You look in the mirror and fail to see what you want: six symmetrical mounds of contractile tissue bisected by a narrow strip of fat-free skin. So you do lots of ab exercises, like crunches and situps and anything else that feels like it hits those muscles directly.
This approach to training abs seems to make sense. If you want bigger biceps, after all, you do biceps curls. But for 99 percent of us, the goal isn’t to make our midsections bigger. We want to shrink our waists, so we need a different method. As Shawn Phillips, who’s been building his ripped midsection for nearly four decades, puts it, “Training your abs to get a six-pack is like typing to become a celebrated author.”
Translation: Abs are less a result of targeted training and more a byproduct of working hard to get lean while building muscle.
Here, four things to keep in mind if you want to carve a better six-pack.
Related: WATCH: Get Six Pack Abs By Doing This Killer Fat Burning Cardio Workout