If you woke up every morning to Tony Horton’s “Ab-Ripper X” DVD, you’re probably not going to get the “abs” you want.
Because here’s the truth: everyone has abs. You don’t “get” them by doing crunches and sit-ups. That’s like an obese individual saying she wants better biceps, so she resorts to only doing dumbbell curls for 10-minutes in the morning.
What needs to happen is fat-loss. The leaner you are, the more defined you become. So, “Ab-Ripper-X” can help with your abs eventually appearing behind the 1-pack cooler of fat, but it’s not because you are doing twists and leg pumps in sets of 25. Rather, it’s that you’re simply moving and burning fat.
However…
However, I don’t want to confuse you that the muscles in the abs can’t be strengthened or enlarged–they certainly can be. But, they generally don’t become apparent until a male has reached (around) 12% body fat and a female (around) 20%.
Take Eddie Hall for example, 2017’s World’s Strongest Man.
In the picture on the left, he weighed in at 435-lbs. He also deadlifted over 1000-lbs. This was the year he won World’s Strongest Man.
He then dropped 80-lbs after being crowned strongest on earth and now looks like the guy on the right–weighing in at 355-lbs.
It wasn’t the crunches and sit-ups that got him the abs; he always had them. He simply just lost the fat.
Midline Progressions
But today’s blog is about giving you progressions for the sit-up. You should do these in your pursuit of fitness because they are functional and necessary for everyday life. But I felt the need to encourage you to stop chasing the 6-pack look. Simply because the fitter you are, the better your abs will look.
Chase fitness, not abs.
- Tuck Hollow Body
- Ab-Mat Sit-Up
- Knee Raises
- Weighted Sit-Up
- Hollow Rock
- Tuck Crunch
- Kipping Toes-to-Bar
- V-Ups
- GHD Sit-Up
- Strict Toes-to-Bar
Tyler
WOD
“Annie”
For Time:
50-40-30-20-10 Reps of…
Double-Unders
Sit-Ups (you choose the variation)