I'm trying to work my abs a bit before summer. The most readily available an exercises are supermans, planks, situps and variations, and leg raises. Are there any other good an exercises that I should b doing?
Heavy deadlifts, & heavy squats. There's a ton of ab exercises, and you can weight some of them, even so the amount of weight on a weighted ab exercise can't compare to a heavy deadlift or squat. There's lots of guys with a strong enough core to deadlift or squat twice their body weight, last time I checked an ab wheel wasn't considered an essential prerequisite for that.
then read up on the gym that produces some of the strongest people of all time in powerlifting, westside gym. they do direct ab work several days a week. they do believe it is critical to work weak links to not allow them to not be weak links anymore. and its not a matter of doing more work for weak parts but less work for already strong parts.
also:
26-46% more muscle activation from free weight squats. Squats and deadlifts activate core muscles better than stability training, ie side bridges and supermans
-Applied Physiology and Nutritional Metabolism 31: meeting abstracts, 2006
so yes you are partially correct. but if the trunk is a weak link, then you need to make it stronger to catch up to the stronger parts. the weak link is a chain is where the chain will break. i know the last few months the only changes i made to up my squat and deads are trap and ab work. both have gone up 20-30lbs since the start of the year just with that change. those were weak links for me and i look forward to seeing what i can do when they are not weak anymore.
another ab exercise i started doing a few months ago that was not in the article i listed above is front squat partials or super heavy picks. like i front squat 225 so i will put 275 or 315 on a bar, unrack it and hold for time. i was super surprised at how sore my abz were.
Hi Rodja. I disagree. I used to be a long distance runner, I did about a million situps, planks, etc, thought I had a good strong core, until I started doing heavy squats and nearly got folded in half by the weight. All those years of doing crunches might have helped some, but it was the squats that made it really strong. Deadlifts didn't hurt either. Don't get me wrong I still do the ab work (think I'm addicted now), I just don't kid myself that it's making me stronger anymore. They do make a nice break between sets of deadlifts though...
I'm in the opposite position as you, I have trouble with back squats. Try a cross arm grip on front squats, that's the only way I can do them.I also do direct ab work, but it's not the main core work, it's just assistance. The main core work is as you say, the squats & deadlifts. I can't do front squats, haven't got enough flexibility in my wrists, I'd like to but no. I do a lot of pullups though, and I find those work my core a lot more than I would expect.
Did you not read my remark about too much ground-oriented training?
I read it, I'm not sure what you mean by it though. Can you explain?
I read it, I'm not sure what you mean by it though. Can you explain?
He's saying you need to train the core, but not in the ground based situp/crunch type fashion since we don't often lift in this fashion.
Rodja said:This. My core training is never on the ground as I don't lift on the ground. My core training consists of standing crunches (cable and band), ab wheel, DB side bends, hyper/reverse hyper, and full hanging leg raises.
This. My core training is never on the ground as I don't lift on the ground. My core training consists of standing crunches (cable and band), ab wheel, DB side bends, hyper/reverse hyper, and full hanging leg raises.
I'm in the opposite position as you, I have trouble with back squats. Try a cross arm grip on front squats, that's the only way I can do them.