Why is everyone so obsessed with abdominals these days? Everywhere you go people are having ab-athons at the gym or flexing their blocks on Instagram. The biggest trick to showing off your abs getting is having an ideal body fat percentage. Not to say working your core and abs aren’t required, but all those exercises will be fruitless unless your body fat is within a certain range. Those big bulky guys with perfect abs, it’s quite possible they are using banned substances. View picture above for example!
Building more muscle boots your ability to burn fat but it’s a rather small muscle group. You’ll burn much more belly fat working your legs than you will your stomach. All that hard work only pays off if your belly fat isn’t covering them. The industry standard in bodybuilding is to have between 6-10% body fat to show off quality abs. To top it off, all you need is about 20 minutes of working core and abs a week to get that nice toned physique you’re looking for.
Here are a few easy core/ab exercises to live by:
Ab rollouts: Great core exercise, primarily hits the lower quadrant. Be careful not to extend your back too far when you roll out as it can place a lot of unwanted strain to a sensitive area of your body.
Oblique crunches: Do a full crunch first and then twist elbow to opposite knee at the top, only twisting to one side per rep alternating sides. DO NOT twist as you’re going up, this is the most common mistake I see at the gym. ONLY twist at the top. This will ensure that you’re keeping tension on the right muscles as opposed to straining your back. Try one and see the difference it makes!
Plank: I suppose it’s a little cliche to throw planks in there but this is a great core exercise that will help improve your posture. It primarily focuses on the abdominals, back, and shoulders, but this exercise extends to every muscle in your body! In 2015, a man broke the world record by holding a plank for 4 hours and 28 minutes. Not bad! 
For more tips on how to get those crazy abs then keep following our blog or like us on Facebook. You can also check out this post on how to get in a great summer workout in Toronto. Our 2-month challenge ends in May and we will be posting some before and after pictures! If you would like to take part then just drop us a line.