An athlete named 5th 'Fittest Woman on Earth' shares her favorite core exercises, including overhead squats and toes-to-bar

• Brooke Wells keeps her core strong with exercises like sit-ups, toes-to-bar, and overhead squats.
• However, the cliché that abs are made in the kitchen is true, she told Insider.

Brooke Wells, the fifth "Fittest Woman in the World," has told Insider she trains her abs with sit-ups, toes-to-bar, and compound lifts like overhead squats.

But the 27-year-old said abs are made in the kitchen, meaning exercising alone won't give you definition if you don't eat the right foods.

Wells finished fifth at the five-day 2022 CrossFit Games in Madison, Wisconsin, in August — just a year after dislocating her elbow in the 2021 competition.

Wells trains for eight hours a day before the CrossFit Games

Wells trains for six hours a day for most of the year, building up to eight hours before the Games, she said. She does cardio in the mornings then strength, skill work, and metcons in the afternoon. Metcon stands for "metabolic conditioning" and involves high intensity circuits.

One day a week, Wells rests completely, and one day she will just swim or cycle, she said.

Maintaining a strong core is important for all movements, and Wells told Insider her favorite exercises include sit-ups, and toes-to-bar. This involves hanging from a bar overhead and swing the legs up so the toes touch the bar, contracting the abdominals, before swinging back down to a hyper-extended position, and then repeating.

In CrossFit, however, many of the lifts require abdominal engagement while working the whole body, Wells said, such as overhead squats or snatches.

"It's crazy with CrossFit," she said. "There are lots of movements you could do to hit the core."

Abs are made in the kitchen, Wells said

Despite doing exercises to strengthen her core muscles — which include the abs as well as the whole of the midsection, the pelvis, diaphragm, lower back, and hips — Wells said having visible abs largely comes down to how you eat.

"Abs are really made in the kitchen," she said. "It's cliché to say, but it's very true."

If your body fat isn't low enough, your abs won't be visible, personal trainer Patrick Wilson previously told Insider.

"Having definition in that area is primarily from having body fat low enough to see your core muscles," he said.

You can't spot-reduce fat, so losing fat on your stomach is only possible by eating in a calorie deficit (consuming less energy than you burn), which will lead to fat loss overall.

For visible abs, physique coach Cliff Wilson recommends counting calories to ensure you're in a deficit, eating plenty of protein, and taking your time, because most people underestimate how much fat they have to lose on their stomach, he previously told Insider.