ABS

Hey guys,
How frequently do you all train abs?
I’m not in contest prep nor am in a bulking phase, just trying to keep tight, nice looking abs consistently.

So, once a week? Twice? Every day?

I don’t have naturally great abs so i tend to do something for them about 3 times a week, but i’m concerned that i may be overdoing it.
I read an article that doing them too much can actually inhibit definition and detail.

Any thoughts?

Currently, I do ab work every 4th day.

Let me tell you what worked for me:
I used to do some ab work at the end of almost every workout, trying for definition. Then someone told me that an effective ab workout required 15-20 minutes with no rest. When I started going from station to machine to floor for various ab exercises, and simply repeated 5-6 moves for 20 minutes, my abs ached somethin’ fierce…and within several weeks became noticeably more defined.

Give it a shot.

YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary)

[quote]bkavulla wrote:
Hey guys,
How frequently do you all train abs?
I’m not in contest prep nor am in a bulking phase, just trying to keep tight, nice looking abs consistently.

So, once a week? Twice? Every day?

I don’t have naturally great abs so i tend to do something for them about 3 times a week, but i’m concerned that i may be overdoing it.
I read an article that doing them too much can actually inhibit definition and detail.

Any thoughts?[/quote]

Men’s Health?
Denise Austin?

“Better to do a little often, than a lot rarely.” Old Chinese saying that I just made up. Applies to most things.

TNT

[quote]bkavulla wrote:
How frequently do you all train abs?
[/quote]

my abs get trained during every lift session, so usually 3-4 times a week. just about every compound movement i do involves the abs very nicely. (squats, deads, chinups, good mornings, etc)

very occassionally, i’ll throw in planks, hanging leg lifts and standing weighted crunches. but that’s only ever on wed evenings, when the 6:00pm step class is going on and i need a reason to be standing there watching.

Ya man…if you train super-heavy you’ll have good abs. For exceptional, do weighted crunches, leg lifts and cable crunches. Also, if you’re fat, it doesn’t matter haw good your abs are, you’ll never see them.

[quote]chillain wrote:
bkavulla wrote:
How frequently do you all train abs?

my abs get trained during every lift session, so usually 3-4 times a week. just about every compound movement i do involves the abs very nicely. (squats, deads, chinups, good mornings, etc)

very occassionally, i’ll throw in planks, hanging leg lifts and standing weighted crunches. but that’s only ever on wed evenings, when the 6:00pm step class is going on and i need a reason to be standing there watching.

So step classes are good for something after all. Viewing. Thanks.

TNT

[/quote]

I train my abs directly each time I train, which is to say three times a week. I never got much definition or hypertrophy in that area until I started doing hanging pikes, first with knees bent, then after a few months straight legs, touching toes to the bar from whence I hang. I now do these once per week, for 5x5-6, do knee raises with a dumbell between my ankles on day 2, also for a 5x5-6, then a day with cable crunches for a 3x15-20. Works well for me.

I trained mine last night. I drank way too much at a conference and heave hoed about 15 reps over the toilet!