Good Ab Routines.

Podgorny · 10-21-2009, 03:34 PM

Just wanted to know, do any of you gent's have a good routine for ab's and obliques? What do you fellow's use?

Revok · 10-21-2009, 04:06 PM

Squats and deadlifts.

Planks if there's anything left in the tank.

TMMAray · 10-21-2009, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revok

Squats and deadlifts.

Planks if there's anything left in the tank.

This.

Although to be honest, I have started throwing in a couple hundred situps/twists/side bends at the end of my monday and wednesday workouts lately.

The best advice for abs that I can give is to take off the weight belt. I want to smack people that I see wearing a belt while doing dumbell curls, or while doing quarter squats with 135.

I should note that I'm not saying to never use a weight belt, just that people put them on waaaaay too soon in their progression.

McClure · 10-21-2009, 04:41 PM

Train them like you would any other body part, maybe 2x week.

Hanging Leg Raise
Incline Situp (weighted)
Ab Wheel Rollout
Plank
Side Bend
Hyperextensions/Reverse Hyperextensions
Glute-Ham Raise

You could work your leg raises, rollouts and planks into a circuit with higher reps as you progress. Work the weighted situps, side bends, hypers and ghr by themselves in sets of 10-20 reps (adding weight when 20 reps becomes easy).

Devote 1-2 training sessions per week for abs/core.

An alternate method would be to do them more often, at the end of other training sessions. Or you could do single sets in between other movements during your rest periods (like 1 set of incline situps between deadlift sets etc).

That's all you need for direct work. Compound movements like squat, deadlift and anything overhead (sohp, pushpress,clean/jerk,overhead squat etc) will work your core well, too.

Timbaland · 10-21-2009, 04:50 PM

Well if you want to get them to show, diet is the most important thing. To strengthen the muscle a bunch of great exercises were listed already.

TheRazorFrazer · 10-21-2009, 09:02 PM

Heavy bag drills my friend. They are your friend. This drill alone burnt fat of my abdomen that I thought I'd take to the grave.

Throw a 3-4 punch/kick/elbow/knee combination on a heavy bag, then sprawl and spring back to your feet. Complete the combination/sprawl 100 times. The first couple of times I did this, it induced some pretty nasty emesis.

**XTrainer** · 10-21-2009, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMMAray

This.

Although to be honest, I have started throwing in a couple hundred situps/twists/side bends at the end of my monday and wednesday workouts lately.

The best advice for abs that I can give is to take off the weight belt. I want to smack people that I see wearing a belt while doing dumbell curls, or while doing quarter squats with 135.

I should note that I'm not saying to never use a weight belt, just that people put them on waaaaay too soon in their progression.

I disagree. This is a common misconception. Your abs work just as hard, if not harder, when you're wearing a belt. I don't know why the belief persists that your abs go to sleep when you put on a belt...if anything, a belt gives you cue to help you engage your core when you need to. Anyone who has worn a belt lifting reasonably heavy weight can easily observe this.

Further reading:
10 Overlooked And Misunderstood Facts About Ab Training (Part One) - By Charles Staley - Staley Training Systems

Rippetoe has made similar comments.

Just because you can lift MORE with a belt doesn't mean the belt is doing the work for you, instead of your core. People jump to that conclusion.

McClure · 10-22-2009, 06:59 AM

I'm with XTrainer on this one, too. Nothing wrong with belting heavy compound lifts.

Xtremist · 10-22-2009, 07:40 AM

Standing rope pulldowns.
Weighted Crunches/twists.

EndoGlo · 10-22-2009, 08:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheRazorFrazer

Heavy bag drills my friend. They are your friend. This drill alone burnt fat of my abdomen that I thought I'd take to the grave.

Throw a 3-4 punch/kick/elbow/knee combination on a heavy bag, then sprawl and spring back to your feet. Complete the combination/sprawl 100 times. The first couple of times I did this, it induced some pretty nasty emesis.

You could make that in to a way bigger combo. Not bad though.

3 punch/kick/3 punch/elbow/knee/sprawl. Try to keep it as one fluid combo. Maybe even add a "throw" (lift it, but don't throw it... lol) into it. That depends on how heavy your bag is though.