Video summary
Exercise scientist Mike Israetel addresses a common misconception regarding abdominal muscles, clarifying that they are present in almost every human except those who have suffered tragic accidents or specific medical conditions. The primary barrier to visible abs is not a lack of muscle development but rather an excessive layer of subcutaneous fat covering them. This leads to the fundamental rule in bodybuilding: "abs are made in the kitchen, not the weight room." Israetel emphasizes that while resistance training and cardio play roles in overall fitness, achieving visibility requires imposing a caloric deficit through moderate activity and dieting until body fat drops low enough for the muscles to show. He firmly dispels the myth that specific exercises or dietary supplements can reveal abs on individuals with high levels of body fat; without significant leanness, no amount of training will make them visible. When it comes to developing the actual muscle tissue itself, Israetel argues that ab training follows the same hypertrophy principles used for any other large muscle group like biceps or shoulders. To build thick, meaty abs suitable for competition, one should train them two to four times a week with multiple sets taken close to failure using full range of motion and progressive overload. He specifically recommends exercises like the ab wheel rollout, which places significant tension on the abs at long lengths, noting that isometric work alone is generally less effective for growth. However, he also points out that core bracing during compound lifts like squats contributes significantly to abdominal conditioning; performing heavy sets with proper form essentially amounts to hours of incidental ab training per week without needing dedicated isolation exercises every session. A critical nuance in Israetel's advice concerns the timing and purpose of ab work relative to body composition goals. He suggests that if an individual plans to get lean for a specific event, such as a physique show or contest preparation, they should begin direct ab training well before the final fat-loss phase—perhaps starting twelve weeks prior rather than just during it. Training abs early allows them to grow and thicken while in maintenance calories so that when the athlete eventually cuts down their body fat percentage for visibility, the muscles are already substantial enough to look impressive once revealed. Conversely, if one trains abs exclusively during a cutting phase without having built significant mass beforehand, they may see only minor definition rather than truly thick musculature upon reaching low body fat levels. The transcript also touches on individual genetic variations and aesthetic preferences regarding abdominal appearance. Israetel notes that some people naturally possess what he jokingly calls "ravioli abs," where the muscles are visible even at higher body fat percentages due to genetics, while others might develop a slight protrusion or "pooch" look if they train heavily for size without getting lean enough first. He acknowledges that having defined abs with a small waist is universally considered attractive and can be particularly appealing within certain communities like Hairy Bear culture among gay men. For those transitioning from bodybuilding to other sports, such as Jiu-Jitsu, Israetel admits he will eventually start training his abs not for aesthetics but to strengthen the anterior chain required for grappling performance, highlighting that functional strength often supersedes purely cosmetic goals in different contexts. Ultimately, the discussion concludes with a realistic assessment of how much direct ab work actually impacts visibility versus body fat percentage. While consistent training over years can yield dramatic differences, Israetel warns against expecting to see abs at 22% body fat regardless of muscle size; realistically, one might need to be within about three percent or less of that threshold for significant visual changes. He encourages listeners not to waste recovery energy obsessing over ab isolation exercises if their current definition is sufficient for their goals, such as contest preparation where leanness will do the heavy lifting. Instead, focusing on conventional resistance training approaches and maintaining a consistent caloric deficit remains the most efficient path to revealing whatever abdominal potential one possesses naturally.
Read the full video transcript
ABS how do people get abs it's something
you download at the the Google Play
Store oh
ABS I wouldn't know anything about that
no personal experience next
question abs are one of those 8020
things but in this case it's bike
955 every single human has abdominal
muscles except for people that are
involved in tragic accidents or
something like that
and almost always and almost everywhere
the reason you can't see yours is
because your layer of fat on top of them
is too much and there's this term from
bodybuilding that's really great it's
abs are made in the kitchen not the
weight room and not on the cardio
machine and it's [ __ ] true if you
just impose a caloric deficit through
moderate activity good resistance
training you can train your abs or you
cannot it doesn't really matter and your
body fat windows down to a small amount
you're going to have whatever kind of
ABS you have shaped down there many
people have six packs some even have
eight packs I have like a two and a half
pack or some [ __ ] like that oh God but
it's almost all that calorie deficit
just straight up getting lean I would
love to dispel a mega
myth people who have a high level of
body fat who want to find out how to do
some exercise or eat some food that's
going to give them ABS they ain't
nothing for you it doesn't exist it's
just the layer of fat that's keeping us
from seeing your abs now
if you do get lean enough and find that
instead of those like you know like hunk
romance novel ABS where the woman's like
grating her face on the guy's abs and he
is like a unicorn or whatever I don't
read too many romance novels you've been
featured on a few covers haven't you
yeah against your will still in a
copyright dispute nasty legal
battle you may find that instead of
having those ravioli ABS you have just
kind of like semblance of ABS but
they're real flat the cool thing about
that is you have a really small waist
which is sweet aesthetically universally
considered
attractive near universally there's a
community of gay folks that are in the
hairy bear culture that if you have a
gut with abs you're the [ __ ] now
we're talking about your Market yes yes
bow to your leader folks When I grow my
hair out I can't go around the gay club
cuz I just get just pulled in y in any
case um it's cool it's a cool look to
have just kind of like no crazy crazy
ABS but some people are like damn it I
wanted abs abs for those folks training
ABS works exactly the same way as any
other hypertrophy training we covered
that in the last video two to four times
a week training multiple sets close to
failure full range of motion Big Stretch
increasing loads and Reps over time the
same the planks the superm all that
[ __ ] the twists it does stuff but if
you want big ABS you just go about it
like you would get Big C Abes big
forearms big shoulders big anything
consistent resistance training that's
the way to get it and then don't just
train ABS during your fat loss plan if
in a year from now you want thick ABS
start training them now the last 12
weeks of that year you're going to die
away the fat then your abs will be
eating good they'll get real thick and
then they're going to reveal themselves
as meaty but if you just train ABS
during the fat loss phase they'll grow a
little bit because they're new to the
[ __ ] but it's not going to be super
impressive does training ABS make them
more visible at higher body fat
percentages yeah yeah for sure that
seems good that seems like a reason to
train them if you're interested in being
at a high body fat percentage a higher
body fat percentage kidding I'm being a
dick totally um but it also gives you
like more of a pooch kind of look which
you may or may not be into um it's a
concern for folks that are is no offense
meant on kind of the smaller side of
things for them maybe that's a cool
thing for folks that train with weights
at your level below your level quite a
bit through your level and
above the compound exercises and kind of
stuff makes your abs so godamn big to
begin with it's like a a drop in the
puddle for extra app training like right
now I have ravioli ABS I have abs right
now if I'm relaxed and I have like I
just genetically have like a gut my gut
has [ __ ] abs I have a six-pack when
I'm relaxed now with the veins in it and
so people are like what do you do for
abs I'm like I don't train ABS they're
like not no absolutely not when I
transition away from bodybuilding in a
few years to try and become really
really good at Jiu-Jitsu good for my
purposes not anyone else's I suck in
general I'm going to start training ABS
not for the purpose of having ABS but
for the purpose of developing a much
stronger anterior chain the ability to
do this cuz jiujitsu that's a big deal
yeah yeah then I'm going to be training
ABS but for now abs are just a waste of
time for me because they're absolutely
big enough for contest bodybuilding
which is my current Pursuit and I would
just be wasting Literal time and recover
ener on trainings I suppose just to try
and sort of speak for the lay person you
are youve got what four shows this year
four or five shows the plan is to do
about four shows okay so you have four
individual days this year with which
you're going to be very very lean and
your abs will be
displayed unbelievably well given the
low full of body fat I'm going to guess
that most people like the idea I know
that for most of my 20s what I wanted
was to have abs I didn't care about
being lean I don't hold that much weight
in my face I look sort of relatively
lean in my arms in any case so it didn't
really matter it's like I wanted ABS so
if training ABS allows me to have abs
visible ABS at a slightly higher body
fat percentage I achieve my leanness
goal which was visible abs without
having to diet myself down quite so hard
brilliant I'm going to say right now
first of all that works and I encourage
people to do it second of all they
should do it conventional resistance
training
approaches uh exercises that work full
range of motion lengthened exercises for
example one of the best ab exercises and
there's tons of them is the ab wheel the
rollout [ __ ] brutal and it really
tenses your abs at long lengths which
grows them like crazy isometric work for
the ABS generally isn't that great so I
would say if you want that train ABS
train them two to four times a week
essentially train them right don't train
them as a special group cu people say
about like how do I get my biceps bigger
like how do I get my abs bigger like
same [ __ ] [ __ ] but lastly what I
would say is the effect on how visible
your abs are versus your body fat is
very small so you're not going to see
your abs at 22% body fat I don't give a
[ __ ] how big they are realistically they
just don't get that big one two maybe 3%
body fat difference could there be a
visual difference there yeah potentially
but you need years of training your abs
to get to that kind of look understood
it's the first time that I've trained as
consistently as I have over the last so
far this year like 5 months um and not
done any direct Ad work and also not to
be honest been tracking calories all
that much although I've been on like a
hardcore [ __ ] fod map C SEO thing so
that's kind of just been built in Auto
diet yeah precisely just boring diet uh
but for the I always presumed that um
lower ab vascularity like waistband
vascularity was something that came
about due to the dieting that I was
doing and the ab work that I was doing
like I'm adamant that that's the case
right now I've got a [ __ ] ton of lower
ab vascularity and I'm like I'm not
dieting that hard my weight's dropped a
little bit but it's not dropped that
much where the [ __ ] is this coming from
and I like oh I've been training legs
like very aggressively with quite amount
quite a long uh Ecentric pause on
everything for five months uh and I
think that that kind of shows at least
as an N of one sure what you were saying
you're bearing down to keep the inter
abnormal pressure that's a lot of ab
work right there and it adds up any one
squat or set of squats is not that much
ABW work it's an isometric it's like a
Superman hold it's kind of a [ __ ]
waste of time but if you do that bracing
for almost every exercise five times
that you go to the gym you're training
abs for like five hours every week and
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