, just like other programs where everything's spelled out for you with videos and all that stuff. But if you decide to do this on your own and use resistance,

you got to be very careful because using resistance on your core, most of you listening right now, your core, if you're fit, acts well as a stabilizer. But in terms of working through its full range of motion, most you don't train them properly. So adding resistance to that is going to make it very difficult. Long lever crunches, which is no resistance, is just a crunch on the physio ball, Most you don't train them properly. So adding resistance to that is gonna make it very difficult. Long lever crunches, which is no resistance,

it's just a crunch on the physio ball, where you wrap around the ball, crunch over the ball with your arms, always maintaining, your arms straight out behind your head, or next to your ears. That's a lot of resistance for a lot of people to do, right. I can't even tell you how many people have trained. It's a starter, yeah.

Yeah, who are very fit, and they're like, oh, I wanna use resistance on my abs, and I'm like, try this first. Yeah. And then, you know, forget doing hanging leg raises because you just don't have the control. But if you do do this stuff, do it slow, controlled, and perfect form.

Like, there's no other body part I can think of where a slight deviation in form, not only ruins the exercise, but it puts you at high risk for injury because if you're pulling with resistance and you're using all hip flexors, especially your Ilioso-az muscle, you are going to have,

this is when people complain about back pain from doing abs. When they do leg raises, they're like, I can't do it anymore, that hurts my back. It's not their core, it's because they're so-az, which connects near the... Well, what's happening, too,

is real similar to what we just discussed in a recent episode about the sleepy butt, you know, about the neurological connection is a lot of people. Hiflex are dominant. Yes. Have been for so if you mean when you look at when you think of a crunchy recruitment. Yeah. Right.

Think of a crunch for someone's bringing their knees and their shoulders in is, you know, what we what we were trying to happen is is that lumbar is what you're looking for. Yeah. But what really people visually see on the outside is yeah, exactly, they see bending, they see knees and elbows coming together, and that's what a crunch is. But you can bring your knees up to your elbows with very little movement in the Lumbar if you don't do it correctly. So there takes a lot of mind,

mind muscle connection or that central nervous connection, a central nervous system connection that we talk about. And people have sleepy syndrome in their abs. They don't know how to connect to them very well. They don't know how to engage that and then to flex at the spine instead of praying after legs. I have seen this among so many really fit lean people. Like you wouldn't believe, like they'll come to me,

fit lean, but working out consistently for a long time, and I'll have them do, I'll have them do like a core assessment, and right away, oh, hip flex or dominance. How do we correct that? This is what we do. I'll have them activate their glutes, maybe put their legs up on a bench, and kind of bridge just a little bit off the floor,

activate their glutes, keep their glutes tight, and then do a crunch, because once you activate the glutes, the hip flexors have to relax. And it's so funny watching them, like try to come up without the hip flexors, and it's like, you don't even first work out a muscle after going all the glutes, the hip flexors have to relax. And it's so funny watching them like try to come up without the hip flexors. And it's like, you know, when you first work out of muscle

after going on layoff and it kind of shakes a little bit, they'll get that shake. They're like, why am I shaking? It's because you are not, your body doesn't know how to fire. You crunch them on the bench within a bridge. So what you're doing, so let's say you're on the floor. So I'm on my back on the floor. I'll put my legs up bent, my heels up on a

bench. Then what you do is you drive into the bench with your heels and lift your butt off the floor just an inch or two and just keep the glutes all you're doing is you're activating the glutes. Hold that position while you go. While do a slow crunch. This is not an ab builder. This is not going to build your core. But what it is going to do is it's going to change the recruitment pattern, which we talked about in a previous episode. All it's gonna do is it's gonna teach you to activate your core and your abs independent of your hip flexors. And the reason why activating your glutes does that

is because it's called reciprocal inhibition. When I activate one muscle, the opposing muscle will naturally relax. If I don't do that, and I just have a person do a crunch and I say focus on your abs, their hip flexors are gonna activate every single, it's just, it's their default, you know. I'll have to try that.

I've never thought I'd do that. I've always used like a small stability ball, put it on their back and then put them in a floor or put them in a bridge position. So then their glutes are in and it emphasize keeping the hips. Sure, sure. Yeah, no matter what you do, as long as you activate the glutes and hamstrings,

while crunching the entire time, then the hit flexors are far more likely to be relaxed, which allows you then to separate the hip flexors from that flexion at the spine, and it gets that recruitment pattern to change. So, and this is actually a relatively easy and balanced to correct, like once you do that and you practice that for like a week or two,

then you go to your other exercises and you start with no resistance and you focus you no resistance and you focus you maybe a Roman chair sit up or a leg raise with your knees bent but you do like that reverse crunch at the top. Do it real slow. Then you'll start to be able to fire the core properly. And let me tell you when you do these exercises properly, I see people doing like leg raises and they're doing like 30 reps. You ain't doing shit right dude. You do a proper leg raise with that pelvic tilt at the top

and if you want, keep your legs long, make that lever long and do a real hard pelvic tilt. That shit is not, it's not easy. And I'm not talking about the freaking CrossFit, kick the bar with my feet, you know, hip flex or extraordinary exercise. I'm talking about bringing your legs up and doing a reverse crunch at the top.

That's a very difficult. A lot of focus. Very, very difficult exercise to do. Well, I think that's a good point to add too, is that people get so caught up in the, you know, how many they can do. Reps and, yeah, they have no quality control in their body mechanics,

like, which is where you need to start, and you need to assess like, like, like they're mentioned, like, is this even firing properly? Can I feel this? Right. Sensation, like, you should be able to feel it if done correctly, and they're mentioned, like is this even firing properly? Can I feel this? Sensation, like you should be able to feel it if done correctly. And then if not, you should take measures to open that channel.

You know, it's a good example is, you know, the, what is it, the Acro wheel or the wheel that you hold with your hands and you roll out? You go underneath and you roll out? Yeah. Nobody does that right. Yeah. Nobody does that right. No, it texts their pelvic.

No, but everybody goes out. If I can pull up a million videos on YouTube and every fucking trainer presenting that exercise, we'll go down with an anterior pelvic tilt. Every single one will maintain this anterior pelvic tilt and use the hip flexors and lats to pull themself up every time. So I, a girl in my class was doing it correctly and I was so floored.

Wow. Yeah, we have an abs that we have rolled out. The abdolly roll out thing and it's just like a little thing. And I looked over and I'm like, she's no way, who taught you that? Right away I want to know, because it's like, it's rare to see somebody do that without that pelvic drop.

Yeah, if the way you should do it is you should actually have a rounded back. She had a totally cat bath. That's it, and you had a cat bath quite, she did, I was like, damn. And you roll out, once you get out to the end of it, you're rounded back kind of flatens a little bit. So you go from posterior once you get out to the end of it, you're rounded back, kind of flattens a little bit. So you go from posterior pelvic tilt

to start to go to anterior. You don't wanna go full anterior with that much resistance, but you're getting there. And then the way you pull yourself up is not by pulling with your knees and pulling with your hands, it's by going flat back, back to rounded and you're pulling yourself.

You're doing this crunch with a lot of tons of resistance. I can't cow. Exactly. And do you know how tough? I have people start a lot of times just for core activation can't cow. Exactly. And do you know how to have people start a lot of times just for core activation technique? Yeah. You know, hard that exercises to do, by the way, right?

Oh, yeah, just to be able to articulate your spine like that, a lot of people can't do that. They can't do that. It's very, very difficult. It's very difficult. The same thing with the plank, a just a good old fashioned plank, people think they just suspend their body above the floor.

Right. And if you look at them from the side, anterior pelvic toe, they're just, they're just, they're literally doing a hip flexor plank. But when in reality, what they need to do, that no, stay low, tuck your tailbone, real hard, squeeze your abs, now hold yourself up.

Boom. Boom. This reminds me a little bit about that one of these questions that we just recently answered about like our certifications and how much of our stuff do we really use. I remember doing like your quadrupeds and those movements like that,

that you would just go through the movements and teach what you've been taught in reality. Like there should be so much detail. More emphasis, like, yeah, as far as like what it's doing and what you're recruiting and what's going on. Why are you doing this like cross-sectional firing and all these kinds of things. The whole purpose of that movement

is to be extremely... I got to communicate on my left to right side, like properly for a half to two. Often you walk at a gym and you see trainers doing the quadruped with people and they're just kind of doing it. Dude, I'll tell you what, I've actually started people crawling, I swear to God.

It's so essential to mechanics with athletes. If you're not having proper cross-sectional firing like that's why these animal movements like that's the only place I see like this is relevant because it's like now I'm teaching my body to work you know on these different planes and like cross-sectional planes. So this is this is one of the reasons why trainers don't even focus a lot on this stuff is because they think each exercise is supposed to be a workout in the sense of, oh, you know, if I'm doing quadruped and I'm not sweating, well, then why am I wasting my time? So this is good point.

So this is good point. But it's not a sweat exercise. That's not the purpose of it. The purpose of it is like Justin was saying cross-sectional firing and you're trying to teach the right and the left to communicate. And believe me, you get some people and you you get them in that quadripet position, and they start getting wobbling, losing their balance, even though it's a very stable position.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. But very few can actually do it correctly. We're both sides are equal. Oh yeah. And point and extend all the way. With a neutral smile. With a neutral smile.

There's shoulder, it doesn't even allow them to get a proper mobility to raise it high enough. A lot of times. And that's why I think what the core, especially the core, the obliques, the abs, technique is crucial, absolutely crucial, because you can do an exercise and not have the right technique like we just discussed the plank or the ab roll outs or leg raises or whatever, and not do it right and do tons of reps and not even close to the kind of results that you would get with proper technique.

Another one is flag poles, you know, the old school, you know, flag poles off a bench. Create exercise. If you do that shit and you let yourself go anterior pelvic tilt the whole time, of course you love those rucky. Oh yeah, that is a dangerous exercise but if you maintain that tuck tailbone,

and then at the very bottom, it's a little bit too little. That's a little too little. Bro, I'll do six, and then at the very bottom, it's a little, that's a little, that's a legit move. Bro, I'll do six to eight or 10 reps on that max it. And my abs, it's like I did, it's like I did deadlift from abs. Like that's, that's literally what it feels like. So that's legit.

And then, you know, some of the feed, like I said, some of the feedback that we've gotten from some of the programs that we put out, like the no BS six pack, which is, you know, obviously that's just an app. Does that work out? Does that happen to have the exercise that we put out, like the No BS6 pack, which is, you know, obviously that's just an app. Does that happen to have the exercise that you were just using the example? It's got all the,

it's got the most effective exercises that I've found for most people. And it's broken down, just like maps, you know, it's foundational workouts and there's triggering sessions. And it matches and it blends perfectly with maps. So you would do is you do a foundational maps work out a one day and then, and, and, and, that day. And then on the next day, you would do trigger

sessions for the you know, for the maps program, but then you do foundational for course. So then you're in the gym. Let's say you have maps read, you're in the gym five, six days a week, alternating between foundational, you know, full body workouts and foundational core workouts. And then I'm and then alternating trigger sessions for each body process. I think one of us... That's how I work out. That's usually, that's what my workout looks like. Yeah. I think one of us should definitely post the one

you were just discussing, because I think that... Which one, the roll outs? No, no, no, with the glued activation. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just because I think that's very common. It's very common that a lot of people have a... Super good, I don't know how. I don't know. Yes. They's very common that a lot of people have a... Superconvenational tech case. They need to know about it.

Very good question. And it's very basic. Either one, the one that I discussed, or the one used to discuss, I think, are both simple movements that will blow somebody away on, especially if you're somebody who's like, I can never feel it in my abs when I work my abs. I can never feel it in my abs.

You know, there's a lot of that. You get it. And the problem is too, is a lot of people will feel it in their abs. There's a lot of that. You get to it. And the problem is too, is a lot of people will feel it in their abs, but the abs are acting just mainly as stabilizers and that training them in the full range of motion. Like if I bend my elbow just slightly with my palm up and I lift a heavy dumbbell and I do a front delt raise,

I'll get a delt toy that's fatigue, but my bicep will start to fatigue also because I'm holding it at the slight bend. And that's what's happening with people's cores is that they're doing these exercises, they're not training properly, and they're like, well, my abs do get sore. But I mean, it's, in essence,

you're just doing isometric, you're not really working the full range of motion. Think about a rotational chop, right? If I'm not using full rotation at my spine, I can still rotate, I can put pivot off my feet and turn my hips with my whole body, or I can keep my hips, I can rotate with my spine, I can still rotate, I can put pivot off my feet and turn my hips with my whole body, or I can keep my hips, I can rotate with my hips, and then start to rotate with my midsection as well, and get the obliques to twist, you know, the upper body

separate from the lower body. It's not just your shoulders either. Right. Going right from the top. It's the exact same thing we just talked about with the sleepy butt syndrome. It's the same thing. I mean, you have not made that good pathway and connection and you need to make that connection in order for that to work. And is it going to work? Of course, it's part, it's responsible for part

of that movement. So it's impossible, just like a squat, the glutes are working. They're getting, they're getting activated. But why do I always feel it in my quads? Well, that's because of that neurological connection. Same thing goes for the abs. For so many years, you've taught the hip flexors and everything else to engage to help you. I've just personally seen with my own clients doing this properly, of course, adding resistance, full range of motion core exercises. And I'm just like right before my eyes, they just develop their abs. And I'm starting to become convinced that the muscles of the core

have a decent ability to build. That you can actually build them to the point where you can see them more, more so than like the calves. I don't know why they get thrown in the category with calves, sometimes calves just, I mean, I'm living example. I've added a half an intro

last 10 years on my calves, you know what I'm saying? But with my abs, it took a matter of like three, four months. Literally, it was like three or four months where my abs went from flat to boom, big difference. It was pretty really interesting to kind of give it a go and see what happens because, you know, I think that I'm interested to see if that's there's some truth to what you're saying

or it's more to get that. You do watch what happens, play a role or not. You'll see, you know. Watch what happens, because I know what your abs look like now and you can barely work on. Yeah, and you know, I'll definitely keep it real and track everything for sure.

You know, if I put my mind to something like that, it just hasn't been a focus for me, just because it's always been a strength. But, you know, one of the things I love about what we do in our job is it keeps it fun and interesting to always be changing things up and switching goals and it'll be a fun little goal to go after and see. Because I wouldn't mind having abs about 13% body fat. You already have them at 10%. That means you're already having a 12% you're having a lot of bros. That means more gelato. Well, I mean, the no BS6 pack formula works with any workout

you can plug it in. You can find it at mine pump media.com. And if you like mine pump, leave us a five star rating review on iTunes. If we like your review, you might win a free t-shirt and also check us out on Instagram. At Mind Pump Radio, you can find me at Mind Pump Sal. Adam is at Mind Pump Adam. Justin is at Mind Pump Justin. And you can even find Doug at Mind Pump Doug. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump.

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