It was the summer of 1998. I was 12 years old at the time and a frequent visitor to the local public swimming pool. Our family was doing well that year so each of my siblings and I had a Summer pass. Wow, a Summer pass! I felt on top of the world. I went to the pool religiously every day, right when they opened. I remember many of the teenage boys and men there had chiseled abs and washboard stomachs. I was just starting to like girls at the time and it seemed like all the boys with the muscular physiques were getting more attention from the ladies than I was. As soon as I realized this, that was the beginning of my quest to get ripped.
I started lifting some free weights that my dad had lying around the garage. That helped a little, but I was still self-conscious of my stomach. Keep in mind I wasn’t overweight. I was a lean kid. I wanted a chiseled stomach though, so every day at the pool I would constantly flex my stomach. When I flexed, it looked like I had more definition than I actually did, but who could tell right? So I flexed constantly. I flexed when I walked, I flexed in the pool, I flexed when I was laying down. I started doing it so much, I even flexed when my shirt was on. It just became a habit.
What I didn’t realize at the time was all this flexing had led to greater definition. Now even when I didn’t flex, you could see an outline of my abs. This may not seem like much, but for me it this was exciting.
As my obsessive flexing continued, more and more of the six pack under all those layers of skin started to come through.
I’m not suggesting you go around flexing your stomach all day long, but just think about all the time you’re not doing anything where you could take advantage of this:
- Standing in line at the grocery store
- Waiting for coffee at Starbucks
- At the crosswalk before the light turns green
- Watching television
- On the bus, on a train, on a plane (in a boat, with a goat. no, not really)
- While you’re showering
Flexing and isometric exercise is proven to improve muscle definition. Now I’m not saying this is the fastest way to develop a six pack, it should be seen as an addition to your normal core workout. Obviously body fat percentage plays a big role as well. If you’re 50 pounds overweight, it doesn’t matter how much you flex, your abs aren’t going to show until you drop some weight. But if your body fat is at a healthy level you’ll see results within a few weeks.
When you flex your stomach, try to focus on the lower abdominals. Your obliques and lower abdominals are usually the hardest part of the stomach muscles to gain definition in. When you flex, try focusing as much on those sections of your muscles as much as possible. Don’t worry about the top and middle abs, you’ll naturally flex them anyway. It also helps when doing crunches, leg raises or butterflies to focus on the obliques and lower abs. Try to flex them as much as possible on each rep. Not only will you gain definition, but you’ll also be recruiting more muscle fibers. This improves your core strength and mind-body connection. Essentially, the more lesser-used muscles you can consciously control, the stronger you’ll be and the greater definition you’ll have.
Flexing any muscle on your body improves the mind-body connection and improves muscle memory. The more you flex, the more your body will think that’s the way you should naturally look.
Jonathan is the author of the blog Illuminated Mind. He writes about finding Authenticity, Clarity and Balance in all aspects of living. His articles include 5 Signs You’ve Married Your Problems (and how to divorce them) and The Cult of Productivity. You can subscribe to his blog here.
hm, I’m quite slim myself and started regular daily exercise about 1.5 years ago to gain a few muscles. The arms and legs have started to grow, but the stomach hasn’t changed that much even though I’m flexing those areas really hard multiple times a day. Well, maybe I don’t eat enough protein.
I’ve also heard that some people tighten their belt way too much so they are forced to flex their stomach all day long…
great idea!
Okay, this is probably a dumb question…
when you talk about flexing your abs, do you mean that you kind of use your muscles like you would if you were doing crunches? or is it more of pulling your stomach in and then relaxing it?
wow. that’s very cool. flexing right now….
There are a few isometric ab exercises that don’t give you any other choice but to flex, because if you don’t, you’ll fall over!!
Try the plank and the side bridge.
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Thanks, Rich
I actully was reall quite chubby and paranoid. Due to the afct all y mates were all older and muscular. In the footbal team i play for. So I researched ages for a good ab program and the bets program i found was on ://www.sixpackexercises.co.uk/ this site also included key dieting information and the best supplements you could find to aid getting a six pack quicker. I now have a four pack and loss all the fat on my stomach and its only been 3 1/2 weeks. I take a fat burner to help. But all the thanx have to be given to this site.
I actully was reall quite chubby and paranoid. Due to the afct all y mates were all older and muscular. In the footbal team i play for. So I researched ages for a good ab program and the bets program i found was on http://www.sixpackexercises.co.uk this site also included key dieting information and the best supplements you could find to aid getting a six pack quicker. I now have a four pack and loss all the fat on my stomach and its only been 3 1/2 weeks. I take a fat burner to help. But all the thanx have to be given to this site.
Lieng sack of lard
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Wow this is absolutely amazing because before I ever read this. I had done the same thing. Except rather than being self conscious, I would just flex my abs just because I liked the feeling of having sore abs. Now keep in mind this took me a good 2 months in order for it to start showing. Also, I was doing somewhat intense workouts in addition to this. But this truely worked for me too. Be sure that if you do plan on doing this, have a low body fat percentage because you’re not going to be discourged if you’re too big and do this alone without any excersize in addition
Flexing like this makes me feel a little light headed is that weird?
I believe you need to keep drinking a lot of water. And I would do two types of flexing. The first is when sitting down indian style lean a little forward and trying pushing your abs out as hard as possible. It will be a pretty bad pain at first. It will be like getting a charlie horse in your abs. But sacrafices in my opinion are necessary. The second way is just no matter what try flexing your abs wherever you are and whenever u can.
Okay, thank you very much.
No problem, let me know how this works out for you. In the mean time I’m gonna be whipping my abs back into shape. Oh and note to self, abs can be a pain in the a*& to maintain. So make sure you’re ready for that type of dedication