2887: Why Nobody Has the Abs They Want (And It's Not Body Fat)

June 25, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In a typical commercial gym, the hosts of Mind Pump have watched people train their abs the same way for 20 years: high reps, no rest, partial range of motion, and a lot of hip flexor work mistaken for abdominal work. The result, they argue, is that most people never develop the visible midsection they want — not because they lack leanness, but because they train the abs as if they are a different kind of muscle. The hosts claim that switching to the right approach can produce visible changes in 30 to 60 days.

Why High Reps Fail the Abs

The most common mistake is treating the abs as an endurance muscle. People do 50, 100, or 200 reps of crunches and leg raises, chasing the burn. The hosts trace this to old home workout videos and a persistent myth that the abs are mostly slow-twitch fibers that need high volume to grow. But the abs, like any other muscle, contain fast-twitch fibers that respond to heavier resistance and lower rep ranges. "Nobody built nice looking glutes doing a hundred and fifty reps," Sal points out, and the same logic applies to the midsection.

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What you'll learn

1 (03:13) **The Core Problem: Treating Abs Like a Different Muscle** - The hosts introduce the episode's premise: people train abs with high reps and special rules, ignoring the principles that build every other muscle.
2 (04:33) **Mistake #1: High Reps & the "Slow Twitch" Myth** - The hosts debunk the idea that abs need hundreds of reps because they are "slow twitch" muscles.
3 (07:17) **The Payoff: Why Building Ab Muscle Matters** - Building thicker ab muscles makes them visible at higher body fat percentages.
4 (10:13) **Mistake #2: Confusing Hip Flexion with Ab Contraction** - Most people do not actually contract their abs during common exercises like leg raises.
5 (13:45) **How to Fix Your Form: The Reverse Crunch & Cues** - Practical advice for learning proper ab contraction.
6 (15:18) **Mistake #3: Short Range of Motion** - Floor crunches often don't provide a full stretch or contraction for the abs.
7 (16:17) **Advanced Cue: Deactivating the Hip Flexors** - A specific technique to isolate the abs.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

In this episode the guys break down how not to train your abs, covering the five biggest mistakes that keep people from ever seeing results from their core training. They cover why high reps are the wrong approach, how most people are using their hip flexors instead of their abs without realizing it, why short range of motion leaves gains on the table, why rest periods matter just as much for abs as any other muscle, and why avoiding obliques is one of the worst ideas in fitness. Sal shares how switching to resistance training for his abs within 60 days made them one of his best body parts.

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LINKS

Mind Pump Store: https://mindpumpstore.com

Maps Fitness Products: https://mapsfitnessproducts.com

Instagram: @mindpumpmedia

SPOTIFY TIMESTAMPS

0:00 - Intro

2:16 - How not to train your abs — the mistakes everyone makes

3:44 - Mistake #1: High reps — why this builds stamina not muscle

8:51 - Mistake #2: Flexing at the hips instead of the lumbar spine

14:28 - Mistake #3: Short range of motion and what a full range actually looks like

17:22 - Mistake #4: No rest between sets — why circuits kill your ab gains

19:38 - Mistake #5: Avoiding obliques — why this logic is completely backwards

22:57 - No BS 6-Pack Formula — the program designed to fix all of this