I recently read a bodybuilding book by Franco Columbu, who knew a thing or two about it. I’ve always taken more of a powerlifting approach to things.
Columbu was against ab exercises that use much weight, preferring a smaller waist to increased strength but bigger size. He did not want blocky abs and says in his book using more than ten pounds might cause those.
He claimed his routine was essentially to do lots of vacuums (throughout the day, not at the gym), slightly inclined sit-ups, hanging leg raises (with a chair), lying leg raises (back flat) and lying leg raises (while holding a vertical pole and turning to either side to work the obliques), basically 25 reps of each for (two, quickly building up to) four rounds daily. Of course, he also advocated not following the routines of other lifters blindly. And if his personal practice differed from his book, that probably wouldn’t be the first time that happened.
I’m wondering how well this advice holds up today. As usual, got plenty of questions.
Vacuums work the transversus. But do they help? Do you do them? Can you decrease waist size doing only vacuums, as Columbu claimed (he exhaled as much air as possible before doing them)? Any recent research, personal experience or meathead lore?
I tend to work abs with planks, weighted crunch machine, L-sit pull-ups, ab wheel rollouts, and sit-ups after benching holding a heavy weight at full bench extension. Columbu might argue this is the wrong approach. Is it?
Which ab exercises work well for you? I have a flat stomach but never had more than a two pack. I like my food. But genetically not sure more packs are in the cards.
Are planks better than Columbu’s routine?
How often do you do abs? To me, they are largely an afterthought. Do you do several leg raise variations?
Over a decade ago, T-Nation had an article on the “most efficient” ab exercise that combined several exercises into an easy movement to save time. Not been able to find that old article. Do you remember it? Little help?
Ab wheel rollouts feel effective, where I don’t feel weighted machine crunches very much unless done super slowly. Any research, personal experiences or comments on ab wheels? I can do full rollouts, never tried the standing version and not sure it would help (or that I could even do it).
No doubt these questions have been asked before. Maybe ab nauseum? Thanks for stomaching another post on the subject! Happy Thanksgiving to any fellow Canadians; eat well, mes amis! (Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving second Monday of October).
Of course abs are made in the kitchen. Just want to know if vacuums work for anyone here. There must be tons of folks here who know a lot about this stuff.
What have your results been? Are you unsatisfied with them?
Standing ab wheel is the only direct ab work I do, but I do it often. I never train my obliques, but was gifted with a very developed set of them.
Are planks better than Columbu’s routine?
For ab DEVELOPMENT, I don’t think so. For making the core stronger, they’re good at that. Most people don’t really do much for the bracing impact on them, but they can definitely be made difficult.
How often do you do abs?
3x a week: with every lifting session.
Any research, personal experiences or comments on ab wheels? I can do full rollouts, never tried the standing version and not sure it would help (or that I could even do it).
Standing version is only one I do. I think it’s pretty awesome.
EDIT: For some bonafides, I’m not at my most shredded, but this was a photo from Monday for some ab development.
I think vacuums work very well, especially for learning to control your midsection. If you’re going to be on stage, that’s pretty key.
I also like doing abs every training day. They’re non-fatiguing, take 5 minutes, and actually take some blood out of my lower back so I feel better after. I like to alternate “lower” and “upper” - basically am I bringing my pelvis to my ribcage or vice versa (so leg raises vs crunches).
The BOSU ball crunch is my favorite movement. I can’t get a cramp on anything faster than that.
I think the blocky look comes from training the obliques more so than loading ab training. Hypertrophy is hypertrophy; whether you build them with 8 reps or 20 I can’t imagine is going to matter much. Developing thick obliques, however, could negatively impact your tapered waist.
I’m happy with my physique. I carry more fat than a bodybuilder. Abs have never been my main priority, and as a result I have a flat stomach but little definition. When I was a very active skinny kid, I still didn’t have abs and don’t think I have great genetics there. Almost all my body fat is on my belly, and I can pinch about an inch at my umbilicus.
If I can do easy stuff to get a better result, it makes sense to do that. I don’t particularly enjoy working abs but usually do crunch machine and a few exercises as above, sometimes with significant weight. I haven’t thought they did very much, but I haven’t really ever done leg raises or vacuums, and haven’t done incline sit-ups recently.
Maybe I’ll try these and use the ab-roller more often, try it standing, see what happens. What works best for me seems to be eating a big-ass salmon steak for lunch which is delicious, high in protein, and fills you up for most of the day so you don’t eat much crap.
