I do some direct ab work, but acknowledge that it's really unnecessary. I'll probably do 50 stability ball crunches with a 10lb plate and 20 hanging leg raises once per week, usually as 'filler' in my routine.

I don't do any direct ab work.

I do planks and hanging leg raises, but not on the same day. Planks are at the end of my Tuesday workout which starts out with 3x5 squats. The planks usually just finish me off and thoroughly tire me out after the squats and concentrated leg work. The hanging leg raises are the last exercise on my deadlift day (Friday).

My program starts out with a compound lift on each day (squat, bench, dead, ohp) and then does accessory moves afterwards with iso moves at the end just to make sure I feel trashed, lol. I like to do at least one iso move for bi/tri, abs, and calves even though you hit them in the compound moves anyway. I get better strength gains and lean out faster doing this.

I do a few sets a week of direct ab work.

If core stability is what you want to train, go with things like planks and hanging leg raises.

If you want to train the muscle directly, you have to do something that provides spinal flexion, like crunches.

Doing abs is not really necessary to get abs or to train heavy on the big lifts but I like doing it.

I watched this video from Hahnchampion on Youtube. Dude is pretty huge and puts up some heavy weights but struggled with some pretty basic body weight core work. I dont think this is that uncommon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZmOP83Q9bk

I do some core work twice per week on leg day. Mostly some twisting work like Weighted Russian Twists and windshield wipers. I figure it is like doing hip and shoulder mobility work. I also do some abdominal vacuums and pelvic floor work at my desk. I dont want to blow out my o-ring, :laugh:

don't be the person holding it to their chest. it does nothing.

That's me! yay!

I do side planks, bicycle crunches, and one other exercise that I change up, twice a week, three sets each.