Abs in every workout?

[COBuckeye]

I am on Day 11 and have been adding an abs routine to almost every workout. I have a BowFlex and mix it up with floor routines. It varies from crunches, resisted crunches, trunk rotation, oblique crunches and reverse crunches. Extra emphasis on lower body workout days.

I, like I'm sure most people here, think of reducing the middle section first.

So, is it wrong that I add a Abs routine to almost every workout day?
Thanks!

Day 0 ... 232 lbs.
Day 11 ... 227 lbs!

[Lupat]

The middle section doesn't get flat because of increased ab workouts. It gets flat as your entire body is breaking down fat when you achieve a caloric deficit. Basically when you expend more calories than you take in. It's as simple as that.

I think there's a misconception out there that has been propagated by mass media that you can "target" fat loss on your stomach by doing more abdominal exercises. All that's going to do is give you rock hard ab muscles but they'll still be hidden under a layer of fat.

If fat loss is what you're working on there are 2 things that you can do:

1. increase your cardio workouts (do your standard 3 HIIT workouts a week) and then add a non-HIIT cardio activity like jogging or biking on your lifting days or even your free day.
2. cut back on the carbs (for example instead of 6 proteins and 6 carbs at every meal maybe do 6 proteins 4 carbs and add more veggies to those 2 extra meals)

If you can do ab exercises for 10 consecutive days then your probably not pushing yourself hard enough. Abs are like any other muscle and they should be worked to exhaustion. Once you work out your abs, you need to give them time to rest (where the actual muscle growth happens). If you're working them out everyday (to exhaustion, you're not giving them enough time to recover which might actually counteract what you're trying to accomplish.

Anyways, this is just my opinion. On the flip side, you can argue that any exercise beats no exercise at all.

[COBuckeye]

I hear you and have long known that spot reduction (i.e. fat) doesn't work.

I've decided to [over]exercise my abs for other reasons. I have poor posture and believe it is because I have weak core muscles. Poor posture when sitting, poor posture when bending over to pick up something (I noticed I don't use my abs when doing this).

But since reducing the mid-section is also a goal I may cool it on the abs and incorporate a cardio after my upper & lower body workouts.

Thanks.

[dankelt]

Over-exercising an area will only slow down your muscle growth. Growth happens the days after you do your exercise. Everyone's body regenerates muscles at different paces but unless you are using anabolic steroids you should give your muscles two to three days to recover.

Lupat has it dead on, if reducing your mid-section is your #1 goal, which ultimately comes down to reducing body-fat, you need to keep your diet SUPER clean and toss in some additional low intensity cardio. I believe the diet is almost always the deal killer... It's those tiny little half-cheats or those things that you don't even think about that will prevent you from getting where you want to go. I think of it this way, every extra 100 calories I eat in a day is another 10 minutes of cardio I need to do. So watch the carbs and watch the fats.

-Dan

[BenJoeM]

This question has been asked in the Body for Life Book and on the website

Exercise FAQ

[Akoya]

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The Truth About 6 Pack Abs - 6 pack, abs exercise, fat loss, six pack,6 pack abs, six pack abs, loose belly fat, abs workouts

[Lupat]

Earlier this week my friend that got me hooked on BFL came into town. We went to the gym and did our leg workout together. He also introduced me to his ab workout which consisted of doing hanging abs lifts using this arm strap. This is my 4th day of rest and my abs are still sore.

Previously I was doing basic crunches or oblique crunches with weights on my chest.

I guess what I'm trying to say is to vary your ab exercises and you'll see better results. While I like to stick to one basic exercise for 4 weeks at a time (bench, squat etc...), I feel that for abs you can really mix it up. Maybe change exercises every week or so.

[AmberDammery]

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[jamesgarcia]

Dan and Lupat are right on. Your abdominal muscles grow just like every other muscle in your body. I can understand your rational in terms of wanting to strengthen your core but doing abs every day will only calm your mental need and not your desire for a stronger core. In fact, it could weaken your core. When you over train a muscle group it can be shown to cause the muscle to breakdown.

Many Body for Lifers have had great results sticking to the recommended exercises. I have talked to many Body for Life and Transformation champions and not one of them told me they had exercised their abs everyday. Those that do exercise their abs everyday usually don't have abs showing at all. Perhaps that is a sign.

[Lupat]

I'm almost done with my first 12 week challenge and for the longest time I just did crunches and added weights. After a while, I think my abs got acclimated to this ab workout and I really didn't feel that much burn after the exercises. During the last 4 weeks of my challenge, I've started to mix up my ab workouts and I thought I'd share some of the better workouts that really affected me:

1. Bicycle Ab workouts
Top 10 Most Effective Ab Exercises
This was rated the #1 ab workout (from about.com and other exercise websites) and let me tell you it kills your abs. I basically don't add weights but basically do 5 sets until exhaustion every time (then I immediately do a 6th set of crunches or declines or leg lifts). They work out all parts of you abs and you can do them anywhere.

2. Captain's Chair Leg Raises
Top 10 Most Effective Ab Exercises - Captain's Chair
I do these to exhaustion as well and these are killer. I've done some hanging ab workouts that use the same principle of leg lifting (where the energy is focused directly on the abs and not the hips) and this had my abs burning for almost 3-4 days. It felt great.

I'm not saying that crunches are bad but if you really want great abs, these are 2 ab workouts that I highly recommend and will really give you a great ab workout. I really find the lower body workouts much easier compared to upper body so ending it with a strong ab workout that really burns makes that workout well worth it to me.

[Jared]

I'd been doing crunches and leg lifts for the first few ab workouts, then this last time I did hanging leg raises instead and holy crap the DOMS is nuts!