Ab workout.

MungBean

At the moment I am doing crunches and reverse crunches (knees to chest and raising arse off the ground) 5 sets to failure about 3-4 times a week.

I've been doing it about a month now and each week I just get in a few extra reps. The thought of just doing that every week with the exercise taking longer and longer isnt very appealing.

So are there other exercises I can use to vary the workout and to get a better workout or just use a weight increase the intensity and shorten the duration of the crunches ? I dont have access to a gym but I have a bench with incline setting, dumbells and barbell.

I tried incline sit-ups today and I really felt the strain on my lower back so I'm not sure if I have the core strength to be doing something to that degree yet. Or should I plough ahead and build my back too ?

happydayz182

Whats your goal and what else do you do when you "workout".

MungBean

happydayz182 wrote: »

Whats your goal and what else do you do when you "workout".

Fat loss would be my overall goal, just trying to get lean I suppose. I do different stuff on different days. A rough list would be.

Mon - Flat bench press, incline bench press, dumbbell fly's, Abs.

Tues - Shoulder press, lateral raises, bent over lateral, wrist curls.

Wed - Barbell rows, dead lift, dumbbell shrugs, Abs

Thurs - Squats, Lunges, Leg extensions, Calf raises.

Fri - Barbell curls, dumbbell curls, bench dips, wrist curls, Abs.

happydayz182

If your doing those exercises your core is getting worked alot so dont worry too much about the extra sit-ups your doing at the end . Theres no problem doing them just dont overdo it as your core will need to recover. I find planks a great help in building density and strength so maybe try something like holding that form for 2 minutes for 3 sets . You might not be able to get that far straight away but if you feel like giving up go to you knees for the remainder.

More importantly for fat loss diet>>>>>>>excercise. It really depends on your diet to lose body fat and excercise to have something nice to show off once you have low enough levels of body fat while also giving you a boost in your metabolism . Abs are made in the kitchen and all that...

MungBean

Thanks I'll try planks tomorrow see how I get on. I'm doing pretty well on the diet side I think, I log my food and I'm usually in and around my limits. Plenty of fresh chicken and veg and what have ya.

Yeah I'd be more interested in strengthening my core rather than getting a six pack, I know I'll probably never have low enough body fat to get to that point. But I'm also trying to improve posture and a lot of the stuff I've come across has suggested that abs and back muscles play a huge part in helping with it. So I though it might be good to have some dedicated excercises for those in addition to the other exercises. I should have mentioned that with the earlier post about goals too.

Hanley

Here's some cool ones to play about with...

http://www.vpxsports.com/article-detail/training/dynamic-core-training-for-mma

Number 23 is a real killer.

syklops

dont bother doing ab crunches, if your goal is fat loss. its basically a waste of time. Im assuming your goal is to have defined abs?

You cant spot reduce fat. If you had a lot of fat on your arms, and all you did was arm exercises, you would not necessarily lose the fat there, instead you would have big arms with a layer of fat on top. Its the same for your abs. You need to chisel off the fat from that area first, and then you can start doing ab exercises to get more definition.

MungBean

syklops wrote: »

dont bother doing ab crunches, if your goal is fat loss. its basically a waste of time. Im assuming your goal is to have defined abs?

You cant spot reduce fat. If you had a lot of fat on your arms, and all you did was arm exercises, you would not necessarily lose the fat there, instead you would have big arms with a layer of fat on top. Its the same for your abs. You need to chisel off the fat from that area first, and then you can start doing ab exercises to get more definition.

Not really aiming for defined abs or trying to lose weight in a specific area just trying to get a good core workout to have strong abs and back or core or whatever. My overall goal would be fat loss but in regards to the ab workout the goal would be a strong core I suppose to help with overall fitness. Figured ab crunches would be the place to start with that and thought it would also help posture wise.

Even though crunches probably wernt doing much for my core anyway. Atleast I have a little strength there now to move onto something else more beneficial.