4 Tips For Getting Abs As A Fitness Beginner, According To A Personal Trainer

• Beginners in fitness can take advantage of “beginner’s gains” to progress quickly.

• For strong abs, compound exercises like deadlifts, presses and rows are best, according to one trainer.

• Good nutrition, smart training, and tracking your progress in strength can also help, he said.

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A strong core is a common goal among gym goers, but if you are new to training, you can have an edge in building abs.

When you begin strength training, you may experience a phenomenon known as “beginner gains,” an initial period of rapid improvement in strength and muscle. While beginners’ gains can lead to impressive all-round progress, achieving well-defined abs requires a special strategy, according to Noam Tamir, founder and CEO of TS Fitness in New York City.

“If you want to see your abs, you have to lose body fat. You can’t spot the workout,” he told Insider. “It’s about being consistent with exercise and making small changes in nutrition.”

Add compound movements like deadlifts, squats, presses, and rows to your workouts

To get the most out of your time at the gym, Tamir recommends movements that use multiple large muscle groups at once when lifting a barbell, dumbbells, or kettlebells.

Examples include overhead presses, squats, rows, and deadlifts, which activate all of your core muscles to help stabilize and control weight.

Compound lifts are more effective than sit-ups or sit-ups alone because you tap larger muscle groups and burn more calories.

Weightlifting also provides a bonus in calories burned after the end of the workout as your muscles recover from the tension, known as the afterburn effect.

Focus on nutrition

In order to achieve more defined abs, most people need to reduce their body fat percentage through a calorie deficit, by burning more energy than they consume.

“If people want to lose body fat, I really preach the nutrition side of things,” Tamir said.

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Since it’s much faster (and easier) to eat calories than it is to burn them, trying to maintain a calorie deficit through exercise alone can lead to overtraining and exhaustion, especially for exercise beginners, Tamir said. .

A key part of nutrition is getting enough protein, which takes more energy to digest and can keep you full for longer, making it useful for weight loss. One strategy is to have a source of protein (such as lean meat, eggs, fish, tofu, yogurt, or beans) and a product (greens, vegetables, or fruit) every time you eat. Brigitte Zeitlin, dietitian, told Insider.

Work smarter, not harder

Steady-state cardio, which involves running or cycling at low intensity for a longer period of time, is a popular fat-burning strategy to reveal abdominal muscles. But it can take a long time.

Rather than spending hours on the treadmill, Tamir recommends ending your workouts with metabolic resistance training or periods of high-intensity weight lifting with short periods of rest to maintain your heart rate.

You can also incorporate high intensity interval training (HIIT) a few times a week to burn more calories, he said.

Stay motivated by celebrating strength progress

It can take weeks or months to see significant changes in the mirror, so looking for visible changes can be frustrating. Tamir recommends tracking improvements in strength and skill, such as the weight you lift, the number of reps you do, and how you feel after exercise.

“At first you might feel dead and sore after a workout, but maybe in a few weeks you’ll be ready to do more,” he said.

Seeing these improvements can be rewarding and motivate you to stick with your exercise routine.

“One of the first things that happens is neurological changes, which you don’t see in the mirror, but which can improve strength very quickly,” Tamir said.

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