Do This Daily For Tighter Abs!

I'm going to share with you an abdominal workout routine that I've been doing every single day after my full body workouts to help me make my core more defined, and make the lines in-between my abs stick out even more whether I'm flexing or not flexing.

I have to tell you, with this workout, if you don't do any core specific work, especially where you're able to target the transverse abdominis, this will help you to actually get a smaller waist as well. I've talked about exercises like this in the past, and I'm going to reference one in the workout which is the stomach vacuum. The stomach vacuum in itself can help you basically reshape your core by strengthening your transverse abdominis which is going to help hold everything in nice and tight.

Chasing The Classic Physique

As you may know, I'm currently developing a full body routine, and what I'm wanting to do as well is to get my core as tight as possible. I really want to go for that classic physique pose where you do a front double biceps, and you're able to suck in and flex your abs to get that nice vacuum look.

But in order to do that, you have to do more than just a traditional stomach vacuum. So this is the exact workout I'm doing every single week, to help reshape my core and get that classic physique pose. However, before we jump into the routine, there is one other thing I'm doing every single day whether I'm going to the gym or not, and that's 300 floor crunches, and I'm doing them on an ab mat to make sure I'm getting a full stretch at the bottom of the movement, and to make the crunches a bit more intense.

It takes me about 10-15 minutes to go through all 300 crunches (and I normally do them when I wake up as I'm watching something like the news). If you don't have an ab mat at home, you can put a pillow down behind your lower back to complete these repetitions. The reason why I'm doing 300 at home is because with my full body workout routine, I don't have as many ab focused days, so I'm doing the crunches to make up for that. So you can continue your specific ab work that you're already doing in the gym, or you can start doing these 300 crunches at home!

Exercise #1: Stomach Vacuum (10 Sets)

If you haven't seen my how to video for stomach vacuums yet, you can check it out below. This video will give you different variations depending on whether you're a beginner or advanced when it comes to core control.

All you're going to do for this is 10 sets of sucking in your stomach as much as you can, and remember when you're pulling your stomach in, you have to breathe all the air out of your system. So take in a deep breath, breathe all the air out, suck your stomach in, and then hold it for as long as you can. For the majority of you, this is going to be somewhere between 10-15 seconds, then as soon as you have to reset your breath, you're obviously going to take in a breath (so you don't suffocate!), and then that completes 1 set. Once you have caught your breath, you're going to repeat this 10 times in total.

Exercise #2: Stomach Vacuum Pull-Over (10 Sets)

To do this movement, you're going to have to find a bosu ball or something you can use so that when you're performing the exercise, you can get a nice arch in your back. You're then going to grab a light dumbbell (probably anywhere from 20lbs – 30lbs). This isn't an actual pull-over where you're trying to work your chest or back, you're simply using the weight so that as you lift your arms over your body, it's going to help you STRETCH your rectus abdominis as much as you can while also trying to stomach vacuum at the same time.

That means that as soon as you start bringing that dumbbell over your head, you have to breathe all the air out of your system, start sucking in that core, and stomach vacuum as you lower the dumbbell behind you. You're probably only going to be able to hold this pose for anywhere between 6 – 12 seconds, and as soon as you run out of time and you have to reset your breath, just bring your dumbbell back over your head, reset your breath, and do this for a total of 10 sets as well. Holding it for as long as you can is what counts as 1 set on this exercise.

The reason for this movement is because I quickly started to notice that just doing the traditional stomach vacuum, it wasn't really helping me pull my stomach in as much as I possibly could. So what this exercise is going to do is it's actually going to help STRETCH your rectus abdominis. While it might look like I'm increasing the size of my rib cage, that's not what's happening here, because you can't actually stretch your rib cage. But what you are doing is stretching your rectus abdominis, which overtime will allow you to suck that stomach vacuum in deeper and deeper.

Exercise #3: Stomach Vacuum Pump (10 Sets)

This is actually one of my favorite things to do now that I'm getting pretty good at it. Basically what you're going to have to do, or at least how I like to perform this movement, is I bend a little at the waist, then hold onto a barbell or a pole or something sturdy. This is going to allow me to get as much pressure/flexing out of my core as possible, so I can focus 100% on breathing all the air out of my system, and then sucking in my stomach as hard as I can. Just like with a traditional stomach vacuum, like we covered in exercise 1, you're going to suck that stomach in as much as you can, but the difference is while you still have no breath in your system, you're going to start pumping your stomach forward and backward.

It's almost like you want to feel the rectus abdominis, and I know that might feel strange to many people, because you might not have done this before, but as you start to do it and get good at it, you can actually start to feel the rectus abdominis going in and going out. You can even feel the right side of your abs and the left side of your abs connecting and separating as you pump your stomach.

I'm telling you, if you start doing these exercises you're going to reshape your core and be able to do one of the best vacuum poses. When you do that front double biceps flex and suck your stomach in and flex your stomach, it's going to look phenomenal, and you'll have that kind of classic physique pose. With this exercise, you're going to pump your stomach as many times as you can, then as soon as you have to reset your breath, that counts as 1 set, and you're going to perform 10 sets of this exercise.

As soon as you complete 10 sets of the stomach pump, that completes the ab workout. Remember, do this at the end of EVERY SINGLE WORKOUT. That should be about 4 – 5 days a week, and within 2 – 3 weeks you will see some drastic changes in your core, as you now have more control over the muscles in that area. And then when you flex your core, or do a front double biceps pose, or even when you're just standing in general and looking in the mirror, you will start to see the lines become more defined in your abs, more separation, and like I said, more overall core control.

Conclusion

You're working muscles you don't normally work doing standard crunches. Most people don't work the transverse abdominis, which is why you see the guts that kind of hang out, even though you might be full of muscle. You don't want that look, because that's not how we roll, we want to keep breaking that natty limit, and stuff like this is what's going to help us!