Hey -Personal Trainers? Or Weight Lifty-Kinda People? Quick Question About Abs...

[ACMESkydiver 0]

I remember from a loooooong time ago that you can work out abs every day without the rest you have to give your other muscle groups. -Is that thinking still correct?

I did a REEEALLY tough ab workout yesterday. I couldn't finish it...literally could not sit up again. Love muscle failure.

I stretched really well after and did some cardio...fully expecting to be in a lot of pain today, but I'm not at all!
So I'm thinkin' I will rotate Joyce Vedral's Middle body workout (the one I did yesterday) with Mari Windsor's ab sculpting workout (which I'm gonna do today) and a third ab routine (yet to be determined) and so on 6 days per week...

That will continue to build & won't burn out the abs, will it?
Whatcha think?

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

[bobarooni 0]

If you're interested in the best 2 minute workout available let me know, I'll pm you my number.

[simplyputsi 0]

You can do your abs every day, but if your gonna go to the point of failure, you might want to take a day off.
If your gonna do 6 days a week, you need to stagger heavy and low days. You'll figure something out or your body will let you know.
Maybe go medium, heavy, light, heavy, medium, light for your routine.

Just a suggestion. I generally just do abs everyday and usually don't really push it, maybe just increase reps.

Skymama's #2 stalker -

[tigra 0]

OK, DISCLAIMER>>>>>>> not a trainer, more of a trainee - but I try to hit the abs on almost every workout. I never just do an ab workout though. I (or my trainer) incorporate crunches and core work into whatever I am doing. I doubt he'd consistently throw in the ab work if it was bad.

I'll also do light legs the day after a hard core leg workout with him just to keep the muscles loose, same with arms, etc. Sometimes the best treatment for stiff or sore muscles is to work them a little more.

[happythoughts 0]

I do abs every day, but I vary it.

- Doing crunches on a ball. Put your feet next to a wall (to prevent flipping backwards) and sit on the ball. Lean back and support your lower back with the ball. Go slow and don't come all the way up. Keep tension all the time.

- Leg lifts on a bar. The killer. On a pullup bar, slowly do knee or leg raises until failure.

- Yoga. On all fours, raise back using abs and then reverse. It doesn't feel like it until your are done.

- Ab wheel. Buy a little wheel and use at home during commercials while watching tv.

[ACMESkydiver 0]

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Maybe go medium, heavy, light, heavy, medium, light for your routine.

That's a good idea...I'll kind of 'grade' these ab workouts by how tought they are and use them accordingly.

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

[ACMESkydiver 0]

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OK, DISCLAIMER>>>>>>> not a trainer, more of a trainee - but I try to hit the abs on almost every workout. I never just do an ab workout though. I (or my trainer) incorporate crunches and core work into whatever I am doing. I doubt he'd consistently throw in the ab work if it was bad.

I'll also do light legs the day after a hard core leg workout with him just to keep the muscles loose, same with arms, etc. Sometimes the best treatment for stiff or sore muscles is to work them a little more.

That's a good thing to keep in mind...light workout on those same muscle groups the day after to keep from getting sore. The elliptical machine does that for me for lower body...I'll start adding that in on my 'after' leg day.

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

[simplyputsi 0]

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Maybe go medium, heavy, light, heavy, medium, light for your routine.

That's a good idea...I'll kind of 'grade' these ab workouts by how tought they are and use them accordingly.

Cool, it'll give you a goal, you won't have to think ughhh I have to do abs hard, AGAIN, today. If you give yourself light and medium days it's kind of a reward, but it'll help you recover as well.

Skymama's #2 stalker -

[Conundrum 1]

You can work your abs everyday, yes. What I would do though is try to work different ab groups. Do lower abs one day, uppers the next, sides another day, etc. That way you are working your abs everyday but not neccesarily the same muscles.
I love ab workouts.

[DougH 270]

When I was body building I would throw a dumbell on my chest and do crunches on the incline bench with them... I called them heavy abs. They kicked your ass!!!

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[Hausse 0]

Just do the big three. There is no need to really include a special training for the abs seeing that they don't grow very much anyways but that the look mostly depends on the body fat percentage.
The big three (bench press, squats and dead lifts) will stress the abs enough to get the best out of them.

[DougH 270]

I agree... I would add dips to that list... and mention that standing shoulder press gives you great gaines in place of bench.

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[Hausse 0]

Agreed there are several more very valuable exercises but I just tried to keep it simple.
As I said no need for special abs workouts.

[ACMESkydiver 0]

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I do abs every day, but I vary it.

- Doing crunches on a ball. Put your feet next to a wall (to prevent flipping backwards) and sit on the ball. Lean back and support your lower back with the ball. Go slow and don't come all the way up. Keep tension all the time.

- Leg lifts on a bar. The killer. On a pullup bar, slowly do knee or leg raises until failure.

- Yoga. On all fours, raise back using abs and then reverse. It doesn't feel like it until your are done.

- Ab wheel. Buy a little wheel and use at home during commercials while watching tv.

Oh very good...I have exercise balls and a medicine ball here and a pull up bar. I can do all of that except the wheel thingy. I have NEVER been able to do the wheel thingy though.

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

[Hausse 0]

All those fancy tools are not going to be any help. It's useless to work out the abs to make them look better. Even more since you are a women. The only way is to get rid of body fat and those tools are a horrible way to do so.

[AllisonH 0]

It's possible she's working on her abs to make them stronger, not to look better?

[Hausse 0]

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It's possible she's working on her abs to make them stronger, not to look better?

Yeah it definitely is but even if, it would be better to do a whole body training. It's not gonna be any help having killer abs if your back isn't trained. Quite the opposite, you will have a really bad walking position. The better looking would then just be a benefit I suppose.

[warpedskydiver 0]

I never exercise

[RkyMtnHigh 0]

This looks like a fun way to get 6 pack abs

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1479622

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[GQ_jumper 4]

I do abs every day, 6 days a week it's a light workout just to keep them tuned up and then once week I do my core workout which destroys them.

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

[ltdiver 3]

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This looks like a fun way to get 6 pack abs

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1479622

All workouts should be that fun!
ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[TheSecret 0]

I’m one of those “Weight Lifty-Kinda People” so I figure I would chime in.

You should refrain from working the same muscle group everyday. Your muscles grow when you are resting not while your working out. While you’re working out you break down the muscles, in order for you to benefit from that work you have to give them time to recover and grow. If you continue to stress the same muscle group your workouts and strength will plateau or decrease, a sign of over training, because you’re not getting enough muscle recovery rest.

Doing the same exercise everyday may feel great to you, but your robbing yourself of your gains.

Life is good

[ACMESkydiver 0]

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It's possible she's working on her abs to make them stronger, not to look better?

Yeah it definitely is but even if, it would be better to do a whole body training. It's not gonna be any help having killer abs if your back isn't trained. Quite the opposite, you will have a really bad walking position. The better looking would then just be a benefit I suppose.

I guess I should have provided more details. I meant that I will ad the ab workout to my strength training that I already do -I do an upper body routine that includes arms, chest, back, neck. (I have a gym workout that I do on the machines, and I also have a free-weight workout that I do here at home so I'm not doing the same routine). I also have lower body workouts, again one on the gym machines, one that is basic body weight resistence that I do at home -lunges, squats, etc.

Here is what my 'ideal' workout week was going to look like:

Day 1: 30min-1hr cardio (treadmill, step aerobics, or TaeBo) first thing in the morning (depends on when the twins wake up). Breakfast protein shake.
Ab workout after the babies get on the bus.
Later on in the afternoon, lower body workout

Day 2: 30min on elliptical first thing in the morning. Breakfast protein shake.
Ab workout after babies get on the bus.
Later in the afternoon, upper body workout.

Repeat.

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

[Hausse 0]

Hey that sounds pretty good. I just seem to encounter lots of people who think that working out the abs actually helps the looks.

What most people don't know about BB is that about 60% of the success is coming from the right nutrition. Eating wrong will screw up even the best workout so make sure you're good there.

Now before I give any more advice: What's your goal? Gaining muscle mass, loosing fat or just feeling fit?

How many days a week do you do that routine?

[ntrprnr 0]

Abs: We all have them. They simply don't show up under fat.

We lose the fat, the abs come out.

I know I have them. I know that when I'm at my thinnest. I see them.

That's rare.

It's true.

Rare, but true.

Sigh.

_______________
"Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?"
"Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."