Can a 13-Year-Old Get Abs?

Who doesn’t like abs? They’re considered the physical manifestation of fitness and the dream of many teenagers. It was definitely a goal that I had in mind back when I was 13. Having a shredded six-pack will not only make you look strong and fit, but it’ll also grab the attention of everyone around, especially girls. With that being said, is it really possible for a 13-year-old to get abs? What will it take? Is it easier said than done?

When it comes to having abs, age rarely matters so even 13-year-olds can have them as long as they train them regularly and have a body fat percentage that’s low enough to make them visible.

In this article, we’ll talk about if a 13-year-old can get abs, how long it will take, and the types of exercises that will make your abs pop at an early age.

Can a 13-Year-Old Get Abs?

Before answering this question, I’ll talk about my own little experience with abs, and how they developed when I was growing up. Back when I was 13-year-old, I definitely had the goal of getting a six-pack since I noticed that everyone was talking about it, especially the girls and I wanted to know what it felt like having abs.

At that time, having abs was the equivalent of being Hercules and I wanted to be admired as well, so I decided to challenge myself and make this my top priority.

I went on a research spree to look for the best and fastest methods to get abs, started to train them regularly, and eventually made decent progress.

When I showed my results to my friends, they were all surprised. One friend in particular who was also 13 years old at that time decided to join me on my challenge and follow the same methods that I used, however, things didn’t go according to plan for him. Even though he was training on a regular basis, his abs didn’t show and that was due to the fact that he had a high body fat percentage since he wasn’t following a particularly healthy diet.

So now, what did we learn from this little story? Getting abs is easier said than done, especially at an early age of 13 when muscles haven’t yet been developed fully. What does it really take to get them?

Low Body Fat Percentage

Did you know that you already have abs? If you can’t see them, it simply means that there is a layer of fat that’s covering them. Everyone is born with abs, however, not everyone is blessed genetically with big and shredded ones and a low body fat percentage. This means that you need to work extra hard in order to have them.

If you’re not sure how you can lower your body fat percentage, just learn how to be active, walk every day to school, practice a sport that requires a lot of physical activity, go on runs once or twice per week, take advantage of your fast metabolism that comes with being young by eating healthy, and you’ll eventually get rid of that layer that’s making your abs invisible.

Here are some extra tips that you can follow:

• Follow a high-protein diet
• Get more sleep
• Eat more healthy fats
• Increase your cardio
• Avoid sugary drinks
• Learn good eating habits

You’re still young, so developing good habits at an early age is crucial to growing a fit body and a healthy lifestyle later down the line.

Regular Training

As long as you have a low body fat percentage, you’ll automatically have visible abs, however, you can also increase this visibility by training them on a regular basis. This way, they’ll get bigger and pop more.

I’ll talk more about the best types of exercises to train abs as a 13-year-old in a later section. Just remember that having a low body fat percentage is the most important factor and regular training will only contribute to about 20% of abs’ visibility.

How Much Time Will It Take For a 13-Year-Old to Get Abs?

Based on my own experience, when I was 13 years old, it took me about 2 months to reach decent progress in terms of abs, but that’s probably quicker than average since I was skinny with a low body fat percentage. I just had to train them to make them bigger and pop a little bit.

Generally speaking, it takes about 10 to 14 weeks for a 13-year-old to get abs, but that highly depends on their body fat percentage, genetics, and the types of exercise that they do.

What Exercises Should a 13-Year-Old Do to Get Abs?

As I mentioned in the beginning, ab exercises will only affect 20% of their visibility, the other 80%, and what really matters is what you eat which controls your body fat percentage.

If you want to train your abs, you need to focus on working out your core which is essentially a combination of muscle groups that are located in the central region of your body, and these include the abs.

Do these exercises every day and until failure for 4 sets and have a 1-minute break between each set:

• Sit-ups
• Plank
• Push-ups
• Russian twist
• Hanging knee raise

To put this into perspective for you, here is an example of a workout using this method:

The reason you want to do these exercises until failure is to constantly push your body to the limits. If you can only do 12 sit-ups until failure today, by using this method, you’ll eventually be able to double that number week after week. 

And if you follow the right diet, stay disciplined, and be patient, you’ll wake up one day and start seeing results.

Conclusion:

Having abs is good and all but as a 13-year-old, you should instead focus on making your whole body look better, not just your abs. Instead of only training your core, make sure to add in a full-body workout from time to time. This way, not only will you have big shredded abs, but you’ll also impress everybody around with your big chest, biceps, triceps, and quads. And this will be an excellent stepping stone if you want to get into weight-lifting further down the line.