science and physiology
Jeremy Watts, imm—May 7, 2020
Quick! Pull up that shirt and check out the abs…shoot!…no progress! Now go to the gym and come back. That was a great workout and now check again…what gives? Unfortunately we do not get these abs over night or in a week! We must manipulate our energy systems and regulate our body composition through eating well, and yes, exercise!
For the many who seek your special physique, let’s break it down into two factors that we can focus on for Abs: 1. larger or “toned” muscle, and 2. subcutaneous fat that lies between your skin and muscle. A recent study indicated that various forms of weight loss methods including exercise and dieting led to both subcutaneous and visceral fat reduction, and the loss of subcutaneous fat was greater than visceral fat(1). Basically the type of fat that hides our muscular definition tends to be burned more easily (assuming your muscles are previously metabolically trained)! This is good news as there are proven ways to design specific workouts with an emphasis on resistance exercises that targets muscular strength and endurance to build muscle and reduce subcutaneous fat.
Our metabolism has to do with the condition of our muscles, and has much to do with our physique. After all, resistance training and a healthy diet is a foundation for muscle hypertrophy (increase in size) and this relates to healthy metabolic activity according to Sophie Joanisse and colleagues for the Exercise Metabolic Research Group at McMaster University, Ontario. This includes adhering consistently to a supplemental diet of increased protein intake to accomplish a positive net protein balance (NPB) where muscle protein breakdown and building can happen(2). We can select a wide number of body weight or resistance exercises to group together or independently to target a leaner core. For now lets discuss very basic and common exercises, as well as my personal favorite—The Pull-Up.
Specifically training to handle your bodyweight through abdominal stabilization and rotational exercises is a highly effective approach to becoming leaner with losing fat, while increasing the vascularity and size of our muscles. We basically do this through continuous and sustainable moderate to high-intensity exercises in a workout session with exercises such as a “bicycle maneuver” or “seated abdominal twist” where we are engaging both the abdominals and obliques with weight machines and body weight. These promote greater overall strength for higher intensity training like power-lifting. If we are focusing on our stabilizing muscles for balance and general core strength, I believe pull-ups (or pull-downs for those utilizing cable equipment) are a great exercise for improving strength, and in this case, physique too. This exercise requires strength from large muscles as well as stabilizing muscles to have a controlled rise and reset while performing pull-ups in succession. If we are hanging from a pull-up bar we are using full body weight and gravity as resistance that we must overcome with the contraction of large and small muscles, theoretically increasing the strength of the muscles involved. Over time we can build strength and endurance to better our pull-up performance but also promote a leaner body which results in ABS!
Exercises like pull-ups promote more energy use than those that isolate muscle groups. For example, we want to avoid “swaying” on the bar. This stabilizing effort requires more energy expenditure through an increase in muscular engagement (little muscles that you forget you had). The energy expenditure is crucial for possibly acquiring abs as this increases metabolic demands of the muscles, simultaneously increasing heart rate (HR). If this is continuous it leads to the burning of fat during the workout and improved metabolism later, even when resting! This can occur since exercises like pull-ups are a high intensity exercise that requires strength, power, stability, endurance, and involves a lot of anaerobic energy use. Also the resistance involved increases muscle sizes from the likes of the Lats and Deltoids, to Biceps and Abdominis Rectus. Converting fat to muscle mass leads to an increase in muscle size, tightening the skin surrounding the thoracic area leading to a “toned” or “ripped” appearance.
To summarize, incorporating an exercise routine that directly targets the abdominal and oblique muscles is effective in terms of core strength and improving the health of these muscles. However it could be most effective to practice high-intensity and stablizing exercises like the pull-up, including them in a routine with short breaks or a circuit. By targeting muscles in the thoracic area at a high intensity we promote the appropriate metabolic responses for improved physique in the mid-section. This also improves core strength and overall performance, and potentially has a better affect on metabolism. We become more confident in our abilities and more likely to take physical action. The overall aim is to target muscle size and strength, and also subcutaneous fat through a prolonged fitness routine with the appropriately placed exercises. By improving metabolism we can regulate our body composition, specifically fat. The key to having abs is removing that lining of fat from around our muscles to show muscular definition achieved by healthy and supplemental eating, and a consistent resistance training routine!
Sincerely,
imm
1. Merlotti, C, et al. “Subcutaneous Fat Loss Is Greater than Visceral Fat Loss with Diet and Exercise, Weight-Loss Promoting Drugs and Bariatric Surgery: a Critical Review and Meta-Analysis.” International Journal of Obesity, vol. 41, no. 5, 2017, pp. 672–682., doi:10.1038/ijo.2017.31.
2. Joanisse, Sophie, et al. “Recent Advances in Understanding Resistance Exercise Training-Induced Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy in Humans. F1000Research, vol.9, 2020, p.141., doi:10.12688/f1000research.21588.1