Abdominal Advice please.

Boston

I'm looking for advice on abdominal exercise routines. I Normally do a 3 day split five days a week. With my arms, upper chest and legs coming along fine, but so far the abdominal region has been lacking.

tribulus

How do you do a 3 day split 5 times a week? As in you do the 1st 3 sessions, then start the next round in the same week?

I like heavy bar rollouts and lots of beltless work when squatting and DL'ing.

Surprisingly I found some bodyweight exercises with a swiss ball prescribed to me by my physio to be quite tough too.

kevpants

Hi Boston. Do you mean it's lacking in definition or you're still carrying weight there?

Abs are often seen as the be all and end all of "being in shape" when in truth the 6 pack effect is really just a superficial effect of drastically lowering your body fat %.

It is very important though to train the core muscles of the abdominal region and this kind of abdominal work can increae your all round strength and reduce things like back pain. Stomach vaccums are very good for tightneing this area.

This is basically sucking your stomach as hard as you can (try to suck in and upwards) and holding it. Repeat.

You'll notice a the area will feel more solid after a few weeks.

Boston

tribulus: I start it the same week, so push, pull, leg, push, pull. I already do beltless squats and can't say i feel anything around the low abs.

kevpants: I've lost a fair amounth of weight around there and I'm not looking to tighten up. Its in complete contrast to the rest of my body.

To put some propective, I'm doing dips and chin us (assisted) sit ups and inclinded kick outs. I'm seeing limited affect.

tribulus

I've found squats and DL's to have done more for my abs then the likes of leg raises, cable crunches, sit ups etc. You have to learn to breather through your belly, not your chest, suck in the air and push your abs out hard (like taking a big sh1t!)

Tell me, how many sit ups do you do or can you do at a time?

kevpants

Yeah squats and DL's are great for your core. The problem with situps if you don't do enough core work like DL's, stomach vaccums etc is you can develop the exterior superficial abs but the really important internal ones get nothng from situps so your stomach can have a serious belly but with an outline of ab muscles.

Keep at the squats and deadlifts and try the vaccums and you'll probably be able to do without situps as these will really strengthen the area.

Boston

tribulus wrote:

I've found squats and DL's to have done more for my abs then the likes of leg raises, cable crunches, sit ups etc. You have to learn to breather through your belly, not your chest, suck in the air and push your abs out hard (like taking a big sh1t!)

Tell me, how many sit ups do you do or can you do at a time?

36 Sit up in a minute when I drive. But i tend to just to multple sets of 12. Interesting advice about the Squat, will try it out. I'm starting to realise that my squat technique needs to change.

tribulus

Boston wrote:

36 Sit up in a minute when I drive. .

But see how is that going to build your abs? It's like someone picking up a bag of sugar and curling it 36times, it's not hard!

Train your abs the way you train anything else. Keep the reps low-ish 6-12 is fine but you should be pushing on the last couple of them.

Try heavy bar rollouts for a few sets then some leg raises - hanging from the bar rather than your elbows on pads like a Roman Chair(I think it's called) as well as your usual squatting and dl'ing.

Boston

Ok, i think we've a different idea as to what a bar rollout is, how does hanging form the bar fit in?

As for sit ups, you're saying I should do less but hold them for longer, or maybe do weighted ones?

g'em

Boston wrote:

36 Sit up in a minute when I drive. But i tend to just to multple sets of 12. Interesting advice about the Squat, will try it out. I'm starting to realise that my squat technique needs to change.

Hey Boston, well-defined abs are seen as the 'ultimate' in what people want when they train, but as kevpants said a six-pack is more down to diet and lowering your body fat than anything.

Virtually all heavy, compound exercises work the abdominal muscles to varying degrees, but as has been said squats are up there with the best of them - think about it, you have cr*ploads of weight on your shoulders, and your core needs to be strong enough not only to support it, but keep you balanced as you lower yourself down and then come back up on the concentric.

And like trib said, your breathing technique will go a long way towards really getting your abs involved in the lift - by bracing your abs you give your mid-section the solidity it needs to maintain balance.

Anytime you do ab work (directly or indirectly) really try and keep your abs engaged. If you give a little cough (go on, do it now and see what I mean ) you should feel your tummy tighten a bit - that's the same feeling you replicate when you brace your abs. And by concentrating on engaging that musculature, and keeping it taut you make sure that its your abs and not your back/ hips doing all the work. Dips and chins (while brilliant exercises in themselves) won't help your abs so much.

I second bar-rollouts (evil, eeeevillll exercises!!) and also Russian twists (newly discivered favourites of mine) squats and DLs, but really by making sure your abs are involved whenever possible doing big compound lifts you should see a difference.

Posture is also a factor - lots of people show kyphosis/ lordosis (a fancy way of saying they stick their arse out too much, this is what I tend to do ) and this makes yur tummy stick out too. If I make an effort to pull my shoulders back and pull my hips forward to get a neutral spine, hey presto, my tummy gets flatter and tighter instantly. Alternatively you can have a 'flat back' where you hold your head held forwards to much and you tend to slouch. Keeping your head high and your chin tucked in helps that.

But unfortunately, as much as people hate to hear it - diet is *the* most important factor in having a 6-pack.

Boston

Good advice. The diet is grand, I've lost seemingly over a stone, most of which appears to be around the mid section leaving basically alot of flab which I jsut want to tighten up. Not saying a cracking six pack isn't desirable, just trying that everywhere else is tightening up bar this area so I think it needs special attention.

g'em

Boston wrote:

Not saying a cracking six pack isn't desirable, just trying that everywhere else is tightening up bar this area so I think it needs special attention.

trust me, it's the LAST thing that goes right!!! Well done on losing the stone so far though, that's fantastic progress. I had a six pack for all of about 2 weeks and while I thoroughly enjoyed the novelty of seeing all these bumps on my tummy, the level of effort it required to maintain it was just too much, and by then I was starting to see other unwanted side effects of having bodyfat so low.

It *is* slightly easier for guys to get and maintain visible abs, but just be patient with it - they're usually the cherry on the cake as it were of good fitness and nutrition habits. Enjoy getting strong and seeing all the positive effects, it's easy to get frustrated and blinded with single goals, but if you look at the overall picture don't forget to acknowledge just how far you come to date