Abs

[Chris Nagel]

Hey beds,

Here's a very helpful book that has some good ab routines that you can do: Legendary Abs

[Edit: I had a problem attaching the file here, so I emailed it to you instead.]

[RP33]

the key to abs, imo, is using weights.. your abs are muscles and you wouldn't do bicep curls without weight, would you?

i lay flat on my back on the bench, hang my legs off, put a 20 lb dumbell in between my feet and do leg lifts.. keep your legs straight.. i do about 3 sets of 15.

then i'll do decline sit ups with a plate on my chest.. you can do variations and turn at the top to get a bit of an oblique workout in too..

those are my main ab workouts and i add variations in here and there.. these are the workouts that gave me a six-pack and will stick by them..

[ICB]

RP33 is right use weights for your abs, also make sure you hit your lower, upper, side, part of your abs. Theres so many different ab exercises theres Bicycle crunches, which is 250 times more effective than a normal crunch, theres leg raises, hanging leg raises, ball crunches, dumbbell side bends, ETC.

There easy to find on the web the most effective ones, but just remember doing all these ab exercises is all well and good. But if you don't do enough cardio, or your diet isn't healthy. You won't be seeing no six-pack, even if you did 1000's of crunches.

You need to get your body-fat at atleast 10 percent or lower, to see your abs. So make sure you do lots of cardio 30 mins 4 times a week or so. Look up online a good steady diet for you. Remember the old saying abs are made in the kitchen not in the gym, and even though you have to do ab exercises to shape your abs. Just remember thats only part of it.

[wesrman]

I like to treat the core as a whole and do circuits to increase the intensity and make the workout more efficient and less time consuming.

For example i may do sets of this:

russian twists
supermans
chinnies

or

chinnies
supermans
planks

Try to mix up the exercises so it doesnt get stale and you dont get used to it.

[Chris Nagel]

Here's something that I wrote before:

I agree with everyone here, but there's a few things I'd like to add. Start off your routine with exercises that emphasizes your lower abs, then do exercises that emphasis your obliques (e.g. side bends) or twisting exercises, then do exercises that stress your upper abs (e.g. crunches) last. The reason for this order is that if you were fatigue your abs doing exercises such as crunches first, you wouldn't be able to work your lower abs and obliques as much. Your abs still work all or nothing, there are no segments but the emphasis on particular areas vary depending on the exercise.

As for reps, first choose exercises that challenge you without being too difficult, this might be leg raises (lying down) to start with and and a couple of weeks later you can replace it with hanging leg raises. The number of reps should be about how much you can do in good form, you can also take a short break and then do another set. If you fully exercise your lower-abs and obliques first, your upper-abs will already have gotten a good share of work and you won't have to do as much crunches or whatever afterward.

I also recommend training your lower back as well, and doing stretches for your abdominals and lower back.

By the way, I have a good ebook that has a decent program for the abs I can send you or anyone else that's interested. It has different routines for different levels that you can follow. It's a nice progressive program. When the exercises get too easy, you can move to the next routine that would be more challenging.

[donnydarkoIRL]

Chrises previous post was excellent.


The lower abs are not only the hardest to traget, they also fatigue the quickest, so its advisable you begin by hitting them.

Ab training is simlar to most training.
In order to achieve the optimum level of gain you must use "shock therapy."
The cointinuous repetition of the same exercises will yield some gains, but greater results will be shown by keeping the body guessing.
Like weights its a good idea to switch your routine every 4 weeks or so.

[Youngblood]

The best my abs ever looked, as far as I think how people think the whole 'sexy ab' thing goes...came from when I had to cut a shit ton of weight in a hurry to get a fight. In one week of redic too much cardio, starving self, and even dehydrating...basically doing everything wrong a person can to lead up to a fight, I looked freakishly ripped. Sad truth of it, is that I was a long way from what people equate with that look...healthy. Was substantially weakened and putting myself at risk.

I remember the convo from it at the time, and Sharla suggesting we are likely healthier with a lil bit of fat over the abs. I tend to agree.