How to Get Toned Abs

Are you tired of doing endless crunches with zero results? 

In this episode, we’re breaking down the real truth about getting visible ab definition—and it has nothing to do with starving yourself or living in the gym. 

Discover how to  structure your training for a deep, strong core. 

We cover the 1% nutrition tweaks that reveal your muscles.

Why protein is your best friend?

How to build a sustainable, toned midsection without burnout. 

*****Stop chasing gimmicks and start building real strength!

00:00 Welcome and Host Intro

00:26 Cold Weather and Travel Plans

01:23 Pilates Class Question

02:03 What Toned Abs Mean

03:27 Strength Training for Abs

05:32 Hypertrophy and Core Moves

07:11 Diet for Ab Definition

08:41 Emily's Low Weight Question

10:13 Body Recomp and Protein

10:58 Wrap Up and Subscribe

🌟 🌟 🌟 If you liked this episode and would like to learn more about wellness training and workshops offered by 9 to 5 Wellness, email us at info@aeshathair.com. You can learn more about our programs at:  https://toneandstrengthen.com/workshops-trainings/. 🌟 🌟 🌟

My passion is helping organizations create a culture of wellness, and I do this by setting up health programs that prioritize the most important asset they've got – their employees. Cheers to a healthier and happier journey ahead!

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Transcript

 Welcome to the Nine to Five Wellness Podcast, a show about corporate wellness solutions with innovators and forward-thinking leaders who are at the forefront of the workplace wellness movement. I'm your host, Aisha Tahir. 

Hello friends, how are you? I am doing good, but I'm cold. I'm recording this episode on Wednesday, April 8th, and it's cold here in Pennsylvania. It was below freezing this morning and it's almost mid-April. That's insane. I'm glad I got some sunshine last week in Florida. I'm back, and this weekend I'll be in San Diego for a conference. I'm heading to San Diego to attend obesity medicine conference. I have a lot of friends who are coming in to attend the conference, so I'm really looking forward to catching up with them and some good old networking. So I'm excited about that. I'm also gonna go visit my family, after the conference, so that's pretty exciting too. 

Today's episode is based on a question that I got in my Pilates class this morning. Wednesday mornings, I teach a corporate Pilates class. At the start of the class, I always ask the participants if you have any requests. So today a class participant asked me if I could include exercises that would help her get toned abdominal muscles. She said, I can see the difference in definition everywhere else in my body with this class. Especially my legs are getting toned, my arms are getting toned, but I don't see much difference in my core muscles. So I figured I'll answer this question here on the podcast. 

First, let's just understand what toned abs are, those nice lines and those six packs that you see are actually defined muscles . Sculpting a toned stomach is about revealing existing muscles that you have. consist of these four muscles. Upper rectus abdominis, lower rectus abdominis, obliques, and transverses abdominis. Now, transverses abdominis is a very deep core muscle. You normally won't see it visible, but it is important to strengthen your transverses abdominis because it's your primary stabilizing muscle. So it stabilizes your whole body, especially your spine, and it's stabilizes your movements. 

So it's important to target that with your exercises too. Pilates exercises are great at strengthening your transverses adom, so in order to have toned abdominal muscles or defined core muscles, there are a few tricks that aren't commonly shared, and those tricks will get you there fast. 

So today I'm sharing those tricks right here on this podcast episode. First up, to make your muscles pop, you need to do strength workouts. While isolating parts is good for hypertrophy, integrating compound movements like squats and deadlifts to train the abdominal wall as a functional unit is much better for the stabilization and is better than the isolated AB workouts. 

You really need to work out and tone everything around your abdominal area. So this includes your obliques, lower back muscles, your chest, and your glutes. All these muscles work together to keep everything firm and in place. Now for compound workouts, three weights are the best way to tone your midsection. I'm talking about dumbbells, barbells, and kettlebells. Body weight workouts are great too. I just feel like there's a limitation with body weight workouts where you can't have that progressive overload that you should be having. as you progress through the workouts, I feel like that you can't easily have that progressive overload with body weight workouts. 

Another mistake that I see a lot of people making is that they primarily rely on machines. A lot of my patients and clients come to me and they mention that their workouts primarily are on machines like pulley machines or machines like leg press machine. All those machines that you see in a big box gym. It's a big misconception that machines can help you build stronger core machines that target muscles are good just for that targeting muscles so they can help you achieve muscle definition in that particular muscle group. That's all they do. Three weights are where it's at for toning everything, including your abdominal muscles. Here are a few tips based on exercise physiology principles for abdominal muscle growth. Include hypertrophy training at least three days a week in your routine. To make muscles larger and more visible, try training in a 10 to 20 rep range, which is heavy volume with a moderate load. 

Remember to progress the load, increasing the difficulty of exercises over time by adding weight. Train the abs for their primary functions like spinal flexion with crunches, lateral flexion with side planks and bends and rotation with bicycle crunches and Russian twists. Also, remember to perform your AB exercises in a slow and controlled fashion. Perform exercises slowly to increase time and retention and avoid using momentum, which reduces muscle engagement. Some of my go-to targeted exercises for abdominal toning are weighted crunches, sit-ups, these are important for upper rectus abdominis, hanging leg raises and reverse crunches, which target lower rectus abdominis, bicycle crunches, cable rotations, and side planks or obliques. And forearm planks, dead bugs and ab roller push outs are great for transverse abdominus. 

The second principle for abdominal visibility is your diet. Abs are truly built in kitchen. Your abdominal definition is highly dependent on body fat levels.

 A caloric deficit may be necessary to reveal muscle growth depending on your BMI and body composition, but here are a few things that can apply to anyone who's looking to get more toned abs. Stay away from simple carbohydrates. Especially if you're a woman. I know we crave carbs as we go through our menstrual cycle because as estrogen and progesterone fluctuate, which are primary female hormones, they lead to carbohydrate cravings. And I'm totally with you because it is a huge struggle. But try to stay away from sugary foods, rely on vegetables and fruits, and eat plenty of protein. Focus on maintaining balanced diet that fuels your body. Crash diets or extreme caloric restriction won't help to reduce body fat, make small sustainable changes to your diet, and incorporate regular exercise. 

Cardio burns calories while strength training builds muscle. So make sure that you include both. That can help you boost your metabolism and burn more calories at rest. 

I also want to address another question, which is very much related to this one, and I received this question on Instagram from Emily. Emily is asking, everyone says You just need low body fat for your abs to show. I'm around a hundred pounds and I am five one, but my abs don't have that nice toned look. I don't want to lose more weight, but I want my stomach to look better, any tips will be helpful, emily, first of all, thanks for asking the question. Now, there are a few things that you can do to dial in your exercise and nutrition so that your ABS will show if you're already at a low weight, which you are doing some ab workouts a couple of times a week. 

And I'd say include some of the exercises that I mentioned earlier in this episode into your workout routine, and you'll see a lot of results within a few weeks. And make sure that you have at least two 30 minute steady state cardio sessions in your weekly routine. Like brisk walks, runs, or a stationary bike workout. Steady state cardio workouts are the workouts that are performed in your aerobic zone, which means you're using oxygen as fuel. So those are lower intensity workouts in which you can maintain a conversation. 

Emily, another important factor that you might want to consider is changing your body composition, which means losing body fat and gaining muscle. You might be at a really low body weight, and still have a high body fat percentage since fat weighs more than muscle. If you want to get really toned, you'll have to put some muscle on, which is great for your health anyways. You can do that by going to the gym and by including regular strength training into your routine and upping your protein intake. For someone, for someone with your physique, I'd say go for a daily protein intake between 85 grams to 110 grams per day. 

So friends. Here you have it. Getting toned abdominal muscles requires a combination of reducing overall body fat, building more muscle with compound lifts, and strengthening the core muscles with targeted exercises twice a week. 

I hope you enjoyed this episode. Make sure you subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Wherever you hang more often would be great. Thanks for listening to this episode. Talk soon. Bye. 

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