Karky: got a link to the russian twist. I am russian and it would be awesome if i can do that twist 
Overworking abs???
- Thread starter jewfro18
- Start date
this is decline russian twist, the version i like the best.
Note how his lowerback is NOT rotating. Its lumbar (lowerback) stability and thorotical (the upper part of the spine) rotation.
was some good info there too on ab rollouts. you can do them with a barbell too. and standing is pretty darn tough. you can do them on you're knees too.
they WILL kill you. first time i did them it felt like my abs were about to get ripped out of my body.
read carefuly what it says, spechally about the pelvis.
Note how his lowerback is NOT rotating. Its lumbar (lowerback) stability and thorotical (the upper part of the spine) rotation.
was some good info there too on ab rollouts. you can do them with a barbell too. and standing is pretty darn tough. you can do them on you're knees too.
they WILL kill you. first time i did them it felt like my abs were about to get ripped out of my body.
read carefuly what it says, spechally about the pelvis.
Here is my take on the ab situation, and it seems to work for me and my friends.
Are you doing abs to build? Are you doing abs to tone? Are you doing abs for maintenance? Those are some questions you will need to answer before you should decide your frequency and intensity.
If you are trying to build, then you are probably using weight, and more than likely heavy weight (or at least what should be considered heavy for abs). In this case, I would treat abs as any other muscle group and give 36-48 hours rest between w/o's. The reason for the 36-48 hours is to give the muscles rest from the heavy anaerobic workout that you just did to break down the muscle fibers.
If you are trying to tone, then you are probably using some light weights here and there on certain exercises. In this case, you would also want to treat abs as any other muscle group because you are still doing anaerobic exercise. But, this is not always the case because you might not necessarily use weights all of the time.
If you are doing maintenance, then you are probably not using weights and are doing a strictly aerobic exercise. In this case, it might be all right for you to do abs on consecutive days.
BUT, in all cases, if you have a heavily intesive ab day, where you burn the hell out of your abs (ex: positive and negative muscle failure) then you will want to give them the same rest as your anaerobic w/o's.
Intensity of w/o's plays an important role in how you build your w/o's. Mind you, this is just what my friends and I do, and it is with SOME research, but by no means is it a tried and true method passed down from generation to generation. It is just something that we do that seems to work. Personally, I don't build at all, and I rarely use weights for abs, and I do them almost every day I w/o. BUT, as someone else mentioned here, I usually only do 3 sets of 40-50 and I stagger it with 2 different exercises.
Are you doing abs to build? Are you doing abs to tone? Are you doing abs for maintenance? Those are some questions you will need to answer before you should decide your frequency and intensity.
If you are trying to build, then you are probably using weight, and more than likely heavy weight (or at least what should be considered heavy for abs). In this case, I would treat abs as any other muscle group and give 36-48 hours rest between w/o's. The reason for the 36-48 hours is to give the muscles rest from the heavy anaerobic workout that you just did to break down the muscle fibers.
If you are trying to tone, then you are probably using some light weights here and there on certain exercises. In this case, you would also want to treat abs as any other muscle group because you are still doing anaerobic exercise. But, this is not always the case because you might not necessarily use weights all of the time.
If you are doing maintenance, then you are probably not using weights and are doing a strictly aerobic exercise. In this case, it might be all right for you to do abs on consecutive days.
BUT, in all cases, if you have a heavily intesive ab day, where you burn the hell out of your abs (ex: positive and negative muscle failure) then you will want to give them the same rest as your anaerobic w/o's.
Intensity of w/o's plays an important role in how you build your w/o's. Mind you, this is just what my friends and I do, and it is with SOME research, but by no means is it a tried and true method passed down from generation to generation. It is just something that we do that seems to work. Personally, I don't build at all, and I rarely use weights for abs, and I do them almost every day I w/o. BUT, as someone else mentioned here, I usually only do 3 sets of 40-50 and I stagger it with 2 different exercises.
Thanks for all the info from everyone...I am only like 5'10, 140 lbs with like 5 % body fat, so its not hard to see my abs really since I am pretty skinny...i guess in that case I am trying to tone and build up on them also...you tihnk my best option is to use weights on ab exercises? Thanks again
It really depends on you and what you want. If you want mass, then I would say yes, use weights. And try different exercises to hit different muscle groups in different orders. As stated before, things like the Russian Twist can be very helpful in breaking up the norm and shocking muscle groups.
you cant 'tone', you can only be 'toned'. using light or no weight is fine but doing 3 sets of 40-50 reps is just about cardio.
toning is the result of a good amount of lean muscle mass and low body fat. treat your abs like any other muscle - and how many lean/muscular guys do you see in the gym doing 150 reps of presses, rows etc to get 'toned' chest/back/arms etc. you may as well go do some proper cardio for 15 minutes.
also, if you are trying to maintain you should still be doing resistance training, or else the lean mass you have will quickly disappear.
hahajust use a barbell
The power of necessity brings out our thinking minds.
No need to train abs everyday.
Abs are trained with many compound movements so if you are performing squats, deads, rows, etc with good form, your the abs will be trained indirectly with a need to hit them no more than 1-2 times per week with isolation movements.
Yes, treat them like every other muscle.
Abs are trained with many compound movements so if you are performing squats, deads, rows, etc with good form, your the abs will be trained indirectly with a need to hit them no more than 1-2 times per week with isolation movements.
Yes, treat them like every other muscle.
Karky DID give you good advice and regardless of his age, he is a very good contributor to this forum as well as mine. I feel sorry for you if you judge peoples advice on how they appear or how old they are.
I think it's just the picture of Klarky that is throwing people off. I have no problem taking advice from an 18 year old but in that picture he can pass off as 12. I made the mistake thinking he was rather young in another thread.
I hope you take no offense from this Klarky. It is a cute hat
~Nicole
I hope you take no offense from this Klarky. It is a cute hat
~Nicole