Favorite abdominal routine?

[supasaiyan99]

TweetWhat do some of you guys do for abs? Especially obliques? I can't seem to get my obliques to tighten up. Especially the area closer to the lower back. Do those side bends with the dumbbell work? I hear it makes your obliques bigger not tighter?

[daved150]

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Do those side bends with the dumbbell work? I hear it makes your obliques bigger not tighter?

i would tend to believe that will make them bigger...i just think cardio and diet is all you can do, but i maybe wrong...i got a similar prob. with that area that i think is related too not wearing a belt. i dont wear a belt for anything...deads, squats (untill i get to my 3 reo max), leg press...ANYTHING! and that area is starting to stick out (for lack of a better term) too much. i'm still carring more bodyfat than i'd like, wich makes it worse....i gotta start wearing a belt
!

[supasaiyan99]

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i would tend to believe that will make them bigger...i just think cardio and diet is all you can do, but i maybe wrong...i got a similar prob. with that area that i think is related too not wearing a belt. i dont wear a belt for anything...deads, squats (untill i get to my 3 reo max), leg press...ANYTHING! and that area is starting to stick out (for lack of a better term) too much. i'm still carring more bodyfat than i'd like, wich makes it worse....i gotta start wearing a belt
!

So you think wearing a belt will make the area tighter? I guess I will have to start doing that.

[Powerpress]

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What do some of you guys do for abs? Especially obliques? I can't seem to get my obliques to tighten up. Especially the area closer to the lower back. Do those side bends with the dumbbell work? I hear it makes your obliques bigger not tighter?

RUSSIAN TWIST....You sit on a hyper ext. bench with your feet under the pads, as if your doing a sit up, you lower your upper body down until its parallel with the floor. Holding a weight in your hands point your arms straight out toward the ceiling twist your upper body slowly from left to right. Keep your hips on the bench. If you go to www.elitefts.com and search their exercise index I'm sure you will find a pic of it.

[bowbow]

TweetI don't have any favorites for abs. lol I just use a decline bench, a ball and for obliques I lay on the floor and lay my legs over to one side and lift up with my obliques. then do the other side. It's a very small movement but burns my obliques good. I hold onto weight on all excersizes except obliques.

[BM]

TweetMY FAVORITE AB EXERCISE IS EATING

[HeHateMe]

TweetIt's just basic regular crunches for me. I don't use any weights when training abs.

[daved150]

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So you think wearing a belt will make the area tighter? I guess I will have to start doing that.

no...i said i believe alot of it is in you diet and cardio. not wearing a belt, i believe, led me to develope mine more than i would like...leaving it to look bigger! i think you'll devolope them more (make bigger) from not wearing a belt.

[Corrodo]

TweetI never did ONE routine for abs throughout all my show prep and low and behold THEY WERE THERE...lol The only reason I am doing them this offseason is to strengthen my core muscles which will allow my lower back to be less likely to get injured...A strong core means alot when your doing power movements...I like the rope crunches on the cables, and roman twist on the decline with a 25lb plate. Those with some hanging leg lifts and Im good to go. 2 sets of 20 reps each 3 times a week is what I am about to do now.

[Sal Paradise]

TweetI am with Corrodo on this.
Aside from two mornings this year I have not done a set of ab work in 5 years.
I am going to start only to make the abdominal muscles a little more pronounced when standing in relaxed pose on stage.

As far as the oblique area, etc it really all just diet to make things get tighter.


Sal

[kite]

TweetI'm not lookin for a slim and trim waist line but here's what I do. I'll hit some sets of standing pulldown abs, usually working up to around 100lbs for 8-12 reps. Spread eagle situps, situps on the ghr with weight (either holding weight or with bands), side bends with dumbells, or side bends with bands.

[supasaiyan99]

TweetCool! Thanks for the responses guys. Sal and Corrodo I'm surprised you guys don't do ab work. You guys lean up pretty well and your abs look great.

[T-Man007]

TweetI have not read all the responses so this may be redundant, but here goes....the biggest mistake people make iwth training obliques is they way they 'think' they work. I see all these guys doing this side bend while holding a DB. Well, that's not how the obliques work. Yes, you WILL get sore from this because it stretches the heck out of them but it doesn't actually work them. The obliques are responsible for torso rotation, therefore, you have to find a way to rotate the torso against resistance. IMO, the number one exercise for this is Russiona Twists. Basically, you lay on a bench with your knees bent and your feet flat on the bench. You get your partner to hold your feet down and with your shoulder blades OFF the bench (similar to a crunch) you rotate your arms from side to side holding a 10 lb plate. You can also do this on the decline sit up bench if you don't have someone to hold your feet. In a perfect world (once your abs are strong enough) you will want to let your upper body hang off of the bench so that the only thing on the bench is your butt and feet with your partner holding your feet and you twist side to side holding the 10 lb plate fully extended. This advanced variation will kill your abs as well as your obliques. There is also a twisting ab machine that some gyms have. There are good ones and there are crappy ones. I think the ones where your lower body is stationary and your twist yoru upper body are better than the ones where you are twisting your hips. It's too easy to get your hips into the exercise when you are moving at the hip so I don't like those ones.

There are also numerous exercises using those exercise balls. We have a maching where there is a bar abour 3 feet off the ground so I will take one of those exercise balls and put it a foot or two away from the machine and lay on the ball with my feet hooked under the bar. From here I can do crunches, russian twists, static contractions and various other ab exercises. And, the ball forces you to use your core to keep from falling off when you twist side to side. It tough to describe but once someone shows it to you and you see how hard it is, you will want to do it all the time. Any ab exercise that difficult is one you need to do because that's a weak part in your abs.

Finally, there's the weighted twists with a bar. You get a bar and a decline bench and you put 10 pounds on just one end of the bar. You lean back to where all the emphasis is on the abs and you twist one side at a time. Switch the bar around and do the other side. This one is awesome for really getting them to stregthen up and build up. As with any muscle, when you want to add mass, use more resistance. Abs are no different. Apply enough weight that you fail at about 10 reps and do three sets. But, remember, thick obliques mean thick waist, so keep that in mind. Me personally, I like thick abs, and thin obliques, I don't like the boxey waist look, but that's me.

[Corrodo]

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Cool! Thanks for the responses guys. Sal and Corrodo I'm surprised you guys don't do ab work. You guys lean up pretty well and your abs look great.

Well sup, if you hit squats, deads, bent rows, seated rows, etc etc, your working your abs pretty hard....I figured out we all have them no matter what its just the bodyfat at which were at to see them....Still though I am going to hit them hard this offseason more for core strength than actually seeing them, as thats all about bf% imo.

[superdog]

Tweet3x20 crunches as a warmup

3x15 hanging knee ups or
3x20 leg raises from a flat bench where I take my feet down below the bench and raise my hips up off of the bench at the top.

15/12/10 reps on the seated situp machine I ratchet up the weight every set.

Don`t train obliques, they get plenty of work from the leg lifts/knee ups.
An old friend of mine who had great abs told me that if you wanted people to see your abs　then you needed to make the muscles bigger so you could see the seperation through the fat. I totally agree with this. I don`t go over 20 reps and I really try to add weight where I can (leg lifts with a db between my feet, etc).

I understand bodybuilders not training abs and just using diet to bring them out... but.... being realistic, I don`t intend to step on stage soon. So if I wanna look good at 10-14%bf then I need to keep the abs in shape.