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What Is The Best Ab Training Routine?

What is the first thing people notice when your shirt is off? What do the girls go crazy over? Abs. But, how do you get that ripped six-pack you have always dreamed about?

Anatomy

Before we jump into discussing how the abdominals should be trained, and other related things, we must first look at the muscles themselves. The two main muscles in your abdominal region are the rectus abdominus and the obliques (made up of the internal and external obliques).

The rectus abdominus is what people label the ‘six pack abs’, when visible. It’s role is to move the thorax towards the pelvis (flexion).

The obliques, are on both sides of the the rectus abdominus (about where your elbow is when your arm hangs down, I know bad example but it’s the easiest way to explain it), they are a great accompaniment for a defined ‘six pack’. It like the rectus abdominus is involved in flexion, as well as rotating the thorax (rotation) and lateral movement away from the middle of your body (abduction).

What does it take to get a great set of abs?

Firstly it takes a low bodyfat. Without a low bodyfat your abdominal muscles will not be visible, as they will be covered by a layer of adipose tissue.

Secondly it takes well built abdominal muscles. Sure you’ll have a faint six pack with low bodyfat, but if you want a “great set of abs” that really stand out above others, you need to possess a fair amount of muscle in the abdominal region.

Hundreds of reps every day?

Not at all. Sure you can do hundreds of reps per day, but you will be training for local muscular endurance. People seem to believe that doing hundreds of sit ups will not only build nice abdominal muscles, but will allow you to reduce fat storage in the midsection. Again wrong. Fat loss in your body is a result of age, hormones and genetics. By doing abdominal exercises, you are targeting the abdominal muscles underneath the layer of fat, not the fat. If you want to lose bodyfat perform cardiovascular training 3-4 times a week and pay attention to your diet (I will discuss this later). The common belief that high reps burn fat is merely a myth.

And training every day? Again wrong. Your muscles need rest to grow, you would have heard this numerous times. The result of engaging in weight training or some other similar sort of exercise, is you produce beneficial little tears in your skeletal muscles, known as microtrauma. When you rest it allows for your body to repair these tissues, making your muscles bigger and stronger.

Low reps and high resistance?

This is better. However don’t keep reps too low (below 6) as it can result in injuries through improper form. I would recommend working in the 8-12 rep range as it is in a safe range, where you can work with a weight that allows you to perform reps with good form and it is also in a range that is promoting hypertrophy.

How often should you work your abs?

Once to twice a week is good enough for the majority of people. The abdominal muscles are involved in a quite a few compound movements, especially leg and lower back exercises like Squats and Deadlifts, so keep volume low as you don’t want the abdominals to be overtrained.

What are the most effective ab training exercises?

As long as they can be weighted, allowing for progressive overload almost all abdominal exercises are good…

My pool of exercises I use for my abdominal muscles are:

Rectus Abdominus (1 exercise, 3 sets of 8-12 reps)

- Weighted Hanging Leg Raises
- Weighted Decline Sit ups
- Cable Crunches

Obliques (1 exercise, 2 sets of 8-12 reps)

- Weighted Twisted Crunch
- Dumbbell Side Bends

How does nutrition play a role in it?

Diet is the most important part of reducing bodyfat, so you can see your abdominal muscles, and not have them covered by a layer of fat.

A brilliant diet I’ve discovered recently by reading on bodybuilding.com is Dr Squat’s “ZigZag Diet.” This diet basically alternates periods of positive calorie balance with periods of negative calorie balance, allowing you to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.

To get your bodyfat levels low enough so you can see those abs, you need to lose fat. In the article Dr Squat states, if your goal is to lose fat, you must follow these guidelines:

A quick synopsis of the rules of the diet are:

- Eat 5-7 meals per day
- In each of your meals the guideline for fat/protein/carbohydrate ratio should be 1 part fat/2 parts protein/3 parts carbohydrates, HOWEVER this can vary, and is not a strict guideline
- Assess what you are doing for the next few hours and eat according e.g. exercise (more carbohydrates), sleep (more protein, less carbohyrdates)
- Zigzag your calorie intake depending on your goals.
- Supplement your diet with multivitamins, minerals and EFAs.

What about supplements?

Supplements can be helpful to you, but will only supplement (as the name suggests) the hard work you do in dieting and training.

As I’ve told you so far. If you want visible abs you have to have a low bodyfat. Supplements that will help you do this are supplements that boost your metabolism and aid you in the process of burning excess fat.

These supplements have been mentioned in a previous topic of the week. If you are too lazy to go through the top posts, in summary what the majority of these guys believe to be the best fat burning supplements are (in no particular order):

Nutrex Lipo 6 – contains many proven compounds that assist in the fat burning process

Avant Labs Sesathin – based on a EFA that allows your body to burn fat, by using it as your energy fuel

Man Scorch – speeds up your metabolism and suppresses your appetite. Also decreases presence of stress, depression and fatigue.

How long does it take to see results?

Depends on the person. Different people will progress at different rates. For some noticeable changes can occur within a month, for others it can take over 2 months.

Do genetics play a role?

Of course they do. Genetics will determine your ability to gain muscle or lose fat. Some people will have an easier time of it, others not so much. But it’s important not to let it affect you if you feel you’ve been given the rough end of the stick, as you can still make progress even if it is at a slower rate, and has more work involved, it will be all the more satisfying in the end.

What are the best bodyweight ab exercises? What ab training routine would you following while on vacation, away from ANY weights or weight training machines?

There aren’t many challenging bodyweight abdominal exercises, that will allow you to just be able to perform 8-12 reps. A lot of people have trouble doing hanging leg raises, so they may want to try them, when on holiday, off the childrens play equipment at a park (I’m sure you’ll be able to find one in most places). To make them harder you can do them straight legged instead of bent legged. Shoot for 8-12 reps.

If you are on holiday I would say relax, don’t bother with any training while you’re there, just enjoy yourself and give your muscles a break, then train when you get back. However if your holiday stretches a bit further, over three weeks, then you might feel the need to do some training. If you go on long holidays fairly often, then you might want to look into getting some resistance bands. Not only can you workout your abs with these, but you can also train the rest of your body. For your abs the light resistance bands (5-60lbs band tension) should fit your needs, however for your other muscle groups (e.g. chest) you will probably need to look at getting the higher resistance bands (100lbs+ band tension), which they do not sell at bodybuilding.com…

To perform weighted crunches with the band simply wrap it around something e.g. a post, grab both handles, wrap arms around chest in an ‘X shape’ and perform crunches as you normally would. Shoot for 3 sets of 8-12 reps. You can also perform kneeling cable crunches, if you can find something which you can fix it to.

Resources and Helpful Links

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/abs.htm - Anatomy of the abdominals

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exer...on=&order=Name - Abdominal exercises

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/ExList/WaistWt.html - More abdominal exercises

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drsquat6.htm - Dr Squat’s ZigZag Diet

http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Myths.html - Weight training myths (inc. spot reduction, lower abs myth and high reps burn fat)

__________________
My Weight Training Log - http://ironmass.com/forums/showthread.php?p=112673

For Full Journal visit - http://forum.athletes.com/showthread.php?t=2466 or http://charliefrancis.com/community/...ad.php?t=11822.