Everyone has abdominal muscles hiding behind their abdominal fat. Oftentimes the only thing that's separating you from your six-pack is a good fat loss phase.
-
But abdominal training still can be useful. Next to the core stability benefits you obtain, it's also possible to grow your abdominal muscles with consistent core training. We know the abdominal muscles basically to stabilize your body. So exercises that involve stabilizing your trunk (like planks, cable wood chops etc.) are good options.
-
Just consider that, like any other muscle, the abdominal muscles need progressive overload and training with sufficient volume to develop. Using weighted ab exercises makes it easier for you to make consistent progress in your ab training. If you swipe left, you can see 2 example exercises I use when I want to focus more on abdominal growth.
-
I want to add some notes about the first exercise shown, the cable ab pulldown. In this exercise, you want to keep your shoulder blades spread apart and focus on flexing your spine. This may sound counterintuitive, but spinal flexion is one of the main functions of your rectus abdominis. As long as you use a weight that's manageable for you, this exercise is safe to perform for healthy individuals. The cable wood chops showed 2nd help you focus more on oblique training.
-
If you want to focus more on developing your abs, start by performing 1-2 weighted ab exercises about 2-3x per week.