Let me save you some time, because it took me about three years to figure this out. You can't crunch your way to a six pack. I tried. Hundreds of crunches a night in my bedroom as a teenager, waiting for abs to show up like a parcel I'd ordered.
They never came. Not because crunches don't build muscle, they do a bit. Mine were just buried under a layer of fat that no amount of crunching touches. Everyone already has abs. Whether you can see them is about body fat and nothing else.
The numbers nobody wants to hear
For most guys, abs start showing somewhere around 12 to 14 percent body fat and get sharp around 10. For girls it's roughly 18 to 22. You don't get there with core workouts. You get there by eating slightly less than you burn, for months.
You can't pick where the fat comes off. The stomach is usually last. Annoying, but that's how it works.
The kitchen part. Four habits that did most of the work
Protein first. Around 0.7 to 1 gram per pound of bodyweight a day. It keeps you full and protects your muscle while you're cutting. Every meal I eat starts with the question, where's the protein.
A deficit you can actually keep up. Crash diets gave me two things, lost muscle and rebound weekends that wiped out the whole week. 300 to 500 calories under is slow and boring and it works. You should be losing about half a pound to a pound a week.
No liquid calories. This was my biggest single fix. The sugary coffees and juices were adding 400-odd invisible calories a day. Swapped them for water and black coffee and the deficit basically made itself.
Weekends count. I used to eat clean Monday to Friday and undo it all in 48 hours. Now the weekend follows the same structure. One treat meal I actually enjoy, no cheat days. A cheat meal is a meal. A cheat day is a setback.
The gym part. The only six moves I use
Once the fat is coming off, core work decides whether your abs look flat or actually pop. Don't treat abs differently from any other muscle. They grow from weighted work done progressively, not from 200 fast reps. I train core twice a week, rotating through these:
- Hanging leg raise — 3 sets of 10 to 15. Curl your pelvis up, don't just lift your feet.
- Cable crunch — 3 sets of 12 to 15. Weighted and progressive. The closest thing to a bench press for abs.
- Ab wheel rollout — 3 sets of 8 to 12. Brutal. Start from your knees.
- Weighted plank — 3 sets of 30 to 45 seconds. A plate on your back turns a boring hold back into training.
- Side plank with reach — 2 sets of 30 seconds a side.
- Dead bug — 2 sets of 10 a side. Looks easy. Fixes the arched lower back that ruins everything else.
Pick three a session, add weight or reps over time, done in 15 minutes. The first two are broken down in the exercise library.
What I wish someone had told me
It feels like nothing is happening for months. The scale moves but the mirror doesn't. Then one week the light hits differently and they're just there. Most people quit during the boring middle bit. The people with abs are the ones who didn't.
One more thing and I mean this. If tracking food starts feeling obsessive, or skipping meals starts feeling like winning, step back. No six pack is worth wrecking how you eat. Build the habits, let it take longer than your ego wants.
— Jordan