Just wondering how many here do situps or direct abdominal work?
Powerlifters etc seem to have very well developed midsections but I can’t imagine these boys busting out set after set of sit ups.
My personal preference is for deads and squats to do the work.
What about the rest of you gents?
Overhead work, one armed rows and planks.
The stabilization required to get, and maintain, any significant amount of weight overhead is incredible, and, in my experience, has an enormous carry-over into every other exercise that I do.
Cheers,
Soup
Actually you’d be surprised how much direct ab work those guys do. It’s likely not the traditional sit-ups for most, but Louie seems to always mention spread eagle sit-ups and a lot of other guys do various weighted abdominal crunches (standing with either a cable or band, roman chairs, etc…).
Usually if abs are a weakness, they will get targeted.
I recently started doing some weighted decline crunches maybe 2x a week. I have found it has helped with my ‘big’ lifts a bit.
1)The amount of weight these guys are lifting requires a strong core.
2)In the end most powerlifters have been working out for a long time. People who work out for a long time go through all kinds of stages, at some point in time in their life it probably included situps or crunches.
3)Outside of the heaviest class, alot of them have to be strong as possible at a particular weight. Meaning as much useful muscle and least useless fat as possible. And as any body jealous of surfer abs will tell you, you don’t need much muscle to have a great set of abs if you have no bodyfat.
Why one or the other, both will be great, direct abs (or “core” for the fancies) will give you good carry over to your arch in the squat, like someone as said, powerlifters do a lot of direct ab work.
I definitely like deads and squats for “core” stabilizing movements. If I want to build the area up, I probably would throw in rotational and direct flexion work to really dig in to the “core” (i.e. BB chops, jack knives, etc).
I like the idea of the overhead movements for development. And I suppose with powerlifting a lot of that goes on.
[quote]soupandspoons wrote:
Overhead work, one armed rows and planks.
The stabilization required to get, and maintain, any significant amount of weight overhead is incredible, and, in my experience, has an enormous carry-over into every other exercise that I do.
Cheers,
Soup
[/quote]
My favorite core exercise is alternate dumbbell shoulder presses with a wide stance. I lean over in the opposite direction to the press which really activates the obliques and midsection stabilizers.
I can easily bang out 20 rep sets on any ab machine with max weight so I know all the heavy compound work is doing something for the core. Besides, those lifts are much more fun than endless sit-ups and crunches.
That does surprise me. In my gym back home there is a russian guy that we call “the dude” and he’s 320 with the solidest looking core I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen the lad do even weighted core work except deads…and that was crazy to watch.
[quote]Ruggerlife wrote:
Actually you’d be surprised how much direct ab work those guys do. It’s likely not the traditional sit-ups for most, but Louie seems to always mention spread eagle sit-ups and a lot of other guys do various weighted abdominal crunches (standing with either a cable or band, roman chairs, etc…).
Usually if abs are a weakness, they will get targeted.[/quote]