Train Like an Athlete by ATHLEAN-X (Video Podcast)

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The key to getting visibly defined abs is to be able to willfully contract your abdominal muscles as strong as possible at a moments notice and definitely when you train them. In this video, I’m going to show you two fast techniques that you can use in your ab workouts that will allow you to increase the strength of your ab contraction more than you have ever felt before. By doing this in the ab exercises that allow for it or even as a simple activation drill before your ab workouts, you’ll start to see much sharper ab muscles in no time.

Of course, as with any ab focused technique the success of whether it is working for you is going to hinge on your ability to get your nutrition in check as well. Because this is a “feel” tip, you will be able to feel the difference between what it is like to get this right and wrong. However, in order to be able to see the differences in your abs, you’ll definitely have to strip down those body fat levels to about 10 percent or less to really reap the rewards. That is ok though, I’m happy to show you how to do that as well.

Back to the ab contraction technique however, the root of the effectiveness of this technique is that it strengthens the mind muscle connection between you and your abs. If you cannot connect with a muscle you simply cannot develop it to its maximum potential. This is particularly common in the abs. Many of us can’t get a strong enough contraction to get the ab muscles to respond to our training efforts. I have used a quick test in the past. I asked you to flex your stomach area and see if you could contract it so hard that it actually became uncomfortable.

If you are not able to do that, then you definitely need this advice. Beyond that however, it always helps to have a feedback mechanism for even the most advanced lifters so we could be sure that we were getting it right every time. With just two drills and a mirror, you will see how easy it is to be sure that you are not just getting the strong contraction but you are maintaining it.

The first thing you want to do is be sure that you are able to activate the transverse abdominis muscle. Seems weird that we would be focusing on a muscle other than our abs to increase the strength of contraction in our abs right? Not really. The essence of the success of this is that a muscle that pulls on a common bone is going to be able to do so more strongly if the other muscles that are attached are tense and holding that bone more stable.

The transverse is a muscle that wraps around your midsection like a corset. When it is tightened, the pelvis is more stable and you can contract the rectus much more strongly because of this. The sequence of the contraction is important as well. Start by flattening out the lower abs with the contraction of the transverse. From here, you can now contract the abs. You should feel a much stronger contraction than ever before. Be sure to build up to the transverse contraction slowly, ideally over 5 seconds or so. The feeling should be as if you just entered into a pool of unexpectedly freezing cold water.

The next thing you can try is even cooler and easier to make a connection to. This time we are going to initiate the strength of the contraction from below. Cross your legs and squeeze your knees together to activate the adductor muscles in your legs. These muscles act to stabilize the pelvis from the bottom up. Once squeezed, you can now contract your abs again and you will totally feel the increase in the strength of the contraction on your abdominals.

If you want to get really fancy, you can try to combine these two tips into one powerful