Abs tip!

[Chris]

Hey all, I read this tip in a muscle mag yesterday before going to the gym and it made all the difference... When doing abs, it can be very difficult to fully contract the muscles if you breathe out on the way up. Instead take a deep breath in, hold it, crunch up, hold the tension and flex your abs, then breathe out. Then when you crunch back down you hold the tension still so it feels like a band stretching back. Deep breath and then start over.
Don't rest even for a second during your sets or you won't get maximum fatigue on your abs.

Yesterday was THE HARDEST ab workout to date! This made all the difference, and it caused me much rolling around on the floor clenching my gut (strangely enough, this is a good thing ).

Hope this helps you blast your abs like a pro!

[LucyJane]

What routine did you do?

[Chris]

I did Lil's ab boot camp Muscle Media plus a few other exercises. But this principle is the same for any ab workout you do. I felt it even on my first set.

[gnash]

Originally Posted by Chris

I did Lil's ab boot camp Muscle Media plus a few other exercises. But this principle is the same for any ab workout you do. I felt it even on my first set.

Hey Chris..

Yeah, that increased work on the abs and core are what we need...I'm sending mine back to boot camp too...

If you start testing them (I think this is what you did), you find the weakness..Now, this is another thing I've got to work on...dang..

[CampyRecord]

I'm finding that I can't get my abs to get sore the day following an abs routine. I'm currently doing leg-lifts and crunches (5 sets each). Can someone give me some ideas on how to maximize or change my routine? I do them as slow as possible and I hold at the top of each rep for 2 secs.
Thanks

[ozzo]

are you using resistance, campyrecord?

[CampyRecord]

Originally Posted by ozzo

are you using resistance, campyrecord?

Ozzo,
No I am not using resistance. Maybe I should begin doing crunches with a small 2.5 or 5lb weight...

[Dulish]

Or try changing up your routine totally.

Do planks (the "up" pushup position). Keep perfect form and hold for one minute. Then, from that position, lift one leg and hold for ten - fifteen seconds, then do the other leg.

Then do the planks on your elbows and go through the same thing.

Then do a side plank (legs stacked on top of each other) and do the same thing.

This challenges your abs in a completely different way.

If that's not enough, try jackknifes (hands on a bench, kneeling on ball... roll legs out (away from bench) and then back in), or rollouts (kneel in front of ball, hands on ball with palms facing, roll the ball out and away from body until you are in a line with hands on ball, knees on floor, then roll back).

Not that I have abs of steel, but I used to teach abs classes (back in the day LOLOL!) and these were some staples. Guys who HAD abs of steel were whining at the end of class that their abs hurt LOLOL! I loved that

[bluexj]

As long as we are on ab tips anyone every heard this one:

Here’s an ab technique that’s been around for years, but you may not have heard about. When doing your ab exercises, make a conscious effort to keep your tongue firmly on the roof of your mouth. That’s right—your tongue on the roof of your mouth!

Not only does this place the muscles in your neck in a biomechanically stronger and therefore less vulnerable position, but also there’s some good magnetic imaging evidence which suggest that this simple technique may enable your body to recruit more muscle fibers in the abdominal region. And utilizing more muscle fibers translates into greater development and definition. I know it sounds odd, but it works and that my friends is what counts.