How many days for abs?

[brandon615]

How many days per week should people work out their abs?

 

[delsolrob]

personally I like to hit abs 3 times a week.

 

[brandon615]

like a m/w/f kinda thing?

 

[BigKrabbe]

I do abs every day, when I wake up 100 crunches and 50 leg raises. Same thing when I go to bed. This works for me though, some people can have really good abs only doing them 2 or 3 times a week.

 

[brandon615]

Ha thanks guys. Basically im tryin to figure out if you can overtrain your abs.

 

[delsolrob]

like a m/w/f kinda thing?

yeah, I do them M-W-F

 

[delsolrob]

Ha thanks guys. Basically im tryin to figure out if you can overtrain your abs.

yes, you can overtrain any muslce

 

[OCCFan023]

I do mine 1 or 2 days max if I feel up to it. Personally I find if I train abdominals like other muscle groups (hard as hell and let the recuperate) I see the most growth. I give them the time they need and go all out (to me if your training them to the point where you can easily think about training them the next day or the day after than you're not really training them.) I'll give them 30 minuets of attention and thats it.

Granted abs are also being hit with almost every other body part I do indirectly it works well.

My .02 and what I know works for myself.

 

[brandon615]

Any suggestions on exercises to hit the lower abs?

 

[BigKrabbe]

leg raises that involve your hips getting off the ground. Abs are a very hard muscle to over train IMO because you use them functionally almost all the time, when I was boxing 5 days a week we would do 500+ different reps of abs stuff and my abs were grossly cut..think about who have really cut up abs...boxers, mma fighters, wrestlers ( among many many others ) but all of these people train abs A LOT and it shows, just my two cents though.

 

[Rugger]

Just keep in mind that abs are made in the kitchen, not in the weight room. Besides, if you're doing all the movements you should be doing (squats, deadlifts) your abs will be plenty big.

If I had to chose one exercise though, it wold be cable crunches.

 

[The Batman]

Every day, but I never work them directly, my midsection is already to muscular as it is.

Squats, deads. strict standing overhead presses, cleans and jerks are just about all you need to build a powerful midsection.

 

[BodyWizard]

One day a week - but *every* day I work out, I make sure that I keep my abs engaged; IMO it's not possible to lift safely and with proper form if abs are NOT engaged/activated.

Isolate lower abs w/ vertical leg thrusts & w/ extended-leg micro-curls: these are subtle moves (particularly the curls) and really benefit from patience & careful attention; when done right, they're powerful and flexible, but they can be frustrating to get the hang of. Best visualization fix I can offer for the curls: you're trying to bring the superior margin of your pubic bone in toward the coccyx. For the thrusts: don't let your hips touch the floor between reps.

 

[beebab]

The "ab" muscles we train when we work out our core are called our Rectus abdominis muscles... like any other muscle group in our body, these muscles can be overtrained and overworked. If training your abs daily works for you, then more power to you. But IMO it's better to give your core muscles a couple days rest in between workouts so they can recover properly.

 

[BigKrabbe]

I see your point, yes any muscle can be overtrained. However, like I stated before you use your abs functionally almost all the time...they are an extremely hard muscle to ovetrain IMO.

 

[brandon615]

Thanks for the suggestions you guys

Edit: you guys...meant yall. lol im a southerner

 

[Hank Vangut]

Just keep in mind that abs are made in the kitchen, not in the weight room. Besides, if you're doing all the movements you should be doing (squats, deadlifts) your abs will be plenty big.

i'll second this notion.
no direct ab work needed if you are doing all the big moves and know how to eat right.

 

[Condition1]

I see your point, yes any muscle can be overtrained. However, like I stated before you use your abs functionally almost all the time...they are an extremely hard muscle to ovetrain IMO.

You also use your arms functionally almost all the time. Doesn't mean you have to train them more than 2x a week, just higher reps to stimulate them for growth.

Thing I don't like about doing MMA or boxing is that you do so many ab workouts, and yes a lot of the guys have nice abs, but compare them to amateur body builders that seldom work the abs and the body builder takes the cake.

 

[BigKrabbe]

Lol I agree the bodybuilder takes the cake, but thats after extreme dieting before the show. Different stuff works different for everyone though...to each their own.

 

[brandon615]

So for the guys that sed proper diet and the squats, dl's will take care of abs are you talking about maintaining what you already have or improving the appearance?
My gut is not huge by any means. But also i am not ripped to where my abs show really good. So will the squat, dl's still work for me?

 

[Rugger]

So for the guys that sed proper diet and the squats, dl's will take care of abs are you talking about maintaining what you already have or improving the appearance?
My gut is not huge by any means. But also i am not ripped to where my abs show really good. So will the squat, dl's still work for me?

No amount of ab work will make your abs look good if you're a fat ass. If you want to see your abs, work to make them larger and get your diet fixed. IMO training them everyday isn't the answer. I do really heavy cable crunches maybe once a week.