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Quick Wits: Are Six-Pack Abs Really Made in the Kitchen? 5 Steps to a Strong, Shredded, Core · Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40

• 0:00
  Philip Pape: What is the secret to sculpting eye-catching six-pack abs?
• 0:04
  Philip Pape: It is not just about dieting.
• 0:06
  Philip Pape: Abs can be made in the kitchen to an extent, but in this episode we are going to dive into five practical strategies that we use in our evidence-based coaching to help clients achieve a strong, shredded and functional core.
• 0:20
  Philip Pape: Welcome to the Whits and Weights podcast.
• 0:24
  Philip Pape: I'm your host, philip Pape, and this twice a week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self mastery by getting stronger, optimizing your nutrition and upgrading your body composition.
• 0:35
  Philip Pape: We'll uncover science-backed strategies for movement, metabolism, muscle and mindset with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry, so you can look and feel your absolute best.
• 0:45
  Philip Pape: Let's dive right in.
• 0:47
  Philip Pape: In this week's quick Whits episodes, I will be reading my contributions to Dr Bill Campbell's Body by Science research review.
• 0:59
  Philip Pape: Today we're talking about ab training and development and then on the episode that drops Thursday, we'll be talking about fat loss and specifically how fats and carbs play into your fat loss protocol.
• 1:11
  Philip Pape: In a special surprise that I mentioned on social media a couple times, but I was gonna keep it under wraps Dr Bill Campbell has given me permission to send everyone who joins my list this week from these episodes a copy of the March issue of Body by Science completely free.
• 1:30
  Philip Pape: If you don't already subscribe and you want that entire issue for free, no strings attached, just go to the link in my show notes or go to WhitsandWeightscom slash bonus.
• 1:41
  Philip Pape: In the research review, the first study was about spot reduction and we're not going to talk about spot reduction specifically, but I'm answering Bill's question to me and Sue Bush, who was the other expert contributor, and the question was since most people think of spot reduction to help promote a more defined midsection, what are some of your exercise programming tips and strategies for abdominal development?
• 2:04
  Philip Pape: And I'm gonna read my response verbatim so you have it.
• 2:07
  Philip Pape: Here we go.
• 2:08
  Philip Pape: Developing the abdominals for sculpted, eye catching abs requires an approach similar to developing any other muscle group.
• 2:15
  Philip Pape: The adage abs are made in the kitchen implies that just by reducing your weight and body fat to a certain level you can reveal your abs.
• 2:25
  Philip Pape: This is an oversimplification because unless you train the abs a you may not have sufficient muscle mass to reveal much of anything.
• 2:32
  Philip Pape: B you may need to achieve a much lower than sustainable body fat level to do so.
• 2:38
  Philip Pape: And c even if you do, they may disappoint you without spending time training them.
• 2:43
  Philip Pape: Nutrition and training work together when it comes to getting shredded.
• 2:48
  Philip Pape: For most people, midsection belly fat can be stubborn and hang around until deeper into a fat loss phase, coming off from the top down.
• 2:57
  Philip Pape: Though not always the abs most people think of are the rectus abdominis, your six-pack, yet they function in tandem with other core muscles the external and internal obliques, transversus abdominis, muscles along your posterior chain, like the erector spinny and everything in the vicinity of your spine or hip area.
• 3:17
  Philip Pape: As an evidence-based coach who works with busy people, I prefer practical approaches that are efficient and save time, while more complex ab training approaches involve loaded carries, planks, rotational movements, breathing exercises and so on.
• 3:31
  Philip Pape: I'll keep things simple yet still effective and share five practical strategies I use with clients for a strong, shredded and functional core.
• 3:40
  Philip Pape: First, we design a nutrition plan for building muscle, unless a client needs to lower their weight and body fat for health reasons.
• 3:47
  Philip Pape: First, with our data-driven approach, clients track calories, macros, trend weight, biofeedback and physique like body circumference measurements and photos to ensure an optimal surplus to build muscle, usually 0.2 to 0.3% of your body weight gained per week.
• 4:05
  Philip Pape: Building muscle requires gaining some weight and we assume 50 to 50 muscle to fat when setting up a surplus to build those abs as fast as possible but minimize fat gain.
• 4:17
  Philip Pape: Second, a solid core requires some heavy lifting, with the primary movement patterns that require maintaining a stable position and bracing the core Think squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press rows and their variations.
• 4:31
  Philip Pape: These are already part of most strength and hypertrophy programs.
• 4:35
  Philip Pape: These movements demand stability, isometric contractions, which develops the trunk musculature, and bracing with the Valsalva maneuver, which creates intra-abdominal pressure that translates to bigger lifts and a well-supported and safer back.
• 4:51
  Philip Pape: Many people have built incredibly strong, aesthetic abs this way.
• 4:56
  Philip Pape: Third, we want to include direct ab training if abs are a priority.
• 5:00
  Philip Pape: There is much confusion here, so let me reiterate two principles.
• 5:04
  Philip Pape: The first is proximity to failure.
• 5:07
  Philip Pape: The abs must be trained close to muscular failure, which is challenging to do without loading against gravity weights or a cable machine with sufficient reps or using intensity techniques like rest pause.
• 5:20
  Philip Pape: The second is progressive overload.
• 5:22
  Philip Pape: Volume must be increased gradually by adding weights, reps or sets over time to continue challenging those abs to adapt and grow.
• 5:30
  Philip Pape: For example, if 12 hanging leg raises are the most you can do, aim for 13 next time.
• 5:36
  Philip Pape: Here are five direct ab exercises we often recommend to clients.
• 5:40
  Philip Pape: You can add rotation to some of these to hit the obliques more directly.
• 5:43
  Philip Pape: Number one hanging leg raises.
• 5:46
  Philip Pape: Lift straight or bent legs from a hanging position.
• 5:50
  Philip Pape: You can use lifting straps or arm slings.
• 5:52
  Philip Pape: Number two decline sit-ups.
• 5:55
  Philip Pape: With your feet secured, perform a sit-up, starting from a decline angle.
• 6:00
  Philip Pape: You can hold a plate for load.
• 6:02
  Philip Pape: Number three inclined bench reverse crunches.
• 6:06
  Philip Pape: Sit on an inclined bench and lift your hips and knees to your chest with your butt fully off the bench.
• 6:12
  Philip Pape: Number four cable ab crunches.
• 6:15
  Philip Pape: Curl your torso to the floor while holding the cable rope attachment behind your head, facing away from the machine or in front facing the machine.
• 6:24
  Philip Pape: And number five ab wheel.
• 6:27
  Philip Pape: Roll out the ab wheel from a kneeling position with some back flexion.
• 6:32
  Philip Pape: Fourth, we want to program these movements into a weekly routine.
• 6:34
  Philip Pape: Aim for 10 to 20 hard sets per week using a combination of the above exercises.
• 6:39
  Philip Pape: Let's say you train three days a week.
• 6:41
  Philip Pape: You could add one exercise at the end for four sets of 10 to 15.
• 6:46
  Philip Pape: That's 12 sets for the week.
• 6:47
  Philip Pape: For greater specialization, do two exercises with a similar set rep scheme to double the volume to 24 sets, since the abs can handle the frequency and recover quickly.
• 6:58
  Philip Pape: Perform these in complementary pairs to hit upper and lower abs.
• 7:03
  Philip Pape: For example, hanging leg raises and decline sit-ups Inclined, reverse crunches and cable crunches, ab wheel and hanging leg raises, etc.
• 7:12
  Philip Pape: Fifth and finally, we're back to nutrition.
• 7:15
  Philip Pape: After you've spent some time in a muscle building phase our clients often run these for at least six months You're ready to drop some fat and reveal those harder and abs.
• 7:23
  Philip Pape: At this point many clients are surprised they can see ab definition at a higher scale weight because of the added muscle mass, which means they don't have to get as lean as someone who only tried to make abs in the kitchen.
• 7:36
  Philip Pape: I recommend bringing body fat down to a lifestyle lean level that you can sustain for months or even years if showing off those abs is a priority, without sacrificing your lifestyle.
• 7:47
  Philip Pape: Those diehards who want to get totally shredded and are willing to make the trade-offs can get there with time, patience and consistency.
• 7:55
  Philip Pape: Fat loss requires a calorie deficit while training hard to preserve muscle.
• 7:59
  Philip Pape: A rate of loss of 0.5 to 0.75% body weight per week is a good balance between time to lose the fat and calories ata reasonable level for consistency.
• 8:11
  Philip Pape: If your maintenance calories are higher, you can push to 1% per week or more for a short two to three week duration and then taper down as your metabolism adapts.
• 8:20
  Philip Pape: Other factors include adequate protein 0.7 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, or higher if going more aggressive, and plenty of movement to maintain high energy flux, combined with sufficient sleep and self-care for the smoothest fat loss phase and ab definition possible.
• 8:38
  Philip Pape: Okay, that was my contribution to Bill's research review for the first study and again, all you have to do is, if you're already on my email list, you are going to get a copy of the March issue for free when I send it out.
• 8:50
  Philip Pape: If you aren't, use the link in my show notes or go to witsandweightscom slash bonus, because this is bonus content that I'm giving only to my email list.
• 9:00
  Philip Pape: Now, if you're listening to this episode and it's maybe a week or more after the episode came out, I may have already sent that to my list.
• 9:09
  Philip Pape: In that case, I just want you to reply to the welcome email that you get from me and say hey, I joined this because I would love to get the Body by Science Research Review issue.
• 9:20
  Philip Pape: Can you please send it to me and I will send it to you?
• 9:22
  Philip Pape: That's it for today's Quick Wits.
• 9:23
  Philip Pape: Tomorrow is a full length episode, a very cool title.
• 9:27
  Philip Pape: It's called how to Lose a Thousand Pounds, and then Thursday we'll be dropping the other Quick Wits about the Fatz vs Karbs Fat Loss Protocol contribution to the other study in Bill's review.
• 9:40
  Philip Pape: As always, stay strong.
• 9:41
  Philip Pape: Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Wits and Weights.
• 9:47
  Philip Pape: If you found value in today's episode and know someone else who's looking to level up their wits or weights, please take a moment to share this episode with them and make sure to hit the follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode.
• 10:02
  Philip Pape: Until then, stay strong.