Thread: How often to exercise abs.

Abs are a muscle group, just like any other. Some people work them everyday, but I think a couple times per week is enough. Many people just do calesthenics, but you should use weights for your ab workouts too.

I work them four times a week (mon, wed, thur, sat). I don't do any weighted exercises. I just do variations on crunchies.

I work mine at least 4 times a week and vary the types of exercises that I do each day. Sometimes I use weights, sometimes I don't.

robin hood can you tell me what exercises you use for abs? thanks

once a week is fine.

doing more than that will cause you to overtrain and halt any growth you might want. Also overtraining decreases the size of your abs as during lifting muscle is freyed and constant freying of the muscle eventually ends up in the gradual breakdown of the muscle. Recovery time is important.

better idea is to diet and ge ta low bf% after your bulk. Abs will stand out much more with less work.

if you are doing abs dont do them on exercise days that test core strength as abs really help with back support. i.e. squats, deads. You want to find a nice time for it where it can recoop before it is used as a synergist. Or just train abs after you are done all the core training exercises.

Dont believe me, get your abs sore then try those exercises.

Robin Hood and cfs3, what do you think of Machher's comments.

Not that I doubt the comments but you are saying once a week and the others are saying 4 times a week!!!!

Who's advice should I follow!!!!????

split the difference

Originally Posted by robousy

Who's advice should I follow!!!!????

u know muscle tone can only be achieved through low bodyfat...?

and assuming u know you should also realise that no matter how many crunches you do, your abs wont be any more "toned" than before.

lets use a metaphor to explain.

Why cant you see the bottom of the pool clearly? Cause water bends light and the deeper the bottom the more the light bends and defracts and visiblity decreases.

now think of the bottom of the pool to be your abs and fat the water in the pool. How do we get to see the bottom?
1. remove the water (loose body fat)
2. raise bottom of the pool. (gain muscle on our abs)

There simply is no other way.

Originally Posted by robousy

Robin Hood and cfs3, what do you think of Machher's comments.

Not that I doubt the comments but you are saying once a week and the others are saying 4 times a week!!!!

Who's advice should I follow!!!!????

One of the things that you need to understand about muscles is that they are not all the same. Different muscles have different recovery times and need to be stimulated to different degrees. The muscles with the quickest recovery time are calves and forearms. The muscles with the slowest recovery time are the spinal erectors (these can take as much as six or seven days to recover). Take a moment to consider how often a particular muscle is used in your daily life. How often do you use your calves and forearms? How often do you use spinal erectors? Size is also an important factor.

Add to this the role of genetics. A pure mesomorph will recover much faster than a pure endomorph.

So for me, given my genetic predisposition (endo-mesomorph), I work my abs four times a week directly, in additional to the workout they get indirectly and my abs are developing just fine. Now you need to go figure out what works for you.

As a tip, I prefer to over estimate my capabilities (using realistic expectations) and cut back, if necessary, versus trying too little and taking an inordinate amount of time to work up to where I should be.

Give it shot.

Oh, and working your abs will not give you a six pack if your body fat is too high, but having better developed abs will help them to show though sooner.

Hmmmm....think I need to find a website to figure out what kind of ekto morph I am am.




Thks for the advice.
I'll probably try 2 or 3 times a week. I think that I need to lose the body fat too so I can actually see them! I think that is my focus for the near future!

I work them every other day. My opinion is they are basically like calves and forearms in that they are constantly under duress in practically any exercise you do, so they require more volume than most other body parts.