Abs - a reality check

[Dustin07]

I've always been a believer that "abs are made in the kitchen" and over and over again I prove that to myself by simply cleaning up the nutrition plan and never ever doing isolated ab work.

With that said, I want to do a reality check. I'm curious of what anyone can share about their experience in this realm.

Inevitably, many of us gear down and start doing a thousand crunches simultaneously to eating better and adding cardio. So did the targeted ab work do anything? or again, were the abs made in the kitchen...?

For those of you who do see improvement in this realm from targeted work, I'd like to hear what your targeted work is, and what results you see. Personally, I lean towards moderate repetition of weighted ab work vs the 1,000 crunches approach. Weighted decline situps, weighted twists, weighted knee raises, weighted pull downs, etc.

I'm thinking of bringing them back into my weekly diet, and that's what spurred the questions for me.

 

[Yomo]

Abs are definitely made in the kitchen...the only time I've ever had impressive abs/obliques is when I was down to 8-10% BF...

nowadays, the only direct ab work I utilize are rollers...and it's only because I feel as if it helps improve bracing patterns during the big 3, something I picked up watching The Kalashnikov...he uses weighted hyperext. and ab wheels/rollers religiously for the carryover...

as far as your question is concerned, the main movement I see the most in terms of visual ab improvement is almost always hanging leg raise variations...

 

[Dustin07]

from a physique standpoint, do you work on developing obliques etc? I have seen those who intentionally kind of leave them alone to as not make the waist look wider. But a trainer I know responded to that by saying "then grow your lats and delts, but don't ignore the obliques". I loved that.

 

[Yomo]

Weighted side bends always brought out the best of my obliques...but having a very short torso, also impacted the "wide" waist line you mentioned...it was give or take, and at the time weighing just below 160lbs I was willing sacrifice a wider waist line in order to achieve over powering obliques.

I had a rib slip out of place once during a heavy squat...scary as ****...felt and heard a "pop" coming out of the hole, painful as hell...recovered but kept aggravating it every time I went back to heavy side bends...needless to say, ditched them a while back, and now a days, I'm only concerned with lifting heavier weights consistently, and at the very least, looking like I work out when the shirt comes off.

 

[gbirch98]

For sure a good diet is the number one thing that will get you abs. If you are deadlifting and squatting then your abs are growing. While your in your cut I suggest doing fasted cardio and abs in the morning and then do your core lifts at night. That's what I've been doing and I've lost 8 pounds and kept all my size.