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1) The biggest factor in having visible abs is having a low bodyfat percentage (i.e. <12-14% for men). You can have very strong ab muscles yet they won't show if they're covered in fat. You need a calorie deficit to get abs.
2) You can't spot-reduce fat. Doing ab exercises doesn't make you lose weight around your stomach any more than any other exercise does.
3) Compound exercises with heavy weights (i.e. deadlifts, squats, pullups, farmer walks, etc) end up working your abs anyway, so they don't need to be done in isolation.
I do ALL of the above exercises you mentioned inside (parentheses) and *none* of them work the abs enough.
Strong abs are needed....to do the above exercises....not the other way around.
The slight work the abs get by the above exercises is minimal in the first one and largely nonexistent in the latter 3.
Planks, Side Planks, Planks on an exercize ball (they love planks),modified crunches, bicycle crunches, scizzors making sure back is flat on the floor (no arching), roll downs. Also carrying this heavy weight with a handle (can use a dumb bell - start with right hand and walk down the gym and back, and then switch to the left hand and walk down the gym and back) and repeat for several sets. That strengthens the whole center core area.
Also goblet squats work the core without loading the lower back. Core is more than just abs. It is also the glutes area as well.
There were some fluff things I never adopted. (cat stretches, etc).
They always stressed a neutral spine and bracing whenever you work out.
I do miss the situps. I hated doing them but they were killer and exhausting to do. I was the queen of situps on a slantboard. Now I am the zero of situps. I knew they were not the best for abs but I liked doing them because of the difficulty. But they were one of the exercises that a few years ago would create terrible back pain the day after doing them (after years of being ok doing them). They were probably my worse culprit of back pain.
I do ALL of the above exercises you mentioned inside (parentheses) and *none* of them work the abs enough.
Strong abs are needed....to do the above exercises....not the other way around.
The slight work the abs get by the above exercises is minimal in the first one and largely nonexistent in the latter 3.
And never forget the obliques.
I agree, but... proper Zercher squats are a marvelous exception. Shameless plug for my favorite exercise
I do a bit of abs, and I try to use resistance rather than endless crunches.
I view compound lifts as ab-optional. You can really slack your abs (greater risk of injury) during compounds, or you can flex them hard and watch the bar magically explode upwards, though it's hard and a ton of pressure. Voluntary contraction during movement is under-rated, apparent identical movements are not created equal. They may look the same, but different things can be going on under the hood.
3) Compound exercises with heavy weights (i.e. deadlifts, squats, pullups, farmer walks, etc) end up working your abs anyway, so they don't need to be done in isolation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Way
I disagree with #3 and here's why.
Sorry, Mike, but Lair is absolutely right...The frontal abs are the only muscles in our bodies that don't move anything. Their purpose is to hold our intestine in when intra-abdominal pressure goes up as we strain doing other movements. Lifters use belts not to protect the back, but to prevent hermiation of the abs.
Contracting the frontal abs is strictly an isometric maneuver, NEVER an isotonic move. (It can't be. They don't move anything.)-->
Flexing the thigh on the torso-- sit ups if you keep the thighs stationary, or high stepping with the thigh or "crunches" if you keep the torso stationary, is done by contraction of the psoas mm...The glutes are the main muscles opposing the psoas...."Back aches" are mostly caused by imbalance of the psoas tension and can be corrected by increasing tone in the glutes.
Sorry, Mike, but Lair is absolutely right...The frontal abs are the only muscles in our bodies that don't move anything. Their purpose is to hold our intestine in when intra-abdominal pressure goes up as we strain doing other movements. Lifters use belts not to protect the back, but to prevent hermiation of the abs.
Contracting the frontal abs is strictly an isometric maneuver, NEVER an isotonic move. (It can't be. They don't move anything.)-->
Flexing the thigh on the torso-- sit ups if you keep the thighs stationary, or high stepping with the thigh or "crunches" if you keep the torso stationary, is done by contraction of the psoas mm...The glutes are the main muscles opposing the psoas...."Back aches" are mostly caused by imbalance of the psoas tension and can be corrected by increasing tone in the glutes.
I don't believe that for a second. Crunches (done lying on the floor and keeping the lower back on the floor) curl the spine forward by contracting the rectus abdominis muscles. The crunch is a concentric and eccentric movement of the rectus abdominus muscle, not isometric.
Planks, Side Planks, Planks on an exercize ball (they love planks),modified crunches, bicycle crunches, scizzors making sure back is flat on the floor (no arching), roll downs. Also carrying this heavy weight with a handle (can use a dumb bell - start with right hand and walk down the gym and back, and then switch to the left hand and walk down the gym and back) and repeat for several sets. That strengthens the whole center core area.
Also goblet squats work the core without loading the lower back. Core is more than just abs. It is also the glutes area as well.
There were some fluff things I never adopted. (cat stretches, etc).
They always stressed a neutral spine and bracing whenever you work out.
I do miss the situps. I hated doing them but they were killer and exhausting to do. I was the queen of situps on a slantboard. Now I am the zero of situps. I knew they were not the best for abs but I liked doing them because of the difficulty. But they were one of the exercises that a few years ago would create terrible back pain the day after doing them (after years of being ok doing them). They were probably my worse culprit of back pain.
The crunch is a concentric and eccentric movement of the rectus abdominus muscle, not isometric.
Wrong....The abs only get shorter when doing a crunch by passive participation. The spine curls, thus shortening the distance from the origin to the insertion of the abs becuse as the psoas contract doing the "heavy lifting" of the maneuver, the paraspinous mm contribute reflexively, thus bending the spine....
If you stimulated the abs with an electric shock, say, the distance from the origin to the insertion would not change...and if you stimulated the psoas in isolation in the same way, the spine would not curl, nor the abs contract.
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