Abs

[Thadon]

What do you do for abs?

 

[DanielBishop]

If diamonddiceclay comes along and says "it's all genetics and diet" don't listen to him.

It's mainly diet, but you have to train your abs to bring them out so they can actually be seen. If it was all diet and genetics, then none of the pros would do abs exercises now, would they? But they all do.

I think the best exercise for abs is hanging knee-raises. You can do this on the thing which puts your back up against a pad, or you can hang from the chin-up bar (although that hurts my shoulders and my hands start to give out after a while). Anyway, most people start with their legs hanging normally, and then bring their knees up.... I think there's a better way to do it, which works your abs more and your psoas, iliacus and other hip flexor muscles less. Starting position should be with your knees up and your thighs parallel to the ground. Then bring your knees to your chest (or as high as you can get it) and then being them down again so your thighs are parallel again. If you can't do anymore, you can do a few reps with the full range of motion.... kinda like forced reps. But try to make the majority of your set with parallel being the starting position, and go as high as you can with your knees.

Sets of 10-20, depending. If you're hanging from the bar, you can twist yourself sideways and do side knee-raises, which work your obliques and serratus some more.

Other exercise for lower abs, is decline board leg raises. Those are good.

For middle and upper abs, I do oblique crunches.... and then standard crunches for upper abs.

That's what I do, anyway.

 

[the People's Champ]

Other exercise for lower abs, is decline board leg raises. Those are good.

excellent exercise

 

[Jvesti1234]

well I work abs every other workout and adding one back to back in the week
I split up
Upper abs(5x25) crunches on first ab workout
lower abs(5x25) reverse crunches on the next ab workout

do them intense squeezing the muscles your using at the top of the movement

I do them after my normal routine

doing this my abs came out of the woodworks within a month and a half from being no where

I have pics to prove

this worked for me

 

[Grizzly]

Personally, I think that the best abs exercise it cable crunches. The way I see it, you can either do thousands or bodyweight crunches or a hundred cable crunches with 150-200lbs. If you want to see your abs, then they have to be big! How do you get muscles bigger? You train them with weight. Therefore, cable crunches get them bigger/showing faster than anything else. But that's just my opinion. However, I will say that they have worked very well for me, so there's more than just my opinion backing this. There's also empirical data.

 

[the People's Champ]

well, doesnt adding weight to ab exercises make your abs big and protrude instead of just being visible? I understand that cable crunches get your abs ripped, but doesnt it also promote sticking outward moreso?

 

[Mighty Mouse 21]

I do abs every other workout. Each time I do them I start with 30 hanging legs raises, then I 150 side crunches for each side, then 100 really slow bicycle crunches holding each one for a two second count (this makes them burn like a mofo), then I finish up with another 20 hanging leg raises. I have a nice strong six-pack, side abs as well.

 

[The mann]

i agree with that,everyone has ab muscles,you have to train them and develop them ,the diet will bring them through......

 

[Grizzly]

well, doesnt adding weight to ab exercises make your abs big and protrude instead of just being visible? I understand that cable crunches get your abs ripped, but doesnt it also promote sticking outward moreso?

Some would say that, yes. I kind of disagree with that though. And, even if it does, who cares? Personally, I want to become a pro and most of them have large, semi-protruding abs. So, it's no biggie for me if they do end up sticking out farther, which they haven't yet. Plus, I figure that we try to get everyother muscle group to protrude and grow and stick out and show everywhere so why not treat abs the same way?

Also, stronger abs are good for your lower back and help stabilize you on heavy squats and deads. I read an article by some powerlifter or another. He said that at one time he had trouble not crashing forward with heavy weight. He always thought it was because of a weak low back. Well, one day he started doing weighted crunches and that solved the problem. Just another good reason to do weighted ab work.

 

[The mann]

you are right grizzly...your abs are not going to stick out 2 feet like you think from using weights.....peoples champ...using the weights will develp the mid section better .