are weighted crunches and cable crunches and essentially anything weighted the best workouts to develope your abs?
p.s. assuming your diet is on point and your bf% is low enough to even see your abs!
I think cable crunches especially are completely useless.
Front Squats and push presses work my abs well.
Apart from that, yeah weighted crunches are ok but V-ups are the gold standard. Basically a crunch and a leg raise at the same time.
why do u think cable crunches are useless? and why do u think a v-up would be better than anything weighted?
I do weighted and unweighted ab exercises.
Try doing steep incline drop sets if you want to really blast your abs
un-belted deadlifts and squats. V-ups with the power-ball in-between your legs. supermans. bicycles. 6"s. decline bench crunches holding a 45lb plate. Weighted and un-weighted. mix it up.
[quote]bmar22 wrote:
why do u think cable crunches are useless? and why do u think a v-up would be better than anything weighted?[/quote]
(1) because I can’t feel my abs working, and they are used by more pretty boys for the whole ‘using the whole stack’ feeling than any real reason
and (2) because they’re fucking hard. Feel it in the abs man, there’s no point if you’re just moving a heavy weight. So what? But if you feel it in the working muscle, then chances are its’ doing some good.
If you’re not feeling cable crunches in the abs, you’re not doing them correctly. Pretty simple… doesn’t mean it is a useless exercise. Weighted ab work develops a nice midsection even when not flexing. The abs are just like other muscles and when u add weight, it’ll increase the size. You can’t build thick abs without some weight. Front squats are only going to do so much for the abs. You can’t build an 8 pack from front squats.
I wouldn’t go far as to say the cable crunches are the best ab developer but they are certainly damn good. I use them in my workout.
I wouldn’t call cable crunches useless. They have their place. Decline crunches are great, add weight when your ready and place it behind your head.
Squats, deadlifts, front squats, push presses and standing military presses. One arm dumbell bench press and shoulder press.
One thing I like to do sometimes is after a set of heavy front squats or military press hold the weight in the locked out position.
[quote]ACTrain wrote:
I wouldn’t call cable crunches useless. They have their place. [/quote]
We’ll have to disagree. It’s way too easy to modify the movement so your abs do nothing to help, but the weight is impressive. For the time and effort required, there are far better options. Such as:
Total agreement. This is a very tough movement and all you need is a DB and maybe something to hook your feet under.
Total, total agreement. Even though none of these are ‘ab’ movements, far better results to be had with 3 more sets of one of these, rather than 3 sets of cable crunches.
Totally. Great idea. I do this with deadlifts at the top of every rep for 2 or 3 secs.
it’s also extremely easy to do the cable crunch properly and work the abs well with it.
weighted decline crunches with your feet hooked? thats a good way to get your hip flexors involved… talk about isolating the abs
Squats, deadlifts, front squats, push presses and standing military presses? No one has ever built an impressive midsection from simply doing these exercises.
[quote]tonyc wrote:
it’s also extremely easy to do the cable crunch properly and work the abs well with it.
weighted decline crunches with your feet hooked? thats a good way to get your hip flexors involved… talk about isolating the abs
Squats, deadlifts, front squats, push presses and standing military presses? No one has ever built an impressive midsection from simply doing these exercises. [/quote]
Yea i love the weighted decline with my legs hooked. But i beg to differ on the paart about squats and deadlifts. Squatting and dl’ing heavy with no belt really helps your core out.
Iv been doing weighted crunches and cable crunches for so long I’ve over developed my abs and I have a muscle gut. They both work well, I mostly stick to weighted decline crunches though.
i like training abs with drop sets. whether it’s a crunch, incline sit up, leg raise or side bend, i like to start off with reasonable heavy weight for say 8-10 reps then just let go of the weight and rep out until failure. you get the best of both worlds.
i don’t see how one can develop ab thickness like this without some sort of substantial resistance thrown into the mix.
Cable crunches are NOT useless. That’s ridiculous. If you’re not using enough weight and/or your form sucks…THEN it’s useless. Likewise if you use too much weight it’s useless as well, as your form is sure to be off.
[quote]tonyc wrote:
it’s also extremely easy to do the cable crunch properly and work the abs well with it.
weighted decline crunches with your feet hooked? thats a good way to get your hip flexors involved… talk about isolating the abs
Squats, deadlifts, front squats, push presses and standing military presses? No one has ever built an impressive midsection from simply doing these exercises. [/quote]
Are you for real dude?
Do you even train?
And who cares about ‘isolating’ the abs from hip flexors. Sure you don’t want the hip flexors to be doing all the work, but they are designed to work together.
But hey, you’re obviously an expert. So what do you do for your abs?
[quote]tonyc wrote:
it’s also extremely easy to do the cable crunch properly and work the abs well with it.
weighted decline crunches with your feet hooked? thats a good way to get your hip flexors involved… talk about isolating the abs
Squats, deadlifts, front squats, push presses and standing military presses? No one has ever built an impressive midsection from simply doing these exercises. [/quote]
Holy wrongness!!!
If you don’t feel cable crunches the normal way, try them this way: put the cable if it’s adjustable to the lowest position (so that it’s nearest the floor), lie on your back-head toward the cable. Scoot far enough away so that there is tension on the cable before you begin the crunch, then crunch under tension from top of rep to the bottom. Note: if you are light like me, you may slide toward the stack 
another note: I do maybe one ab move a week, the rest is picked up from the free weight moves bagged on in the above post. And I have good abs…it’s just the rest of me that sucks…it’s called being skinny with low bodyfat.
[quote]1morerep wrote:
i like training abs with drop sets. whether it’s a crunch, incline sit up, leg raise or side bend, i like to start off with reasonable heavy weight for say 8-10 reps then just let go of the weight and rep out until failure. you get the best of both worlds.
i don’t see how one can develop ab thickness like this without some sort of substantial resistance thrown into the mix.
[/quote]
I agree and should have thought to add this to my post. At your level, you need the separation from development. My abs look “defined” but don’t have your “two inch deep cut” development. I imagine a true BB physique would need that specialization.
What do people think about hanging leg raises? I use ab slings and ankle weights.
Mostly a Iliopsoas exercise, but my abs really feel it when the weight increases.
superset weighted incline situps, weighted incline leg raises (legs at the lower elevation) and weighted flutter kicks
repeat that superset 4-5 times and then crawl off in pain