T Nation

Tips for Obliques

Bodybuilding
#21

Squatting and deadlifting is plenty.

Directly training the obliques is a god awful idea for any non high level athlete. I dont care how skinny somoene is, there is no reason to make your waist thicker on purpose unless youre a budding SHW powerlifter.

And about the side bends. Dumb. Your obliques wrap around your midsection, they dont go “up and down”. Usign 2 weights is even more dumb. What other exercise can you think of that uses a counterweight? None.

If you want to train your core completely you do three things. A crunch type movement where you bring your torso towards your lower body. A leg lift type motion where you bring your legs toward your upper body (knees bent for better ab recruitment). A twisting motion to get the muscles underneath the rectus abdominis, russian twist on a decline bench works well. Adding something like dragon flags (properly done with your ass off the bench) is not a bad idea either.

#22

[quote]DJS wrote:

[quote]Short Hoss wrote:

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:

[quote]robertscott wrote:
I’m a long way away from ever looking like a bodybuilder, I know a lot of folk think bodybuilders shouldn’t train their obliques or they’ll look bulky, but that doesn’t really apply to me, I’m a right skinny fuck.[/quote]

I assumed this was the case. Obliques are really the last thing you should ever worry about. If you want to do some ab work that’s fine (I think it’s a waste of time TBH though) but your core will thicken up and strengthen enough on it’s own as you add mass all over. As long as you are doing heavy barbell work; squats, deadlift, rows, whatever, that’s the most oblique and IMO ab work (aside from precontest) that you’ll ever need.[/quote]

Amen to that. I avoid training my waist like the plague just to keep it as small as humanly possible.[/quote]

It’s funny… I agree with what you are saying but Arnold did zillion rep ab workouts. Yet he had a very aethsetic waist. So how to classify that correctly… Don’t do them or overtrain the shit of of them? ha ha ha[/quote]

Most bodybuilders train their abs pre contest to harden the area. Most do not train their abs with the same rigor in the offseason.

I dont think anyone intentionally hypertrophies the area though. Its completely counterproductive.

#23

[quote]DJS wrote:

[quote]Short Hoss wrote:

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:

[quote]robertscott wrote:
I’m a long way away from ever looking like a bodybuilder, I know a lot of folk think bodybuilders shouldn’t train their obliques or they’ll look bulky, but that doesn’t really apply to me, I’m a right skinny fuck.[/quote]

I assumed this was the case. Obliques are really the last thing you should ever worry about. If you want to do some ab work that’s fine (I think it’s a waste of time TBH though) but your core will thicken up and strengthen enough on it’s own as you add mass all over. As long as you are doing heavy barbell work; squats, deadlift, rows, whatever, that’s the most oblique and IMO ab work (aside from precontest) that you’ll ever need.[/quote]

Amen to that. I avoid training my waist like the plague just to keep it as small as humanly possible.[/quote]

It’s funny… I agree with what you are saying but Arnold did zillion rep ab workouts. Yet he had a very aethsetic waist. So how to classify that correctly… Don’t do them or overtrain the shit of of them? ha ha ha[/quote]

Oh please, he had a wide waist-so wide that he would often move his upper body to the left or right in front double bicep shots. However, he did have a THIN waist. Still wide, nevertheless.

Brian Buchanan would take the cake as the narrowest waist, and his obliques were pretty much non-existent.

#24


Buchanan

#25

Arnold’s wide fuckin waist

#26

[quote]Short Hoss wrote:

[quote]DJS wrote:

[quote]Short Hoss wrote:

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:

[quote]robertscott wrote:
I’m a long way away from ever looking like a bodybuilder, I know a lot of folk think bodybuilders shouldn’t train their obliques or they’ll look bulky, but that doesn’t really apply to me, I’m a right skinny fuck.[/quote]

I assumed this was the case. Obliques are really the last thing you should ever worry about. If you want to do some ab work that’s fine (I think it’s a waste of time TBH though) but your core will thicken up and strengthen enough on it’s own as you add mass all over. As long as you are doing heavy barbell work; squats, deadlift, rows, whatever, that’s the most oblique and IMO ab work (aside from precontest) that you’ll ever need.[/quote]

Amen to that. I avoid training my waist like the plague just to keep it as small as humanly possible.[/quote]

It’s funny… I agree with what you are saying but Arnold did zillion rep ab workouts. Yet he had a very aethsetic waist. So how to classify that correctly… Don’t do them or overtrain the shit of of them? ha ha ha[/quote]

Oh please, he had a wide waist-so wide that he would often move his upper body to the left or right in front double bicep shots. However, he did have a THIN waist. Still wide, nevertheless.

[/quote]

True; and to demonstrate:

#27

I do these sort of bodyweight sidebend kind of things. Just lie sideways on a bench with your hips on the end; gravity will pull you down and you just lift yourself back up as you would with a DB side bend.

And make sure you have someone holding your legs on the bench otherwise you’re just gonna faceplant.