Abs
NerdyFlex
Posts: 1,672 Member
How many days a week should abs be trained?
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Replies
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I never train my abs directly...just lots of compound lifting.11
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If you want developed muscles, 3 to 6x a week is a reasonable goal.3
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I used to work my abs about 4x a week. It’s just tough to do that on top of the other muscle groups and a busy schedule0
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It’s about a 20 minute routine0
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It’s 4 sets of 4 different abs workouts0
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I never isolate abs. I do heavy core lifts, some kettle bell stuff, and lots of jiu jitsu. Results are as you see. Far from perfect but good enough for me, with function > aesthetics.
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I did twice a week. Day one was 3 tri-sets working abs and obliques. Then day 2 was just a few sets of hanging leg raises after my main workout.1
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If you focus on heavy compound lifts you likely just need to drop body fat. I guess to make them pop twice a week like every other body part would work. I think there is a abs thread but don’t have the link. Anyone got it?
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I have abs already, I meant to just kinda keep them maintained. I phrased the question poorly, my bad guys. Thanks for the advice though!!0
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I have abs already, I meant to just kinda keep them maintained. I phrased the question poorly, my bad guys. Thanks for the advice though!!
In that case, just keep your BF% about where it is and keep doing what you are doing workout wise. Once you have them it's easy to keep them.1 -
I just do them twice a week and combined with compound lifts, I find it's enough. I don't go crazy on abs workout, when I lean out, they pop out more of course, so that tells me that I've done well.0
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I lift three days a week and I do one Ab exercise each day for no more than 3 sets, typically 1 to 2.1
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As others have already said, it's totally unnecessary to do isolated ab exercises if you are doing compound lifts and body weight exercises.
I developed a visble 6 pack by just doing compound lifting/BW exercises, rowing for cardio and dropping my BF to 10%; the latter being the most important in makibg them visible.
Never spent any additional time doing a single situp, crunch, hanging leg lift or any other isolated ab exercise or routine.4 -
Comparatively, compound movements are fairly inferior to engaging and developing the core muscles.
https://youtu.be/_xdOuqokcm4 3 -
vOv
I hit them in some fashion every day. On my lifting days, they get hit indirectly on two days via squats and deads, and directly on bench and overhead day. Dead Bugs and moving planks are part of my general warmup. On off days, my tempo cardio work includes 400 McGill situps.2 -
3-10 minutes daily of light to moderate isolation work is plenty.
Any more duration or intensity will probably lead to compromising your movement. since Core is used in everything.0 -
stanmann571 wrote: »3-10 minutes daily of light to moderate isolation work is plenty.
Any more duration or intensity will probably lead to compromising your movement. since Core is used in everything.
Plus ab cramps really suck.0 -
Wheelhouse15 wrote: »
Plus ab cramps really suck.
INDEED!!!
Can't get out of bed, can't tie your shoes. It's worse than a lower back spasm.0 -
stanmann571 wrote: »
INDEED!!!
Can't get out of bed, can't tie your shoes. It's worse than a lower back spasm.
And stretching backwards can lead to those lol.0 -
stanmann571 wrote: »3-10 minutes daily of light to moderate isolation work is plenty.
Any more duration or intensity will probably lead to compromising your movement. since Core is used in everything.
Noob question! Aren't you supposed to leave 48 hours between working out the same muscle group? Does this not apply if you only do 3-10 minutes?0 -
MegaMooseEsq wrote: »
Noob question! Aren't you supposed to leave 48 hours between working out the same muscle group? Does this not apply if you only do 3-10 minutes?
Abs are one of those things that respond/handle frequent training pretty well. Unless you're crippled from soreness- if you wanted to do ab work back to back days on end you *could*... but I can think of more efficient uses of my time than doing abs back to back to back.
I do abs at this point 2 times a week? My abs are strong- but not efficient- so I'm actively training them to be better at their job. 2-3 times a week is fine- plus the daily activation in my regular life.1 -
MegaMooseEsq wrote: »
Noob question! Aren't you supposed to leave 48 hours between working out the same muscle group? Does this not apply if you only do 3-10 minutes?
If you're working at the limit of your capabilities. AKA lifting heavy, etc yes. If you're doing low-moderate intensity work no.
If you're doing 100 pushups/BW Squats/lunges a day in a circuit with 3 miles of running, once you acclimate you can do the program every day. You're not going to see A LOT of improvement, neither will you see any particular degradation.1 -
MegaMooseEsq wrote: »
Noob question! Aren't you supposed to leave 48 hours between working out the same muscle group? Does this not apply if you only do 3-10 minutes?
The answer is always: it depends. Generally, for lifting you will let the muscle recover 48-72hrs depending on the size of the muscle and the volume and intensity of work, but this isn't really necessary for everyone. It's mostly a hypertrophy thing. Olympic weight lifters will workout for 6+ hours everyday as will wrestlers etc. Endurance athletes also work much more frequently. Also, non-athletes that have heavy labour jobs will also work the same muscles every day and their bodies just adapt to the workload.
You can workout abs pretty much every day and you shouldn't have an issue.1 -
Wheelhouse15 wrote: »
The answer is always: it depends. Generally, for lifting you will let the muscle recover 48-72hrs depending on the size of the muscle and the volume and intensity of work, but this isn't really necessary for everyone. It's mostly a hypertrophy thing. Olympic weight lifters will workout for 6+ hours everyday as will wrestlers etc. Endurance athletes also work much more frequently. Also, non-athletes that have heavy labour jobs will also work the same muscles every day and their bodies just adapt to the workload.
You can workout abs pretty much every day and you shouldn't have an issue.
Also, As above, you'll only work abs to the point of DOMS once.1 -
stanmann571 wrote: »
Also, As above, you'll only work abs to the point of DOMS once.
Huh, interesting - thanks for the info all. I'm not lifting, just doing 30-60 minute bodyweight interval workouts mostly (right now I'm focused on weight-loss/general fitness/muscle maintenance rather than hypertrophy) but I am trying to do things right even at my level. I actually like the core/ab stuff I've done so far and wouldn't mind increasing the frequency some - I've found even a shorter workout gets my back and shoulders feeling better after a day at the computer.0 -
MegaMooseEsq wrote: »
Huh, interesting - thanks for the info all. I'm not lifting, just doing 30-60 minute bodyweight interval workouts mostly (right now I'm focused on weight-loss/general fitness/muscle maintenance rather than hypertrophy) but I am trying to do things right even at my level. I actually like the core/ab stuff I've done so far and wouldn't mind increasing the frequency some - I've found even a shorter workout gets my back and shoulders feeling better after a day at the computer.
If you work at a computer and have sore shoulders I highly recommend doing rowing and other should retraction work. It will help offset your natural anterior tilt that you get from working at a computer daily.3 -
MegaMooseEsq wrote: »
Huh, interesting - thanks for the info all. I'm not lifting, just doing 30-60 minute bodyweight interval workouts mostly (right now I'm focused on weight-loss/general fitness/muscle maintenance rather than hypertrophy) but I am trying to do things right even at my level. I actually like the core/ab stuff I've done so far and wouldn't mind increasing the frequency some - I've found even a shorter workout gets my back and shoulders feeling better after a day at the computer.
The nice thing with a good ab circuit at low-moderate intensity is it's something you can bang out as part of your morning routine while the coffee is brewing. A couple rounds of 30 second planks with 30 seconds rest can be done anywhere and at whatever intensity you desire and it's not going to leave you sweaty or particularly out of breath.
And if you must do a situp variation, I personally prefer V Up variations. with the most basic being floor to floor touches.... laying flat, bring your knees up(feet on the floor and with hands extended overhead, touch the floor above your head and between your toes 5-15 times. When that becomes to easy, raise your toes off the floor progressively until you're doing a full V up. a round should take 15-30 seconds with at least that much time between rounds... do 3 or 4 rounds... or just one, or alternate with plank pushups.
If you're interested in BW programming look at Gymnastic bodies or Overcoming gravity.
I'm not going to try to cover planche progressions here, but they're a lot of fun.... almost as much fun as handstand progressions and variations.2 -
stanmann571 wrote: »
The nice thing with a good ab circuit at low-moderate intensity is it's something you can bang out as part of your morning routine while the coffee is brewing. A couple rounds of 30 second planks with 30 seconds rest can be done anywhere and at whatever intensity you desire and it's not going to leave you sweaty or particularly out of breath.
And if you must do a situp variation, I personally prefer V Up variations. with the most basic being floor to floor touches.... laying flat, bring your knees up(feet on the floor and with hands extended overhead, touch the floor above your head and between your toes 5-15 times. When that becomes to easy, raise your toes off the floor progressively until you're doing a full V up. a round should take 15-30 seconds with at least that much time between rounds... do 3 or 4 rounds... or just one, or alternate with plank pushups.
If you're interested in BW programming look at Gymnastic bodies or Overcoming gravity.
I'm not going to try to cover planche progressions here, but they're a lot of fun.... almost as much fun as handstand progressions and variations.
Do you have anything I can do while I'm drinking the coffee?
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