Build Muscle
Flat Stomach
A full-body programme with the midsection as the priority: four days a week, upper and lower alternating, with the core trained on all four of them through all five of the jobs it actually does — resisting extension, resisting rotation, resisting sideways bending, flexing the spine, and lifting the legs.
- Days a week
- 4
- A session
- 64 min
- Sessions in it
- 4
- Split
- Midsection Emphasis (4×/Week), Upper / Lower with Loaded Core
What you actually train
4 sessions, in order. Every movement links to how to do it.
Upper A & Anti-Extension
8 movements
Superset — no rest between these
- Barbell Bench Press4 sets of 8 reps
- Seated Cable Row4 sets of 10 reps
Superset — no rest between these
- Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press3 sets of 10 reps
- Lat Pulldown (Wide Grip)4 sets of 11 reps
Superset — no rest between these
- Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension3 sets of 12 reps
- Barbell Curl3 sets of 10 reps
Superset — no rest between these
- Ab Wheel Rollout4 sets of 9 reps
- Pallof Press4 sets of 20 reps
Lower A & Hip Flexion
8 movements
- Barbell Back Squat4 sets of 8 reps
Circuit — straight through, then rest
- Romanian Deadlift4 sets of 10 reps
- Leg Press3 sets of 12 reps
- Lying Leg Curl (Machine)4 sets of 12 reps
Circuit — straight through, then rest
- Standing Calf Raise5 sets of 12 reps
- Hanging Knee Raise4 sets of 12 reps
- Cable Crunch (Kneeling)4 sets of 12 reps
- Stationary Bike10 minutes
Upper B & Anti-Rotation
9 movements
Superset — no rest between these
- Incline Dumbbell Press4 sets of 10 reps
- Barbell Bent-Over Row4 sets of 9 reps
Superset — no rest between these
- Dumbbell Flyes3 sets of 13 reps
- Face Pull4 sets of 16 reps
Circuit — straight through, then rest
- Dumbbell Lateral Raise3 sets of 14 reps
- Hammer Curl4 sets of 11 reps
- Triceps Rope Pushdown3 sets of 12 reps
Superset — no rest between these
- Cable Woodchop4 sets of 20 reps
- Dead Bug3 sets of 16 reps
Lower B & Anti-Lateral Flexion
8 movements
- Front Squat4 sets of 8 reps
Circuit — straight through, then rest
- 45-Degree Back Extension4 sets of 12 reps
- Bulgarian Split Squat3 sets of 16 reps
- Seated Leg Curl (Machine)4 sets of 12 reps
Circuit — straight through, then rest
- Seated Calf Raise5 sets of 13 reps
- Side Plank3 rounds of 40 seconds
- Suitcase Carry3 rounds of 40 seconds
- Rowing Machine10 minutes
Why it works
- Twenty-nine midsection sets a week, loaded and progressive, trained the way any other muscle gets trained rather than by repetition alone.
- Three of the four days load the abdominal wall; the fourth braces it under a carry, which is why the dose is three loaded sessions and not four.
- Everything has a way to get harder: the cable crunch and Pallof press add weight, the ab-wheel adds range, the suitcase carry gets heavier rather than longer.
- Doing it every day does not make it work faster — the fourth, fifth and sixth sessions are what stop the first three from working.
- Every other muscle group still gets ten to sixteen hard sets, so the rest of you does not stall while the middle is the focus.
How much of your midsection you can see is decided by your overall body-fat level, not by how much you train it.
Training the core builds the muscle underneath and makes you stronger through the middle; it does not decide where your body takes fat from, and no exercise can.
What to expect
Expect the two lower days to be the longest sessions of the week, because each of them carries the ten-minute conditioning block at the end.
Before you start
If a lower body-fat level is the goal, that is a food and overall-activity question rather than a training-the-abs question, and it belongs with a registered dietitian or your GP rather than with a set-and-rep scheme.
Before you start, please read this part. Lifting is among the safest and most useful things most people can do, and there is a short list of exceptions worth checking yourself against first.
If you have a heart or lung condition, chest pain or pressure at rest or on effort, dizziness or blackouts, blood pressure or diabetes that is not currently controlled, a hernia, low bone density or osteoporosis, a joint or back problem that is flaring, or you are pregnant or within a year of giving birth, speak to your GP or a physiotherapist before starting and follow their instruction over anything written here.
Stop the set and get advice for chest pain or tightness, breathlessness out of proportion to the effort, dizziness, or a sudden sharp pain in a joint or the back.
Stop it as well for pain, numbness, pins and needles or weakness that travels down an arm or a leg, and get that seen before you load the pattern again. Three movements need naming specifically.
The cable crunch and the hanging knee raise load the spine into flexion, and the ab-wheel rollout loads it hard into extension.
If you are pregnant, in the first year after giving birth, or you have any separation of the abdominal muscles, a hernia, a disc problem or pelvic-floor symptoms, do not start any of them without being cleared by a doctor or a pelvic-health physiotherapist first.
They are the right movements for most people and the wrong ones for those; the anti-rotation and anti-lateral-flexion work is usually where that conversation starts instead. Nothing here is medical advice.
What you need
- Barbell
- Dumbbell
- Cable Machine
- Machine
- Bench
- Pull-Up Bar
- Ab Wheel
- Back Extension Bench
- Rowing Machine
- Stationary Bike