Can you get a 6 pack while bulking is something that I can categorically say “yes you can” to, keeping a 6 pack on the other hand is more difficult.
The question of whether you can get or keep a 6 pack during a bulk is one that has caused a plateau in many people’s progress for a better body, if you’re reading this then most likely yours as well!
Can you keep a 6 pack when bulking? If bulking with the aim of maximal muscle growth then you shouldn’t be able to keep a visible 6 pack by the time you finish your bulking cycle, you can however maintain a visible 6 pack longer on a lean bulk
Can you get a 6 pack when bulking? You can build the foundations of a 6 pack on a bulk as it is a muscle group just like any other but it will likely not be visible until you diet down to a lower body fat percentage
The theme of the above two questions is not a matter of getting or keeping a 6 pack on a bulk but more so the visibility of your abs once you have a higher body fat percentage and this is what holds people back from progressing their physique to the next level.
For your abs and ultimately your 6 pack to be visible you need to be under a body fat percentage of 12%, with 10% being preferential. It’s genetically the case with most men that we store more body fat around the hips, lower back and abdominal area so this is usually the last body part to stand out once you diet down.
You shouldn’t be deterred by this fact however and refuse to bulk up for fear of losing your abs, the most progress to your physique will come during a bulking phase and for the most part you will need to sacrifice the visibility of your 6 pack to achieve this.
** Disclaimer – A 6 pack is determined by genetics, not everyone has the genetics of a 6 pack, some have a 4 pack, 5 pack, 8 pack and even a 10 pack! Therefore no amount of training or dieting will give you 6 pack abs if you don’t have the genetic makeup for it. This however shouldn’t be a deterrent to developing the best midsection that your genetics will allow. **
Table of Contents
The Purpose of a Bulk
The main purpose of a bulk is to build muscle during a calorie surplus because this is when nutrient availability is high enough to support it. For the most part aesthetics and body composition should be a secondary priority with your main priority being performance in the gym, you should see your weights progressing week on week and be hitting your daily calorie requirements.
This is simple enough in theory, however it’s not so easy to implement when you’ve worked hard to get your 6 pack in the first place. There’s a lot of body acceptance needed when it comes to building a physique and you need to be able to appreciate the body you’ve built when on a cut but also accept the need to temporarily sacrifice short term aesthetics for long term progress.
It takes hard work to diet down and have your abs visible in the first place so seeing them be replaced by body fat can have serious psychological implications, it’s important to focus on the goal of building muscle and improving your physique in the long term over maintaining your physique in the short term but not seeing any real progress over time.
Whilst it should be accepted that you will gain some body fat during a bulk which will affect the aesthetics of your mid section there is of course a way to minimise this and still see progress and the way to do this is to implement a lean bulk.
Lean Bulking to Keep a 6 Pack
If you’ve read any of my previous articles around lean bulking (lean bulk without counting calories or the ideal body fat percentage to start a lean bulk) then you’ll know that I’m a big advocate of only going into a bulk slightly over your maintenance calorie requirements. This means that if you need to consume 2,500kcals per day to maintain your current weight then on a lean bulk you will only consume 2,800kcals and at the absolute top end 3,000kcals.
This strategy of only going 300kcal – 500kcal over maintenance is used to ensure that there are enough nutrients in the body to facilitate muscle growth whilst not having so much of an excess that you risk storing it as body fat.
How Lean Do You Need to Be to See a 6 Pack
I covered this very briefly earlier but as an absolute minimum you need to have a body fat percentage less than 12%. This is the level at which the average gym goer could maintain visible abs without it being a priority, if you have good dietary choices, workout frequently and have a good level of daily energy expenditure (don’t live a sedentary lifestyle) then it’s very much manageable.
Realistically closer to 10% body fat will give you a more defined 6 pack and for peak condition you need to be looking at 8% and less. Getting to that level though takes massive dedication and sacrifice and if you are starting a bulk from this level then it’ll be much harder mentally because you’ll start to see your abs visibly start to disappear so this certainly needs to be considered from the start.
A typical dedicated bulk therefore is usually in the 10% – 15% body fat range and this is the point where your abs will be borderline visible depending on where you tend to store the most body fat. This is decided purely by the genetics of the individual so should be used as a guideline rather than fact.
How Visible Should Abs Be on a Bulk
Realistically you should only be aiming to keep the top set of your abs visible when reaching the back end of a bulking cycle. This is because the majority of fat stores will be around you hips and lower abdomen area so visibility of these will be the first to go and this is usually once you get over 12% body fat. You’ll then lose complete visibility of your abs at around the 15% body fat mark.
This is why I think that a lean bulk is the best approach to take, especially to keep visibility of your abs. When basing the progress of a bulk on scale weight alone it’s very difficult (verging on impossible) to determine how much of this weight gain is lean muscle mass, fat stores or water retention and this can therefore lead to a false perspective of progress.
If however you can keep your abs visible on a bulk whilst still seeing the weights you lift progress then this will be a better indicator of building lean muscle tissue. Your body is very good at adapting however so to continue to see progress you will need to keep upping the calories and will eventually get to a point your progress in the weight room stalls and additional calories will result in more body fat being gained.
Whilst it’s not an exact science, once you go over 15% body fat (for some it will be less than this) your hormonal balance and ability to build muscle will start to become less optimal so losing complete visibility of your abs will be a key indicator that you’re carrying too much body fat and should start a mini re-composition phase.
If you used an arbitrary scale weight number to base this off of then you could be carrying a lot more body fat than you’d like to, therefore basing the visibility of your abs on your progress during a bulk whilst not the most scientific is definitely the most simple method that you can easily apply on a day to day basis.
Diet Requirements for a 6 Pack When Bulking
There are two vital factors when it comes to having a 6 pack, one is energy expenditure and the other is calories consumed. What’s important to note about these two factors is that they are both essential considerations when losing fat, gaining fat, losing muscle or gaining muscle, it all comes down to energy balance.
The reason this is so important is because in the most simple form, if you consume more calories than you expend in energy then you will gain weight and for the vast majority (taking into consideration lifestyle factors and genetics) you will end up gaining body fat. Therefore one of the factors that you need to control to have a visible 6 pack is calories consumed from your diet.
There can be a lot said for all categories of a bulk, lean bulk vs dirty bulk vs lean bulk and whilst people will argue all causes there is only one key thing that you need to truly focus on for a 6 pack and that is calories consumed.
Sure there are foods that will make you hold water, that have a low nutrient density and are generally not great for body composition but the number one area where most people go wrong on a bulk and quickly lose their 6 pack is calories consumed.
Just to get it out of the way quickly, if person A consumes 2,500kcals per day from a diet of eggs, sweet potatoes and leafy green veg whereas person B consumes 2,500kcals per day from a diet of pizza then it’s likely person A will have a better physical appearance and body composition than person B. Having a diet made up of nutrient dense foods will always have a positive impact on body composition so is worth bearing in mind when we talk about calories consumed to keep a 6 pack when bulking.
To maintain a 6 pack when bulking your diet needs to be as close to your maintenance requirements as possible whilst still having enough of a surplus to facilitate muscle growth. That sounds like a very fine line when it comes to margins of error but the best approach that I recommend is to start with a surplus of 300kcals and then monitor.
You want to be looking at scale weight and how you look in the mirror as it’s very easy to go off track during a bulk and a few weeks at too high a calorie surplus will almost guarantee either fat gain or water retention around the midsection.
You don’t need to be super restrictive on food choices which is why I say 80% of your diet should come from nutrient dense foods with the final 20% being dirty/cheat foods, the key is really to control your overall calorie intake if you want to maintain a 6 pack on a bulk.
Nutrient Dense Foods for a Bulk
The following is an example list of nutrient dense foods that you should consider adding to your diet when on a bulk, these foods alone won’t give you a 6 pack but they are much easier to control your macros and overall calorie intake (3 chocolate donuts for example could really make it difficult to manage your daily calories in comparison).
Many of these options are combinations that can be used to improve your overall macro requirements such as cooking eggs in coconut oil.
Protein
- Fish
- Eggs
- Chicken
- Beans
- Beef
- Cottage Cheese
- Nuts
- Whey Powder
Carbohydrates
- Potatoes (white or sweet)
- Rice (any variant)
- Oats
- Nuts
- Fruit and berries
- Honey
- Bagel
- Wholemeal Wraps
Fats
- Nuts
- Oils (coconut or olive)
- Butter
- Cheese
- Avocado
Should You Train Abs on a Bulk
This is really the area that causes a lot of confusion due to ‘bro’ science. You’ll see people train abs a lot more once they get into a diet phase to bring out definition and emphasise the midsection, this has come from old school bodybuilding methodology and whilst it does work in some aspects it is definitely flawed in others!
Whilst increased frequency and volume will have a noticeable effect on appearance it’s still important that you know the 6 pack is still a muscle group and as such requires a similar approach to any other. Training it everyday whilst on a cut will mean blood is always pumping into this muscle group which will have a noticeable effect on appearance in the short term but will not do much for long term progress and development.
The midsection is primarily made up of slow twitch muscle fibres which means it’s harder to fatigue, can do more sets and reps and also recovers quicker but it’s still a muscle group that requires the same basic principles for development as other muscle groups which is train it to produce a stimulus and then rest and recover.
During a bulking phase you should be primed for optimally building muscle, therefore this is the period in which you should be dedicating to your ab training if you really want to see progress after a diet phase. You’ll have more energy, be able to lift heavier weights and be able to recover from your sessions much better so you should 100% be training your abs on a bulk if you want to develop a 6 pack.
How you train abs on a bulk will however depend on the end goal that you want for your physique. If you want a tapered midsection then you’ll need to be very cautious about exercise selection, heavy deadlifts and weighted farmers walks are excellent exercises for the midsection however will work the obliques and lower back as well as the abs.
Going from a 32 inch waist to a 34 inch waist will have a huge impact on the flow of your physique as the shoulder to waist ratio gives the illusion of balance, the wider your waist gets the more narrow your shoulders look in comparison and vice versa. For this reason people are often hesitant to over train the midsection, if you already have a large waist or respond well to heavy weights then I’d suggest keeping ab training to body weight only exercises for reps.
Ab Routine on a Bulk
The majority of your ab training on a bulk should come from being engaged during heavy compound lifts, this is the time when you should really be pushing weight on heavy lifts and your midsection will play an important part in this process.
In your routine you should at the very least be including some of these compound movements:
- Deadlift (trap bar or regular)
- Bent over row (barbell or t bar)
- Weighted carries
- Overhead press
- Squat (front or back)
When focusing on getting progressively stronger in each of these lifts it’s good to take into consideration that not only will you need a strong core to perform these but also that you will improve core strength as a result of doing these.
All of the above exercises to varying degrees require core engagement, whether you are bent over and require core activation to stabilise your body or whether you have the bar resting on your upper body and need core activation to simply stop your upper body from buckling under the weight.
As a result of focusing on these exercises your midsection will develop as you add weight to these lifts, it’s a very good side effect of getting stronger on the main compound exercises.
A reliance on your abs being active as a secondary muscle group during compound exercises will however not yield the best development for your midsection, for this you will need to dedicate some time to direct ab work.
I mentioned this earlier but the abs, whilst having a slightly different muscle fibre makeup, are still a muscle group and as such should be trained just as you would any other body part. You need to pick exercises that you can execute well given your physique and that will work all areas of the abdomen.
Take bicep exercises as a good example for this, if you perform a bicep curl followed by a dumbbell curl followed by a cable curl then yes you will be performing three different exercises for the biceps but all are targeting roughly the same area. Instead you could do a lying bicep curl to target the long head of the bicep, a preacher curl to target the short head and then finish with a standard curling variation (barbell, dumbbell or cable).
When training abs you can’t just do crunches in various different positions, you need to use the correct exercises/movements that target different areas.
The following is an example ab routine that you can use when bulking to build a 6 pack, it uses a variety of exercises, rep ranges and more importantly allows for sufficient rest and recovery. This ab routine is a twice per week routine and can be done after your main workout or on off days, it’s entirely up to you how you want to use it.
Workout A
Cable Rope Crunch – 4 sets x 10 reps
Hanging Leg Raises – 4 sets x 12 reps
Single Arm Dumbbell Carry – 3 sets for distance
Plank – 3 sets x 45 seconds
Coaching points:
- During the crunch exhale fully to really feel the abs contract hard, you should be trying to empty your lungs of air on each rep
- On the hanging leg raises think about pulling your thighs into your belly button, this will place more emphasis on the lower abs and minimise your hibs doing more of the work through flexion
- For suitcase carries do one arm at a time to place the obliques under more tension
- Make sure everything is tight and squeeze the abs hard for the duration of the exercises, this isn’t about how long you can plank for but how effectively you can plank. If you plank for 20 seconds but are fully contracting and engaging the abs for the duration the it’s better then a one minute plank where your basically lying on the floor and have strain on your lower back.
Workout B
Seated Ab Crunch Machine – 4 sets x 10 reps
Weighted Cable Knee Ups – 4 sets x 8 reps
Overhead Carry – 3 sets for distance
Side Plank – 3 sets x 30 seconds each side
Coaching points:
- During the crunch exhale fully to really feel the abs contract hard, you should be trying to empty your lungs of air on each rep
- Using an ankle cuff cable attachment your going to pull your knee to your chest with your knees bent. Really focus on pulling your leg up from the midsection.
- Take a barbell overhead with a weight that your shoulders can handle and walk with it as far or as long as you can. Not only will this engage your core and obliques but will improve shoulder health
- As with a regular plank you need to be in a stable position and your hips should be in line with your shoulders, if your hips sag down at any point then the exercise becomes ineffective
The above routines are not game changing by any stretch and are very straightforward but what they do well is cover all the bases when it comes to midsection development. If you’ve been doing an endless amount of sit ups or crunches with poor results then try this approach instead and use your bulk as the best time to build a 6 pack.
What Next
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Also check out:
6 pack ab routine
