Ab work

Mojorisin99

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From what I understand you don't want to do abs everyday, typically 2-3 times a week in order to rest them. So if you are doing abs 3 times a week, is it best to do a full ab workout each time, or just focus on a particular area (upper/lower/side) for each day?
 
i hit mine twice a week, once high rep with no added wieght, and once with added wieght and all sets til failure. and when i say failure i mean the "dying cramps man".abs are muscles and yes they are tougher than most due supporting your upper body wieght all your life, but they can be overworked. 2 times is all i can do. especailly after the heavy day. i have a great routine if you care for it. its 600 reps 6 exercises on the regular day & 6 exercises somewhere around 500 to 550 reps on the heavy day. with every part of the abs getting hard twice on each.
 
Also because I train my abs in Judo class twice a week, I am working my abs in the afternoon at the gym and then at night during class. And the next day I rest them. Is it ok to work them twice in a day, the ab workout at judo class is pretty light so I like to work them hard in the gym.
 
I read a good article in grappling mag about abbs, the guy, eric paulson, did 10 exercises for 30 seconds each, rested one minute, then continued another ten, rest, ten, etc. untill 15 minutes had gone by. He did this at the very end of his workouts, 3 x a week.

exercises he did:
Supermans, hypers, leg raise, swiss ball crunch, crunch, oblique crunch, side bends while holding swiss ball above your head, knee striking, back crunches, bicycle and about five other ones, he says to set up all the equipment before hand and go 30 seconds then run to the next station. I tried it, it's brutal! Feels good later tho', and my abs are like " ya D, good job!" for like, 2 days. (yes my abs can talk.)
 
I have a confession to make... I don't train my abs. I trust that squats, deads, and sandbag work will hit my core plenty.

However, I feel inclined to point out that there are no such thing as lower ab exercises. your abs contract as a unit or not at all. And since I don't think my ab training (or lack there of) is appropriate for fighters, I'll tell you this, when I DID do ab training I did one heavy exercise at the end of each weight training session with a lot of emphasis on things like saxon side bends, full contact twists, bent presses and the like. These are exercises you cannot do without weight. if you wanted to, you could alternate low rep (which I define as less than 10 per side for abs) and high rep (20 or more) from session to session.

My big fear is that since you said "upper, lower and side" is that you're using shitty exercises. so what are you planning on doing? cause eljabo's routine (550 reps on a heavy day?!) sounds like a big steaming pile of horse shit to me. so does that fucking t-mag article... here are some better ones:

http://www.angelfire.com/hero/urbandruid/Strength_training_101.html My first "article" complete with a section on abs

http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=205abs (even though I've lost a lot of faith in davies these are great exercises)
 
work your abs 3-4 times per week. mix up the exercises you do, do some with little or no weight and high reps and do some weighted with low reps. eventually you will realize you do some better than others, at that point i say concentrate more on the exercises you are not so good at, change things around, and make sure to not over work or underwork your abs
 
Urban said:
I have a confession to make... I don't train my abs. I trust that squats, deads, and sandbag work will hit my core plenty.

However, I feel inclined to point out that there are no such thing as lower ab exercises. your abs contract as a unit or not at all. And since I don't think my ab training (or lack there of) is appropriate for fighters, I'll tell you this, when I DID do ab training I did one heavy exercise at the end of each weight training session with a lot of emphasis on things like saxon side bends, full contact twists, bent presses and the like. These are exercises you cannot do without weight. if you wanted to, you could alternate low rep (which I define as less than 10 per side for abs) and high rep (20 or more) from session to session.

My big fear is that since you said "upper, lower and side" is that you're using shitty exercises. so what are you planning on doing? cause eljabo's routine (550 reps on a heavy day?!) sounds like a big steaming pile of horse shit to me. so does that fucking t-mag article... here are some better ones:

http://www.angelfire.com/hero/urbandruid/Strength_training_101.html My first "article" complete with a section on abs

http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=205abs (even though I've lost a lot of faith in davies these are great exercises)

I do abs in judo but not much on my own, jsut sometimes. Judo is plenty though. But your comment about you cannot target diferent parts of your abs, how can that be? WHen I am lying on one side, and I do side situps, only one side will get tired and burning. Seems like this is islating one side. When I do lots of leg raisers, it seems that the lower part is used more and if I overdo it, it is the very lower portion that gets sore from these.

We have some pretty creative ab excersizes we do for judo, one being laying on the ground at your partners feet, grabbing his ankles and kicking your legs at his stomache, knees straight, and having him throw your feet back towards the ground. Don't let your feet touch. That one gets hard fast.

I heard a rumor that too much deadlifting and too little ab work can unbalance your core strength and set up up for an injury. What is the word on this?
 
muerteverde said:
I do abs in judo but not much on my own, jsut sometimes. Judo is plenty though. But your comment about you cannot target diferent parts of your abs, how can that be? WHen I am lying on one side, and I do side situps, only one side will get tired and burning. Seems like this is islating one side. When I do lots of leg raisers, it seems that the lower part is used more and if I overdo it, it is the very lower portion that gets sore from these.
When he said you cannot target different parts of the abs he was referring only to the abs themselves, of course you can still target your hip flexors and obliques as they are separate muscles.
 
Urban said:
I have a confession to make... I don't train my abs. I trust that squats, deads, and sandbag work will hit my core plenty.

However, I feel inclined to point out that there are no such thing as lower ab exercises. your abs contract as a unit or not at all. And since I don't think my ab training (or lack there of) is appropriate for fighters, I'll tell you this, when I DID do ab training I did one heavy exercise at the end of each weight training session with a lot of emphasis on things like saxon side bends, full contact twists, bent presses and the like. These are exercises you cannot do without weight. if you wanted to, you could alternate low rep (which I define as less than 10 per side for abs) and high rep (20 or more) from session to session.

My big fear is that since you said "upper, lower and side" is that you're using shitty exercises. so what are you planning on doing? cause eljabo's routine (550 reps on a heavy day?!) sounds like a big steaming pile of horse shit to me. so does that fucking t-mag article... here are some better ones:

http://www.angelfire.com/hero/urbandruid/Strength_training_101.html My first "article" complete with a section on abs

http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=205abs (even though I've lost a lot of faith in davies these are great exercises)


Whats sandbag work?
 
sandbag shouldering, lifting, carrying, pressing, squatting, cleaning, snatch and catching, loading, etc. Get a duffel bag fill it with about 100 lbs of sand and perform 50 reps of one of these exercises in 20 minutes. The sandbag is an unstable, odd shaped object. hits your stabilizers like nothing else.
 
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