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Ab/Core Exercises and Programming

tijuana_black

Level 1 Valued Member
So far in my life, there are have only been 2 times when I had visible abs: High School (Running Cross Country/Track and Field while doing "8 minute abs everyday), and College (I was breakdancing and that was literally my only form of exercise .... I highly recommend if you have the time. You literally just practice different moves for 2-3 hours a day and gain incredible strength and endurance).

I'm currently doing Q&D, and while I'm getting great results across the board, I do want to began building my core in a way that doesn't involve me doing different crunches for 8 minutes, or doing windmills for 20 minutes (I'm not sure I can even do more than 3 windmills right now anyway).

Any tips or suggestions welcome.
 
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Hanging leg raises. 2 sets max reps after your training session, short rest between sets. To failure.
Or - 1 set after warmup, 1 set between exercises, 1 set at the end of the session.
Make sure that your butt winks. Don't make it a hip flexor exercise.
 
Pavel.Kosenkov said:
Hanging leg raises. 2 sets max reps after your training session, short rest between sets. To failure.
Or - 1 set after warmup, 1 set between exercises, 1 set at the end of the session.
Make sure that your butt winks. Don't make it a hip flexor exercise.
Click to expand...

When you say "make your butt wink", you mean like tense your butt?
 
tijuana_black said:
When you say "make your butt wink", you mean like tense your butt?
Click to expand...
No, I mean like in the squat. Your lower back should flex. Otherwise there will be no dynamic contraction, and you might as well just plank.
For me this exersise is a total win. It's a hang, lats are involved, abs are involved, quads and hip flexors are involved. Even chest muscles to some extend. Plus - this is the heaviest load you can get on your abs with just the body weight. And it is an opposite of a hinge.
 
Treat it as any other exercise/muscle.

What builds muscle is tension. Repetition Max (RM) of 6-12 reps are easiest to program around.

2 sessions weekly (depending on strength levels) random example:
Finish one training day with Dragon flags 5x3set (or ab wheel, or heavy quarter get ups)
Finish the other training day with HLR (or partials/progressions) controlled, roll up not swing up 10x3set

I always warm up with McGill Big 3 (adding isometric force) so I get "free" 3-5 minutes of planks every week.
 
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Ok - disregard my comment about the leg raises. I did not do them for a year - and I have done 10 reps slow and controlled.
It turns out - TGU, swings and heavy goblet squats are enough.
 
Pavel.Kosenkov said:
Ok - disregard my comment about the leg raises. I did not do them for a year - and I have done 10 reps slow and controlled.
It turns out - TGU, swings and heavy goblet squats are enough.
Click to expand...
The old joke "the answer is swings and get ups, now what was the question?".
In all seriousness though, enough for what? To be worlds strongest man, hell no. For my 70 year old dad who "does not need to train cause he does so much around the house", yeah probably.

Like Dan John puts it:
Look at your goals, Does your behaviour match the goals?
 
I usually have four go to exercises.
1) Paloff band presses
2) Ab wheel rollouts
3) Hanging leg raises
4) Landmine rotations

I usually pick two of the four above, and do three alternating sets of each, sandwiched into whatever I'm doing during strength or hypertrophy sessions. Rarely do I go to failure, but focus on tension. For ab wheel rollouts, I'll usually throw in the odd day where I do 2 or 3 reps but pause a long time while out. I don't worry about progressions at all, since they,re variety added into my main session.
 
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