Ab Training Programs

[wina]

Ab Training Programs​

The ab training programs will only comprise about 5-7 minutes of your total training time on any given day. Also, the ab training component of your workouts should be completed approximately twice/week. Sets and reps are indicated as sets x reps (e.g. 2 sets of 5 reps is indicated as 2 x 5). Keep rest periods between ab training sets to no more than 30 seconds. If you are a beginner, start with level 1. If you already have training experience, but cannot correctly complete hanging leg raises with a hunched back, start with level 3. If you already have significant training experience and can already complete approximately 5 hanging leg raises with strict form using a hunched back, start with level 5. Once you can complete the prescribed sets and reps of each exercise in a given level, progress to the next level. I placed abdominal vacuums at the end of each ab workout. However, since ab vacuums can be completed almost anywhere at any time, I suggest getting in the habit of practicing them on your drive home from the gym, instead of wasting your time completing them while actually at the gym. You could also get in the habit of practicing them during your daily commute or some other time that is convenient to you. I definitely think they are important enough to perform regularly, however, there may be a better time and place rather than during your workouts at the gym.

Level 1

Lying leg thrusts – 2 x 5
Reverse crunches – 2 x 5
Ab bicycles – 1 x 20 (each knee to elbow counts as one rep) Alternating crunches – 1 x 15
Bench crunches - 1 x15
Abdominal vacuums


Level 2

Lying leg thrusts – 3 x 8
Reverse crunches – 3 x 6
Ab bicycles – 1 x 24
Stability ball crunches – 1 x 10
Alternating crunches - 1 x 18
Bench crunches - 1 x 18
Abdominal vacuums



Level 3

Decline board leg thrusts - 2 x 8
Lying leg thrusts – 2 x 10
Reverse crunches – 1 x 10
Ab scissors – 1 x 8
Stability ball hip flexion – 1 x 12
Ab bicycles – 1 x 30
Stability ball crunches – 1 x 12
Alternating crunches – 1 x 20
Bench crunches 1 x 20
Abdominal vacuums


Level 4

Hanging knee raises – 2 x 8
Decline board leg thrusts – 1 x 10
Lying leg thrusts – 1 x 12
Stability ball hip flexion – 1 x 15
Ab bicycles – 1 x 30
Stability ball crunches with arms straight over head – 1 x 10
Bench crunches – 1 x 20
Alternating crunches 1 x 20
Abdominal vacuums


Level 5

Hanging leg raises – 2 x 5
Hanging knee raises – 2 x 10
Ab wheel – 1 x 6
Decline board leg thrusts – 1 x 12
Lying leg thrusts – 1 x 15
Ab scissors – 1 x 10
Stability ball crunches holding light weight straight over head – 1 x 10
Alternating crunches – 1 x 25
Abdominal vacuums


Level 6

Hanging leg raises – 3 x 6
Hanging knee raises – 3 x 8
Lying leg thrusts – 2 x 15
Ab wheel – 1 x 8
Ab bicycles – 1 x 30
Stability ball crunches holding light weight straight over head – 1 x 12
Stability ball hip flexion – 1 x 15
Abdominal vacuums


Level 7

Hanging leg raises – 4 x 8
Hanging knee raises – 1 x 10
Decline board leg thrusts – 1 x 15
Ab bicycles – 1 x 30
Ab wheel – 1 x 10
Floor crunches holding light weight straight over head – 1 x 15
Weighted cable rope crunches – 1 x 12


Level 8

Hanging leg raises - 4 x 10
Hanging knee raises – 1 x 12
Decline board leg thrusts – 1 x 15
Lying leg thrusts – 1 x 15
Ab scissors – 1 x 20
Stability ball crunches holding light weight straight over head – 1 x 12
Ab wheel – 2 x 10
Ab bicycles – 1 x 30
Alternating ab crunches – 1 x 20
Weighted cable rope crunches – 1 x 15

At this point, if you’ve worked up to level 8, and can complete all of the prescribed sets and reps in level 8, there is no way that you don’t have a well developed set of abs. At this point, if you still can’t see a defined six-pack, then your body fat % is still too high, and you must look again at your diet and your full body training routine as a whole.

 

[kiwiinmn]

WTF... your posts seem more like a school project than advice. The best ab exercises are heavy to exhaustive standing over head presses, front squats, squats, dead lifts, power cleans to mention a few and I don't care who you are, female, male, elderly, teenager. Every single persons workout program should consist of low medium and high rep ranges. 2-5 reps, 6-12 reps and 15-20 reps. Doing this in conjunction with known exercises that are actually beneficial and set up in a per iodized manner will see you with a set of abs that is better defined and more functional than you'll get with any of the exercises you have listed, save maybe the Vacuum. But this is a waste of time performing in the gym ( as you correctly stated) and should be worked on every second of the day your conscious of it outside of the gym, so that when you engage your core during exercise you instinctively draw your belly button into your spine and toward your rib cage, thereby creating a safe lifting environment for your low back and in the process creating an awesome set of core musculature.
Doing a **** ton of ab execises in a workout is indication that the person doesn't really know what they are doing and wasting a lot of time, especially with all the exercises you have listed that have excessive hip flexor movements. e.g. There is minimal to no engagement of the abs in leg and knee raises until the hips have passed a 90 degree range of motion at the hip joint... how many people do you ever see drawing their knees to their face correctly when doing any leg lift, hanging or prone?... Here's a little anatomy tidbit for you... your abs are primarily used to draw your torso toward your waist... NOT to draw your legs toward your chest, until of course they pass beyond the 90 degree point. Which if you ever pay attention to in the gym, practically NEVER happens.