I am primarily training for strongman/power-lifting and have as a side effect enjoyed being bigger more muscular. I have always had some really unimpressive abs though even when lean. Genetics dictate a lot of this for sure but it would sure be nice to get some abdominal hypertrophy. Any reading recommendations or suggestions for some no non-sense abdominal hypertrophy?
Current ab work includes ab wheel x1 week, heavy dead-lifts, squats. Ab wheels are great functional work but given my long levers I have to stop when fatigued to prevent low back strain.
So your current ab work is… almost no direct ab work? I sense a pretty simple remedy.[/quote]
Lol yep! If you don’t like spending time at the end of your training on ab work, try mixing in ab exercises as active rest between sets. Hanging leg raises, weighted decline situps, and rope crunches are my favorites
I am mostly trying to get a feel for what no nonsense routines the people who care about abs are doing. I know my programming is not ideal for growth but functionally it works well. So like the above post if you could have 3 exercises to create a hard midesection, what would you choose? Exercise, sets,reps? I am very predisposed to building muscle anywhere else but need some more inspiration. Thanks!
[quote]jordanshadow wrote:
I am mostly trying to get a feel for what no nonsense routines the people who care about abs are doing. I know my programming is not ideal for growth but functionally it works well. So like the above post if you could have 3 exercises to create a hard midesection, what would you choose? Exercise, sets,reps? I am very predisposed to building muscle anywhere else but need some more inspiration. Thanks!
[/quote] #1 - ab wheel #2 - weighted situp on decline bench, put the weight either behind your head or hold a bar over your body (barbell overhead situp I think they call them). Do NOT bother holding the weight on your chest, that does practically nothing and you can get 10x more from putting it behind your head.
And that’s it. I wouldn’t even bother having a third. You should be doing it multiple times a week so maybe keep it 10 sometimes and other times keep it 8 or even as low as 6.
I’m talking to myself as much as anyone lol; I am terrible about neglecting my abs.
[quote]jordanshadow wrote:
So like the above post if you could have 3 exercises to create a hard midesection, what would you choose? Exercise, sets,reps?[/quote]
Hanging knee raises 3-4x10-15 (be sure not to lower the legs below parallel, in order to remove the hip flexors from the movement)
Swiss ball weighted crunch 2-3x8-10 (the increased ROM is a unique stress.)
One-arm planks with feet together 3-4x5-10ct. (the minimal base of support kicks the difficulty up several notches.)
I do also like the ab wheel in general, but I’m almost positive I sprained an ab by overextending a while ago and it still sometimes bothers me, so I’m more conservative with it now.
Check the eleventy hundred articles I linked to earlier. I’m sure you can find something the pops out.
Crazy thought here, but did you ever think that maybe you’re “very predisposed to building muscle everywhere else” because you actually train those other muscles directly and that your lack of abdominal development is because you don’t so abs?
Just a thought, good luck man.
Leg raise, rope crunches, ab wheels. 3-4 sets of 12-15 done 2-4 times a week.
Also, in both of your posts in this thread you dropped the dreaded “F Word”… Functional. What is so functional about the ab wheel? Do you plan on one day landing on your knees infront of a giant bed of aids needles and your only hope is to use the wheel from a broken trycycle to roll out and grab your lost cell phone to call for help?
Gregron: You are very right that i am building muscle everywhere else because I am training them. And again right that I will probably respond to some direct ab training. I saw 1,000,000 articles and just got lost trying to figure out what might actually work for abs.
I guess functional has become a bad word. What I mean is specific. Abdominal muscles acting isometrically as opposed to producing trunk flexion or rotation. Specific to deadlift and squat.
And one of the articles that you linked Chris did stand out and I learned a lot by reading them. The “hard ab” training seems like a good place to start.
