Okuzeka
Sports & Fitness vocabulary · Muscles & the Body

Abs

Meaning in sports & fitness, with examples

/æbz/nounCore term

In sports & fitness, abs means: Short for abdominals: the muscles at the front of the stomach, especially the rectus abdominis, which gives the "six-pack" shape.

In Turkish: karın kasları

How it is used

Informal, used in gyms, classes and fitness media. People work their abs, do ab exercises and talk about visible abs or a six-pack. Physios and coaches more often say core or abdominal muscles.

Example sentences

  1. This class is thirty minutes of abs and core.

  2. Crunches work your abs, but planks train the whole core.

Common collocations

  • work your abs
  • ab exercises
  • six-pack abs
  • lower abs
  • abs workout
  • coreThe muscles around the middle of the body, including the abdominals, lower back, obliques and hips, that keep the trunk stable during movement.
  • plankA core exercise in which you hold your body in a straight line, supported on your forearms or hands and your toes, without moving.
  • body compositionThe proportions of fat, muscle, bone and water that make up the body, often expressed as body fat percentage and lean mass.
  • muscleA soft body tissue that can contract and relax to move parts of the body; skeletal muscles are attached to bones by tendons.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Muscles & the Body

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: