It doesn’t matter whether you have visible abs or not, the strength of your core is not something that can be assessed by how they look in a mirror. In this video, I’m going to show you 5 specific things you can look for that will act as red flags to alert you to an ab weakness that you are going to want to correct. For instance, something as simple as getting off the floor from your back (the right way!) can be challenging if you don’t have strong enough abs. Let’s dive in.
One of the first things you will want to look for is whether you feel your hip flexors fatigue before your abs do when you do any ab exercises. For instance, the ab scissor is one of the classic ab exercises that people of all levels of strength and ability will perform. It involves laying on your back and crossing your legs back and forth over each other for time. When the abs are weak however, the person doing this ab movement will unfortunately feel it in their legs and hip flexors leading to them having to stop because they can’t hold their legs up. Not good.
Instead, you want to make sure the abs are properly engaged by curling your shoulders off the ground before starting the scissor. This will act to engage the abs and stabilize the spine so that the hip flexors can work as assistance muscles and not the primary movers. Having strong abs will only make this easier in the long run.
Next, if you get low back pain during any ab exercises you need to stop and assess your strength. This should not happen. The reason it does however, goes back to the overactivity of the hip flexors. When the psoas pulls unopposed or in a highly imbalanced way, it will act to tug down and forward on the lumbar vertebrae because of its attachment to them. This has the effect of creating enormous amounts of stress and force on the low back which can lead to unnecessary pain.
To fix this you want to assess how you are hooking your feet during certain ab exercises like the sit-up and make sure you instead place the heels over something and pull back. This will engage the hamstrings and help to minimize the overactivity of the hip flexors. Also, by thinking about peeling your back off the floor one vertebra at a time and placing it back down the same way (as if you are rolling paint on the wall) will greatly assist in getting rid of the pain.
Bracing during the big lifts (bench, squats, and deadlifts) is something that is necessary to the proper performance of these exercises. That said, it is something that should be happening automatically almost as a background action. If you find that by consciously trying to brace you don’t just improve the efficiency and bar path of the movement but feel as if you could add significant weight to the bar, then your abs aren’t inherently strong enough to begin with and it is something you are going to want to work on.
The ability to activate the transverse abdominis muscle is crucial as well. This muscle runs horizontally around the waist (much like a weight belt does). When you lack the ability or control to contract it you wind up getting lower abs that tend to protrude despite the fact that they could even be ripped and defined. Learning how to activate this muscle is critical to having strong abs.
Finally, control in all three planes of motion is also crucial. I show you three tests that you can do to identify your ab strength in each. To boot, I show you how the simple act of getting off the floor the right way depends on having good core and ab strength. See if you can do it yourself and share it with your friends to see how they do.
For a step by step workout and nutrition plan to not only get your abs showing year round but make sure they are strong enough to do anything you want to do with them, be sure to click the link below and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. See how training like an athlete can get you looking and feeling like one in no time with me coaching you every step of the way.
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3:50 JAJAJAJA LE HIZO SONAR LA ESPALDA LPM
Extremely helpful, thank you!
😭
I cant hold the cliffhanger plank and I have anterior pelvic tilt. How do I fix this? What should I change? I work out my abs regularly, I used to do it wrong which is why I have tight hip flexors. Now Ive been doing it correctly, keeping my lower back to the ground at all times but it hasnt really done anything to fix the issue, although now I can feel my abs contracting a lot better during the exercise and likely have gotten a lot stronger there. I just dont know how to work around this specific weakness, what do I do?
Thanks so much for this video!
Me watching this and knowing all five apply😫😢😭
When i'm tooooo weak can't even do one of his corretive moves!😔
Very helpful thank you. I have had L5 S1 herniation and they have told me in the early days that I had weak abs. I was told to do curling exercises. My question is what causes this weak posture in the first place?
@2:45 When you are at the doctors, shirt off, and you don't really know what to do with your arms, or where to look…
Well sir my abs must be weak but no back pain and feeling great.
Thank you Jeff! This is among the most useful videos on the subject of abs. Jeff’s knowledge of his subject is nothing short of a mastery! He deserves to be called ‘Dr Jeff’!
I maxxed out my military sit up test, but my hanging leg raises are crap. Reason being that my feet were held down and I smashed back to the floor each rep, relying entirely on the hip flexors. Sit ups aren't an ab exercise unless you do them correctly.
Jeff…. Red flags everywhere
6:42 that's for me
Master of the human body.
Yeah, I never use my hands to stand up
So finally planks are not that bad
Any recommendation on how to do exercise at 10:14 without the use of gym machines?
Knew I was doing something wrong; thanks, Jeff!
Jeff, great video. Love your free videos and love the paid plan – affordable and really great.
Thank you 🙏
Carry HALF my body weight on a dumbell?????
I need to hire jeff – damn
Didn’t understand #3, asking for a friend.
Scissor kicks aka teste pullers
Did Jeff just twerk in the beginning of this video?
Yo can someone give me and pointers or tips to shut the fuckin hip flexors down. No matter what i do I only fatigue those stupid pieces of shit…
The hardest no homo vibes ever lol
me: looses hope, not my ugly fat
Summary: Your very existence means you have weak abs!
Less go I've been working on my abs since 13 years of age I'm 14 rn and my abs are pretty defined almost fully 8 abs but yes I passed all of them yay!
Jeff knows me well. I have all those symptoms.
Ok ok Jeff I will stop allowing my abs to be weak, sorry 😱
I have been excercising for 2 years now. I have ALL the red flags.
shit!
what do I do now?
Everytime I start to think I'm totally straight I see Jesse in these videos and am forced to accept that in at least some cases I am a genuine switch-hitter.
My problem with sit-ups is that I have "raised/elevated spine" (I couldn't find a proper English name for it), basically, my spine is visible along its entire length even when I stand straight and when I arch my back even slightly, then significantly "raises/elevates" above the rest of my back (and I'm definitely not super skinny) and so it's extremely painful to lay on something like the floor or even gym mat.
8:26 Half our body weight?!
I even get a cramp in my abs when i start laughing…Red Flag?
That extension plank is brilliant, going to implement it into my routine.
Tip 4 was brilliant
I have all of the flags and anterior pelvic tilt and also started getting fatter. Damn have I fallen in my fitness journey
He make it look so easy
Thank you
so how do you build your abs if your back hurts from them?
Heres how to tell if your abs are weak: we've designed 3 tests that NFL wide receivers must pass in order to play.
Jeff was ahead of everyone on this trend
"2nd test, get a dumbell about half your bodyweight" – like I'm gonna single handed lift a 42kg dumbell… maybe in 2023, or maybe in my dreams x.x
I needed this Jeff, great one!
Jesse totally looks like Jake Gyllenhaal.