Abs question

Most people do 3-5 days a week, I go for the latter myself. It depends on what your other routines are. I tend to do a total body workout 5 days a week, so I include planks and other core work but you don't have to do it that often. If I do it more than that my core gets fatigued and it can lead to injury or simply not making any progress. Always take rest days.

SuperJustin1 wrote: »

I’m trying to tighten my midsection with core exercises. (Bicycle crunches and planks). My question is, can I do it everyday or should I rotate days, taking a day off and rest in between?

It doesn't work that way. If you want to have "nice abs" or a "tight midsection" you need to do 2 things, build your abdominal muscles and lose fat around your midsection. Losing the fat is about 90% of the equation. You can do ab workouts ad nauseam but you won't ever see your results until you lose enough fat to be at a fairly low body fat percentage. I always recommend people train their abs like they train the rest of their body; hit each muscle group 2-3 times each week using progressive tension overload (more resistance as time goes on). For weighted abdominal work you simply add weight over time. For body weight work you have to add reps/sets or time under tension if you're doing something like planks. For fat loss, you cannot target any particular part of your body and you must simply lose body fat. It will eventually reduce from your midsection revealing your abdominal muscles. I will warn you that it takes a pretty low body fat percentage for this to occur so be prepared.

My sister used to work her abs twice a day. DD did that and ripped a muscle.

vismal wrote: »

SuperJustin1 wrote: »

Is being in a calorie deficit on top of exercise the best way to “burn fat”?

Being in a caloric deficit is the only way to burn fat

@vismal gives accurate advice as always. The exercise you do can create a caloric deficit or you can have a caloric deficit and increase it with exercise. If your goal is 1800 calories a day and you're set at 1lb per week loss, adding 500 calories of exercise a day into the mix without eating more would mean you'd lose more than 1lb per week. However, if you ate at your 1800 calories, exercised 500 calories worth, ate those 500 calories for a total of 2300 calories for that day, you'd still be losing 1lb a week. So yea, the deficit is what burns fat, exercise is another way to achieve it, or increase it besides just your caloric intake. People will tell you that you don't have to exercise to lose weight, which is true, but for your health, overall fitness, I'd recommend it.

vismal wrote: »

SuperJustin1 wrote: »

I’m trying to tighten my midsection with core exercises. (Bicycle crunches and planks). My question is, can I do it everyday or should I rotate days, taking a day off and rest in between?

It doesn't work that way. If you want to have "nice abs" or a "tight midsection" you need to do 2 things, build your abdominal muscles and lose fat around your midsection. Losing the fat is about 90% of the equation. You can do ab workouts ad nauseam but you won't ever see your results until you lose enough fat to be at a fairly low body fat percentage. I always recommend people train their abs like they train the rest of their body; hit each muscle group 2-3 times each week using progressive tension overload (more resistance as time goes on). For weighted abdominal work you simply add weight over time. For body weight work you have to add reps/sets or time under tension if you're doing something like planks. For fat loss, you cannot target any particular part of your body and you must simply lose body fat. It will eventually reduce from your midsection revealing your abdominal muscles. I will warn you that it takes a pretty low body fat percentage for this to occur so be prepared.

quoted for truth my friend. well said.

_fenrir wrote: »

If you’re spot training your mid section, ie, 45mins+ then I’d say a max of twice a week, you need to make sure you rest the area properly, but the main think is diet and fluids, cut down on salts and sugars if you’re looking for definition, but this is a quite general piece of advice, it’s largely dependant in the person and their body type, diet, favourite colour.....etc etc etc

Unless you're overextending yourself in your core training, there's no reason not to train it every day...

That being said, Everything you do if done correctly engages your core, and so there's limited need for deliberate focus on core work