3 Reasons your Abs aren’t showing

Man with 6 pack

You train hard. You do hundreds of sit-ups. But no matter what you do, you are never able to achieve well defined and visible abdominal muscles.


Wondering what you are doing wrong? Here are 3 common reasons why you can’t see your abs and what you can do to change it.


#1 – Too Much body Fat



No matter how many sit-ups, leg raises, or crunches you do, if you have too much fat in your abdominal area, your abs will not be visible. Everyone has ab muscles, but only those with a low body fat percentage will have a visible, well-defined 6-pack.


Training a specific body part does not burn fat in that specific area. The only way to get rid of the fat covering your abdominal muscles is by doing cardio, following a proper diet, and training hard.


To lose body fat you need to consume fewer calories in a day than what your body burns. It is simple science, if your body needs 3000 calories a day to maintain its current weight and you consume 2500 calories a day, you will lose weight. Following a calorie deficit diet and exercising is all that is needed to burn fat.


To figure out how many calories you need to consume for weight loss you can use this calculator.


#2 – You Aren’t Training Your Abs Correctly



If you have minimal body fat and your abs still aren’t showing, you may not be doing the correct abdominal exercises. The abdominals consist of 4 different muscles. The External abdominal obliques, the internal abdominal obliques, the rectus abdominis and the transversus abdominis. The rectus abdominis muscles are your “6-pack muscles”. You need to concentrate on making these muscles thicker if you want to have a visible 6-pack.


Instead of doing hundreds of sit-ups you should treat your ab muscles like any other muscle group that you are trying to build. Stop training your abs every day, train them twice a week and use weights. When trying to build a bigger chest, you don’t do hundreds of reps on the bench press every day, so why should abs be any different?


An example of an ab workout:

Weighted crunches: 4 sets of 8 – 12 reps

Weighted leg raises: 4 sets of 8 – 12 reps


#3 – You’re Not Consistent



A 6-pack is not achieved overnight. If it were that simple then everyone would be walking around with a chiseled set of abs. Consistency is key. You need to stick to your training routine and diet. Abdominal fat is usually the last bit of fat to come off, so do not give up after a few weeks of dieting because you have not noticed any fat loss around your abdominal area. It takes time, but if you stick to your diet and training routine, you will start seeing results.