Theory: Ideal Sequence for Abdominal Exercise

I was doing some Internet research regarding the ideal sequence for working the abdominal muscles. I was tempted to buy "secrets" from online trainers but decided to hold off until the secret information was "leaked" or made available for "free."

While patiently waiting, I ran across an old book from "Health for Life" entitled "Legendary Abs II." In it was the information listed below.

The main factor determining ideal exercise sequence is the principle of Interdependency of Muscle Groups.

Often, two or more muscle groups cooperate in an exercise. When this happens, it's possible for a tired muscle to limit the effort aimed at a fresh one. Properly taking into account their interdependence helps prevent this.

Then the book, for the sake of simplicity, divided the abdominal into 3 basic areas: upper, lower, external obliques and continued with the following explanation...

First consider just the upper (center) abs and the lower abs. They are interdependent in the following way:

When you do a lower ab exercise, you use both LOWER and UPPER abs.

When you do an upper ab exercise, you use almost exclusively UPPER abs.

Notice that the upper abs play a role in working both areas. If you train them first, their fatigue will limit your lower ab work, preventing the lower abs from getting a good workout. The solution is to train the lower abs first, then finish with the upper abs with exercises that concentrate on them.

There's a side benefit to proper sequencing: Since the uppers become partially fatigued from the lower ab work, they don't have to be pushed very hard to get a good workout.

We can apply the same logic to oblique work. The obliques twist the torso -- with support from the upper abs. Therefore oblique (twisting) exercises should precede upper ab (straight forward) exercises, so that upper ab fatigue doesn't become a limiting factor in training the obliques.

In summary, the author's ideal sequence for abdominal exercise is listed below...

1. Exercises mainly involving lower abs
2. Exercises involving twisting movements
3. Exercises mainly involving upper abs

Please let me know what you think.