Abs workout is needed

[Kante]

How many abs exercises categories are there? I know there are upper and lower abs exercises, but I was wondering if these are all.

And can someone give me a list of the best abs exercises for each category? Because I want to do abs workouts 4 days a week with each day devoted to a certain part of the abs.

Thanks

Edited June 30, 2007 by Kante

[bushido_man96]

There are so many exercises that you can choose from. On the first day, do the ab roller. On another day, hang and do knee raises. Do the swiss ball as well. Mix and match, and do some weighted ab exercise, and plyometric ones as well. For plyo abs, have someone throw a medicine ball to you, and catch it as you come up. Then go down, come up, and throw it back. They throw, you catch, etc.

[Kante]

Question rephrased.

[Dazed and Confused]

Right, I'll tell you the exercises I've had most success with.

Lower Abs- Lower Ab Thrusts, Lower Ab Roll Ups, Hanging Knee Raise

Upper Abs- Military Sit Ups (feet anchored, hands across chest, sit all the way up. A lot of people disagree with doing these for some reason, but I find they work), bench crunches, weighted bench crunches (these last ones can put a bit of bulk on your abs, which is not ideal for the martial artist, so i wouldn't reccomend them too often).

The frogman crunch is good for working your whole abdominal wall.

You may want to try to doing the lower ab exercises before the upper ab ones. This forces the upper abs to work harder as the lower ones are already fatigued.

[Kante]

Right, I'll tell you the exercises I've had most success with.

Lower Abs- Lower Ab Thrusts, Lower Ab Roll Ups, Hanging Knee Raise

Upper Abs- Military Sit Ups (feet anchored, hands across chest, sit all the way up. A lot of people disagree with doing these for some reason, but I find they work), bench crunches, weighted bench crunches (these last ones can put a bit of bulk on your abs, which is not ideal for the martial artist, so i wouldn't reccomend them too often).

The frogman crunch is good for working your whole abdominal wall.

You may want to try to doing the lower ab exercises before the upper ab ones. This forces the upper abs to work harder as the lower ones are already fatigued.

Thanks, do you mean that the first day should be for the lower abs? Because now that I think about it, it wouldn't be a problem if I worked out my abs every days but never 2 days in a row for the upper/lower abs.

Would that be ok? And I also want to know how many reps and sets to do for each exercise no matter what it is. Should I be doing each exercise until failure for 3 sets maybe with 1 minute of resting? Unless it's a crunch in which case I should probably be doing a low number but very slowly.

Thanks again.

[Dazed and Confused]

From my experience people respond differently to different rep/set patterns. I find all those exercises except the hanging knee raises and the weighted bench crunch work well in 3 sets of 30.

The knee raises are hard work, and your equipment will dictate how many you can do. If you have one of those slings to hold you up as you do them then you will be able to do more than if your simply hanging off a bar, as in the latter case your grip is being worked as much as your abs (no bad thing). I reccomend finding your own way with these, just work on a steady progression, doing as many as you can while keeping good form.

Weighted bench crunches require just enough weight to make ten reps seem hard work. If you use a heavier weight than that you're training for size as well as strength. . I would say three sets of 10 of these.

As I said though, this is what works for me, it may not work for everybody.

Good luck!

[Kante]

From my experience people respond differently to different rep/set patterns. I find all those exercises except the hanging knee raises and the weighted bench crunch work well in 3 sets of 30.

The knee raises are hard work, and your equipment will dictate how many you can do. If you have one of those slings to hold you up as you do them then you will be able to do more than if your simply hanging off a bar, as in the latter case your grip is being worked as much as your abs (no bad thing). I reccomend finding your own way with these, just work on a steady progression, doing as many as you can while keeping good form.

Weighted bench crunches require just enough weight to make ten reps seem hard work. If you use a heavier weight than that you're training for size as well as strength. . I would say three sets of 10 of these.

As I said though, this is what works for me, it may not work for everybody.

Good luck!

I understand that bulk on your abs is not the best thing to be getting, but does that mean to avoid using weights in crunches?

There's this thing though, most of the lower abs exercises require some sort of equipment, other than the thrusts, are there any lower abs exercises to do that require no kind of equipment such as the exercise ball? Because to be honest am kinda lost here and don't know which exercises to do.

[Dazed and Confused]

Neither the thrusts nor the roll ups need any equipment, and three sets of thirty of each will work your lower abs plenty.

Feel free to do the weighted bench crunches as much as you like, just don't use lower rep patterns!

How about this: Day 1,3 and 5:

30xfrogman crunch

30xbench crunch

10x weighted bench crunch

Repeat three times

Day 2 and 4:

30xlower ab thrusts

30xlower ab roll up

Repeat three times

Day 6 and 7: Rest

That will give you good all round ab development. If you want to mix it up you can then introduce some different ab exercises to your main workout. A google search should throw up some interesting varitaions you can throw in whenever you feel like a change, but the regime above should give a good foundation.

[Kante]

Neither the thrusts nor the roll ups need any equipment, and three sets of thirty of each will work your lower abs plenty.

Feel free to do the weighted bench crunches as much as you like, just don't use lower rep patterns!

How about this: Day 1,3 and 5:

30xfrogman crunch

30xbench crunch

10x weighted bench crunch

Repeat three times

Day 2 and 4:

30xlower ab thrusts

30xlower ab roll up

Repeat three times

Day 6 and 7: Rest

That will give you good all round ab development. If you want to mix it up you can then introduce some different ab exercises to your main workout. A google search should throw up some interesting varitaions you can throw in whenever you feel like a change, but the regime above should give a good foundation.

It sounds good but it doesn't take any time at all which makes me wonder is that enough? As in sufficient in terms of a maximum workout for all parts of your abs each week? Also what about the Transverse and Rectus Abdominis?

[Dazed and Confused]

The frogman crunch wil work the Rectus Abdominus, and the the Transverse abdominus will be worked in part by all the exercises listed. If you are worried about the transverse in isolation, which I am not, then muscle control exercises derived from maxalding and pilates are very good at working this.

As for the time spent it is more than sufficient to build a foundation of strength. short explosive workouts are far more efficient than hours working the wrong exercises. If you are working on other lifts for functonal strength then your abs will be worked by these two. This does not apply to work done on machines, but lifts, gymnastic exercises and olympic lifts all engage the abdominal muscles in a way that will generate functional strength.