Time vs repetitions

[OneKickWonder]

I've come to realise that I need to be more specific when training various muscle groups. I've come to realise I have serious imbalances that are holding me back.

My main weaknesses / imbalance is my abs. They're rubbish. My butt and legs are strong. My back, arms and chest etc are decent. But my abs are a bit pathetic.

Til now I've been a bit blasé about it. I figured they can't be so bad. I can do most of the things I want to be able to do and I can keep up with my peers in most things. But since adding running into my training regime, and tai chi, I've really started to notice how my weak abs are affecting my lower back.

So I've started to increase my abs targeting. I'm mainly doing crunches and leg raises for now.

The question is though, what do folks find more effective? Aiming for a steadily increasing number of reps, or not counting but keep doing it for a given period of time?

I'm going for time over reps at the minute. I keep going for 1 minute, rest for 30 seconds, then a different exercise for a minute, rest, repeat.

I used to go for reps, but I realised I was sacrificing form to boost the count. By doing the time based strategy, I find I keep decent form throughout, even if I have to slow down.

[mushybees]

Take a look at your psoas.

http://www.berkeleywellness.com/fitness/injury-prevention/article/get-know-your-psoas-muscles

[OneKickWonder]

Take a look at your psoas.

http://www.berkeleywellness.com/fitness/injury-prevention/article/get-know-your-psoas-muscles

Excellent article. Thanks for sharing.

EDIT: Thinking about this some more, when I did judo for a while, and aikido for a while, those guys kneel a lot. That really pulls like crazy on the quads and hips and after a short time is quite painful for the newbie to those styles. Yet regular practitioners of those styles are extremely agile. They may not do all the fancy kicks that you find in stand up striking styles, but they don't half chuck each other around, so they clearly have strength and flexibility where it matters.

[JR 137]

Take a look at your psoas.

http://www.berkeleywellness.com/fitness/injury-prevention/article/get-know-your-psoas-muscles

Piriformis muscle(s) too.

[bushido_man96]

I don't do crunches, sit-ups, or any of those kinds of exercises. I get my ab work in at the gym, doing the basic barbell exercises, which, when done properly, are used to stabilize the trunk during the exercises, and thus making them stronger.

[DWx]

I think people often mistake ab-work for just crunches, loads of stuff you can do and actually as martial artists rotational forces / resisting rotation comes into play a lot more.

Alongside crunches and the like you can also do bodyline drills for stability. The plank is probably the most well known but you can also do reverse plank, hollow holds etc,

[LLLEARNER]

There are even some apps that incorporate lots of techniques to help keep you consistent.

[Nidan Melbourne]

Coming from an Exercise Science POV, you want to be focused on Sets + Reps; HOWEVER you want to also be aware of ‘Time Under Load’.

Which means that for say a Push Up; you will do:

- “Down” Phase: 4 secs

- “End of Range” Phase: 4 secs

- “Up” Phase; 4 secs

So all up takes 12 seconds to complete 1 repetition.

I used 4,4,4 as an example, so you can change how long each phase goes for depending on what your focusing on.

Generally athletes use that type of method, but is great for the general population to undertake that form of training.