When most people say they want to start training to achieve great abs, it’s like all common sense and rudimentary basics of weight training go out of the window.
People start doing them every day, dozens at a time… then resting… rinsing and repeating for dozens of sets. Well, this is not only completely unnecessary, but ridiculous.
Let’s not forget the most basic thing here: the abdominals are muscles!
Not only do they need time to repair the same as any other muscle group, but, they work the same as any other muscle group. I mean, you wouldn’t expect to get arms like Arnold just by curling the exact same weight your whole training career, would you?
No! That’s why you need to think about it.
It doesn’t even matter if you start doing 100 sets of abdominals a day, unless you use progressively heavier loads, they simply won’t grow.
While many chose sit ups, I have to say, the best exercise for abdominals is crunches. This puts direct emphasis on the abdominals, and doesn’t involve the lower back, as all you are doing is basically ‘crunching up’ your abdominals. Make sense?
Right so you should be doing crunches. I would recommend doing them no more than twice a week, for 3-5 sets of 12-15 reps. And, you should do your workouts by placing added weight on your chest, carefully supporting it by holding it in place, and, then crunch. Every session, look to increase the weight you hold on your chest, and then you have the benefit of added weight, and your abs will really start to grow.
I also think it’s worth mentioning that training legend Vince Gironda advocated not training abdominals hardly any, for the simple reason he believed it shocked the body into not growing… now, there’s food for thought.