I’m curious, if you had to make a solid ab protocol right now, right here, what 4-5 exercises would you list first straight away, that have worked the best in your experience?
With everything that’s out there, and that’s a shit ton, I tend to favor planks/crunches/ab wheel rollouts and different leg raises.
I’d love to hear from the guys with years of experience, what they think the best ones are.
1/ squat
2/ deads
3/pulldown reverse grip
4/crunches with a disk on the chest
Mike/former 150lb skinny guy for some (LOL)
While I don’t train my abs directly during my offseason (doing full squats and heavy military presses keeps my abs just fine), when I’m cutting I usually use three exercises twice a week before my interval sessions:
1-Trunk rotations on an incline bench (holding medicine ball or 25 lb plate)
2-Cross Bench leg raises (or dragon flags if I’m feeling energetic and not too low on carbs)
3-Weighted incline crunches
S
[quote]buzza wrote:
1/ squat
2/ deads
3/pulldown reverse grip
4/crunches with a disk on the chest
Mike/former 150lb skinny guy for some (LOL)[/quote]
Yeah agreed on the first two as a given, not too sure about #3 you got there…
Thanks.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
While I don’t train my abs directly during my offseason (doing full squats and heavy military presses keeps my abs just fine), when I’m cutting I usually use three exercises twice a week before my interval sessions:
1-Trunk rotations on an incline bench (holding medicine ball or 25 lb plate)
2-Cross Bench leg raises (or dragon flags if I’m feeling energetic and not too low on carbs)
3-Weighted incline crunches
S[/quote]
Perfect post. Thanks Stu, that’s exactly what I was looking for in an answer, and coming from a respectable guy like you, all the better.
Been a while since I did any dragonflags, surely they’ve been the most intense thing I’ve ever done for abs. Thank you for the opinion!
Are you of the less but intense clique, vs the shitload of reps camp? I would imagine you are. Say sets of 10-12 on the above mentioned? Curious on your rep ranges also bud.
well, me too, I use to train in my garage, no pulldown machine so when I go to local gym (once each 2 weeks) and do pulldown reverse grip/ or with V handle (insytead of heavy bb rows or deads)i feels DOMS for days in my abs (and I train them in the garage…)…
Full Contact Twists
Medicine Ball SWlams
If I’m directly working them, I’m doing something fun. Fuck it, medi ball slams are awesome!!!
When I do the twist, I pretend I’m a pirate and say "yo ho ho and rape fair maidens…
I like to do two separate super sets
Rope crunches with hanging leg lifts
Dragon flags with russian twists on a decline bench.
The second one is much more intense than the first for me. First is for the rectus abdominis, second is for the transverse muscles or the ones underneath the 6 pack I cant remember the name.
So Ill do one superset one day and the other on another day. If its just an extra day in the gym for abs, calves etc Ill do both
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
While I don’t train my abs directly during my offseason (doing full squats and heavy military presses keeps my abs just fine), when I’m cutting I usually use three exercises twice a week before my interval sessions:
1-Trunk rotations on an incline bench (holding medicine ball or 25 lb plate)
2-Cross Bench leg raises (or dragon flags if I’m feeling energetic and not too low on carbs)
3-Weighted incline crunches
S[/quote]
Do you mean decline bench?
Rope crunches are excellent. Do you go quite heavy on them?
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
I like to do two separate super sets
Rope crunches with hanging leg lifts
Dragon flags with russian twists on a decline bench.
The second one is much more intense than the first for me. First is for the rectus abdominis, second is for the transverse muscles or the ones underneath the 6 pack I cant remember the name.
So Ill do one superset one day and the other on another day. If its just an extra day in the gym for abs, calves etc Ill do both [/quote]
My favorite is this leg raise variation: lie on your back, and clamp a dumbbell between your feet (ten pounds is usually plenty for me). Do a set of leg raises, but instead of lowering your legs all the way after the set, hold the weight an inch above the floor for as long as you can.
If you want to really punish your abs, when you can’t hold up the weight any longer, open your feet to drop it, then immediately start over–another set of raises (no weight) and another isometric hold for as long as you can.
x2 on weighted incline crunches and rope crunches as well.
Nothing makes my abs hurt like chin ups. I also do sit ups on an angled ab board with arms straight over head. Ab wheel outs are my #3.
[quote]InTheZone wrote:
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
While I don’t train my abs directly during my offseason (doing full squats and heavy military presses keeps my abs just fine), when I’m cutting I usually use three exercises twice a week before my interval sessions:
1-Trunk rotations on an incline bench (holding medicine ball or 25 lb plate)
2-Cross Bench leg raises (or dragon flags if I’m feeling energetic and not too low on carbs)
3-Weighted incline crunches
S[/quote]
Perfect post. Thanks Stu, that’s exactly what I was looking for in an answer, and coming from a respectable guy like you, all the better.
Been a while since I did any dragonflags, surely they’ve been the most intense thing I’ve ever done for abs. Thank you for the opinion!
Are you of the less but intense clique, vs the shitload of reps camp? I would imagine you are. Say sets of 10-12 on the above mentioned? Curious on your rep ranges also bud.
[/quote]
I don’t really worry about rep ranges, especially on ab work. For me, I already know I have ‘decent’ musculature from all the heavy compound work I do (and I don’t want the midsection muscles growing and throwing off my aesthetics) so cardio > direct ab work during my preps.
My approach though is on controlled movements, continuous stress on the muscle, and once the pain sets in, focusing and enduring the pain (repping out strictly) until I’m positive that anyone else would have already quit a few reps ago.
S
I like to do abs by using any vertical chest press machine. keep all but the lowest of the lower back off the back of the bench. start with the whole back on the pad, “crunch” the abs, push the upper back off the pad without beginning the press, then press hard. Do a slow controlled negative, keeping the upper back off until the weight is all the way down. Hard to describe, but really effective. This and a rotational exercise, a 1/2 contact twist…That description takes longer.
OP, do you front squat heavy?
[quote]Rational Gaze wrote:
Rope crunches are excellent. Do you go quite heavy on them?
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
I like to do two separate super sets
Rope crunches with hanging leg lifts
Dragon flags with russian twists on a decline bench.
The second one is much more intense than the first for me. First is for the rectus abdominis, second is for the transverse muscles or the ones underneath the 6 pack I cant remember the name.
So Ill do one superset one day and the other on another day. If its just an extra day in the gym for abs, calves etc Ill do both [/quote]
[/quote]
70-80lbs on a single pulley system. I dont know if its heavy or not. Its challenging.
[quote]hungry4more wrote:
OP, do you front squat heavy?[/quote]
No.
Full squat 265, but with my Top Squat device, that’s about another 25 lbs. So I’ve been full squatting below parallel with about 290, 6x4, which for me is a PR for my latest weight of 188-190.
RDL’s are at 275 lbs at the moment for 5x6-8.
No beast, just in good shape.
I decided to see how lean I could get this summer, and so have been dieting pretty hard for a little while now. Going all out one more time with the diet before the end of Sep. PSMF,refeed-cho,maintenance cho, then back to PSMF. 10days/1 day/1 week respectively each phase.
Yeah BONEZ, that’s about what I used too last time I did the rope crunches, I have to admit I felt those pretty well when doing them. I’m going to pick from the stuff you guys are suggesting to me here for my ab proto, so I really appreciate the posts/opinions from you all.
Thanks.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
[quote]InTheZone wrote:
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
While I don’t train my abs directly during my offseason (doing full squats and heavy military presses keeps my abs just fine), when I’m cutting I usually use three exercises twice a week before my interval sessions:
1-Trunk rotations on an incline bench (holding medicine ball or 25 lb plate)
2-Cross Bench leg raises (or dragon flags if I’m feeling energetic and not too low on carbs)
3-Weighted incline crunches
S[/quote]
Perfect post. Thanks Stu, that’s exactly what I was looking for in an answer, and coming from a respectable guy like you, all the better.
Been a while since I did any dragonflags, surely they’ve been the most intense thing I’ve ever done for abs. Thank you for the opinion!
Are you of the less but intense clique, vs the shitload of reps camp? I would imagine you are. Say sets of 10-12 on the above mentioned? Curious on your rep ranges also bud.
[/quote]
I don’t really worry about rep ranges, especially on ab work. For me, I already know I have ‘decent’ musculature from all the heavy compound work I do (and I don’t want the midsection muscles growing and throwing off my aesthetics) so cardio > direct ab work during my preps.
My approach though is on controlled movements, continuous stress on the muscle, and once the pain sets in, focusing and enduring the pain (repping out strictly) until I’m positive that anyone else would have already quit a few reps ago.
S[/quote]
Right got ya. My thoughts are quite similar to your general approach as well.
Thanks.
Try bringing up your front squat by 100 lbs. I’m not saying this to insinuate directly training abs is bad…it’s not. But you won’t regret getting a significantly higher front squat in any way, including ab development.
[quote]hungry4more wrote:
Try bringing up your front squat by 100 lbs. I’m not saying this to insinuate directly training abs is bad…it’s not. But you won’t regret getting a significantly higher front squat in any way, including ab development. [/quote]
Hungry, do you feel it in your lower back when you do front squats?