L-seat… gymnastics, and a few other practices, but thats about all.
Even gifted people do not manage an 8-pack. Some people dont even get 8-packs, they do not have gaps in their lower row.
I personally dont do any ab isolation, but those who I train I ALWAYS get to do ab isolation - it’s good for moral! lol
If you do the 3, or intense overhead excercises, and you are low bf, I dont think anyone needs to do ab isolation.
[quote]zraw wrote:
drop your bf… how can you hope for a fucking 8pack with a 12% bf
[/quote]
My top four abs a quite defined. My bf % maybe lower, it was simply a conservative estimate. Never done a body fat composition measurement.
[quote]forbes wrote:
Tube wrote:
jesus fucking christ. why do anything? give it a rest!
i agree 100% with your last 2 two statements, but your first one was quite offensive, considering im a believer in Christ.[/quote]
Well as long as no one offends you then that’s ok.
[quote]Tube wrote:
jesus fucking christ. why do anything? give it a rest!
[/quote]
What do you mean? I know you’re being sarcastic but I don’t consider missing out some crunches as slacking when you’re already doing all the core building exercises…what’s wrong with that?
[quote]cyph31 wrote:
the same reason i do isolation exercises for any other muscle group, because i want stronger abs[/quote]
Bodybuilders are more concerned with their physique than strength…but still, core exercises do build decent strength in the Abs.
[quote]Tim Henriques wrote:
OP - are you good at ab exercises? I mean if you had to do weighted crunches, decline sit-ups or hanging leg raises would you be good at them? If not it is possible (not guaranteed certainly) that your abs aren’t as strong as you think and maybe if they were stronger it would benefit you. If you are good them and you look the way you want to, more power to you and keep on doing what you are doing.[/quote]
Don’t mean to boast but I’m not bad at them. When I did them in the past crunches just weren’t enough, I kept going and going. It makes me laugh when I hear people bragging about how many sit ups they can do…I just keep quiet to keep the peace lol. I never saw the point in adding lots of weight to Ab exercises because it was impractical and once you’ve reached the genetic size peak in your Abs (which isn’t very big) then no amount of strength increase will make them grow. Besides, Abs are not supposed to grow much, they’re mainly built up with slow twitch fibres.
[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
i ve always felt like my abs have looked the same whether i trained them or not…i actually get ab stimulation throught the most random movements, like leg curls, tricep pushdowns, those things you keep your arms straight w/ straight bar and pushdown and of course things like deadlifts.
[/quote]
Exactly, and I think most other BBs would notice the same thing.
[quote]mrsony wrote:
I have been training my abs like crazy for the last six months. I have been trying to bring out my bottom two abs. I am quite lean (~12%bf) but I guess I am not genetically gifted to have the bottom two abs. Instead I have to be content with a four pack. Life sucks![/quote]
No, life sucks when you’ve reached a low BF level and you get to a sticky point where you can’t seem to get it to budge much (without risking loosing a considerable amount of muscle too)…that’s what the problem is, not lack of lower Abs (it’s all the same muscle lol). Although you were just guessing your BF you were probably quite close because most people find that they need to be 10% or lower to see the full 6 pack.
[quote]josh86 wrote:
I tend to direct train my abs with heavy resistance for the purpose of helping increase the big lifts. [/quote]
Out of all the reason to do Ab training this would be the most credible one (provided you are doing the basics too).
However, I’m still not 100% convinced it is needed. I’ve never felt near failure on my Abs doing a squat or any other movement. I feel them working, but they don’t fail. They are never the weak link.
I’ve never known a power lifter who feels the need to do hundreds of isolation exercises for his Abs to bring up his other lifts. Please correct me if I’m wrong…
I definitely don’t do hundreds of exercises for them. I do heavy decline situps (ie holding an 80lb dumbbell on my chest), heavy side bends, etc. I don’t do really high-rep crunches and shit, infact I never do crunches. Pretty much stick with side bends and decline situps, and rope pulldowns (w/e their called), weighted. I probably do them 2-3 times a week for like 10min max at the end of my workout, if I feel like it. They are definitely NOT a priority.
And the other guy said JFC why do anything at all because of your why do deadlifts thread last week. lol
[quote]chutec wrote:
i dont do any direct ab work, as i feel my big lifts do just fine.
however i think that whilst alot of ‘trainees’ respond well to direct ab work the OP may have been referring more to the ‘gym-goers’ who come in and spend 1/2 of every workout going through 8 different ab machines.[/quote]
Bingo! Although I admit, the title I gave my post was pretty generalized/misguiding.
[quote]josh86 wrote:
And the other guy said JFC why do anything at all because of your why do deadlifts thread last week. lol[/quote]
Yeah that is quite funny now that I think of it lol. I may start another thread - what d’ya think?:
“Why lift weights?”
Want to stir up some trouble? Make it why do direct arm work…lol
I do ab work for support in squats and deadlifts, I personally like decline sit ups, cable crunches, and weighted planks for time.
[quote]plateau wrote:
Why would anyone be interested in how many leg raises someone can do?[/quote]
The OP said he didn’t need to do specific ab exercises because he had strong abs from just doing the big exercises. I was trying to test that statement. Hanging leg raises are a pretty brutal exercise and they will quickly show you if your abs are weak or not. So the answer to the question is I would be interested to know it.
It is the same thing when people say they don’t need to do biceps because they do compound exercises for their back. My question back to them is how strong are your biceps? And to know that I would want to know how much they can curl. If they can curl a lot from just doing back exercises, great, if their curl sucks then the back exercises are probably not hitting their biceps the way they think the bis are getting hit.
My mid section always looks tighter when I work in abs. If I go a while without working them directly, they get out of shape. If I don’t work them regularly, I tend to get cramps with some movements especially while doing crunches for the first time in 2 or 3 weeks. The muscles themselves tend to get softer too.
Do you think I might indirectly train my abs while doing tricep kick-backs? With heavy (think pink DB’s here) loads?
i think im just going to start doing them again. i mean it cant hurt and i was flexing my abs yesterday and they looked a lot better so i figure if i tighten them up theyd look like that all the time or at least my abs would look better at a high bf%
i just find it kinda hard to find time for them though.
^I know what you mean. Most of the time after I finish my main lifting I am completely exhausted, have to force myself to do my forearm or calf training depending what day it is then usually say F-it when I think about doing some abs. lol
[quote]its_just_me wrote:
What do you mean? I know you’re being sarcastic but I don’t consider missing out some crunches as slacking when you’re already doing all the core building exercises…what’s wrong with that?[/quote]
I’m not being sarcastic. Your last thread was “why do deadlifts” and consisted of “why do people do deadlifts I don’t do them and I am hella swole” and now this thread is “why do ab work” and consists of “why do people do ab work I don’t do it and I am hella swole”. It’s pointless. Can you build a good back and legs without deadlifts? Yes. Is it ideal? No. Can you build strong abdominals without isolation work? Yes. Is it ideal? No. Bringing up idiots on bosu balls doing nothing but crunches for hours isn’t relevant, because they aren’t serious, knowledgeable trainees. Saying “most of the guys working their abs don’t even have a low enough body fat for them to show” is also assinine. It’s equivalent to saying “Why do people with fat legs do squats? Their quadriceps aren’t even showing through!” For the record, I do deadlift and don’t do ab work. The only reason I don’t work my abs is laziness, nothing more.
Worry about your own training and spend less time thinking about guys who don’t train how you do are idiots.
[quote]its_just_me wrote:
Tim Henriques wrote:
OP - are you good at ab exercises? I mean if you had to do weighted crunches, decline sit-ups or hanging leg raises would you be good at them? If not it is possible (not guaranteed certainly) that your abs aren’t as strong as you think and maybe if they were stronger it would benefit you. If you are good them and you look the way you want to, more power to you and keep on doing what you are doing.
Don’t mean to boast but I’m not bad at them. When I did them in the past crunches just weren’t enough, I kept going and going. It makes me laugh when I hear people bragging about how many sit ups they can do…I just keep quiet to keep the peace lol. I never saw the point in adding lots of weight to Ab exercises because it was impractical and once you’ve reached the genetic size peak in your Abs (which isn’t very big) then no amount of strength increase will make them grow. Besides, Abs are not supposed to grow much, they’re mainly built up with slow twitch fibres.[/quote]
Then why start this thread? You’ve got it all handeled.