Abs!! Weight or no Weight??

[hbtui]

Hey so I have been told to do weighted ab exercises and also been told not to do them and just normal ab workouts.

Thoughts please? maybe a mix of both?

Thanks!!

[nate225]

Hey so I have been told to do weighted ab exercises and also been told not to do them and just normal ab workouts.

Thoughts please? maybe a mix of both?

Thanks!!

Lots of schools of though on this but I mix it up. Have been doing this routine lately and seems to be working for me.

Pseudonym wrote:

A friend recently sent me this article about building better abs. It totally goes against everything I ever "knew" about working abs.

• I've always believed in heavy weighted crunches. This virtually ignores crunches, and doesn't use much weight.
• Conventional theory says working your obliques gives you a wide, blocky look. This does a heap of side twisting movements, saying they actually pull your waist in.

Despite this heresy, it gave a pretting good rationale for its workout. So I gave it a go, and was really impressed. It's hard to describe how my abs felt after this, but they felt different compared to after the crunch-based workouts I used to do. Tighter, perhaps.

In my last set of photos, Leeroid and I discussed the annoying bulge that looks like love handles, but isn't. We wondered if it was too much oblique work (but I didn't do a lot of that anyway). Now I'm wondering if actually, it wasn't enough.

It's early days yet, but I think I might be seeing my midsection pulled in tighter on an ab & thigh pose. It'd be interesting to get a few more people trying this workout, and see how you all find it.

 

[bambam]

A friend made this video explaining the mechanics of ab training quite effectively

[Pseudonym]

Here's the link to the routine Nate forgot to include:

http://www.gymnation.co.nz/forum/training-forums/bodybuilding-aesthetics/building-abs-inside-out

 

I've been meaning to post an update. I'm not lean enough to post photos yet, but I think I'm seeing good things from this routine. Abs feel bigger and possibly more even. And I definitely feel more stable doing other stuff like bench press.

After years of saying that weighted ab exercises were the only way to go, I reckon I might now be a non-weight convert!

[Pseudonym]

Good video, Bambam. And yeah, I think your mate is right - weights or no weight, the most important part of training abs is the mind-muscle connection. It's such an easy movement to cheat yourself on.