Joshs2223
First Post
Well I've already stopped eating junk food and gave up on drinking sodas so I guess that's a start. Thanks for the response.
Kettlebell Kettlebell swings and isolation ab exercises
- Thread starter vlam
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Well I've already stopped eating junk food and gave up on drinking sodas so I guess that's a start. Thanks for the response.
Nacho
Level 6 Valued Member
I have been thinking of adding a bit of extra ab work to my S&S training. While I feel S&S covers quite alot, I think having especially strong abs would help my other hobbies and my back also. I have noticed that I have most room for improvement in exercises like crunches, which kind of makes sense I guess since S&S is more about stabilizing. Could crunches be a good supplemen or maybe a hardstyle sit up?
Bauer
Level 8 Valued Member
Dan John recommends a single set of 5 with the Ab Wheel as a finisher for Easy Strength style training. So why not
North Coast Miller
Level 9 Valued Member
I cannot comment on ab wheel since I've never used one. I do a couple sets of crunches, one variant is to move side to side a few times at the top of the ROM, the other is straight up crunch.
I know they've largely fallen out of favor, but suspect more because it is difficult to teach/learn to do them correctly than that they don't work.
I feel it in my abs and obliques quite a bit, am happy with the results I get for a few extra sets/week.
rwrjr
Level 4 Valued Member
If you're looking to really strengthen your abs, don't forget about your friend the mighty pullup. I believe Pavel, and perhaps others, have written about the amount of abs activation during pullups. I don't remember the details because I read it long ago. I filed it away in the back of my mind as just an interesting bit of information.
I have a 14 year old son who I like to train with over the summers. Last summer, 2018, I got him to the point were he could just barely do a chin-up, with involuntary kipping and we never did achieve full pushups from the ground, only hands elevated pushups. Once school started, school, sports, and friends took over and we stopped training together. His abs have always been a weak spot. He couldn't do dead bugs, hollow body holds, etc. When we did lying leg raise holds for time, he would have to hold his feet a good 30 inches off the ground. I figured over time we'd be able to get them lower but no go. I've also had him try hanging knee raises but he couldn't get past a 90 degree bend and couldn't do any reps.
This summer, 2019, he got the training bug again so we started working out together again. Within a week or two he was right back where he left off last year. I utilized two different circuits, an A and B workout, doing each twice per week. (A) had chins either as singles, or multiple reps with a band assist, pushups, hollow body hold, then vertical and horizontal jumps and finished with him pushing the car in the driveway. (B) had TBDL, glute bridges, double KB push presses, and stir the pot. There was no "science" behind my exercise selections and I would choose differently for pure strength building. I was just trying to cover most of the bases and keep his interest so he would get a little stronger heading into freshman basketball season. He wants to make the freshman team but is only 5'6" and about 110 pounds. Anyway, over the course of the summer the hollow body holds were much like last summer, not really progressing. He did get slightly better with stir the pot but couldn't really get his elbows very far forward at the top of the circle. I've had him try ab wheel rollouts before and he's never been able to roll out far enough to make it a useful exercise. And again this year we tried hanging knee raises early on but just like last year, he couldn't really do them so we dropped them.
Over the course of this summer, pushups and chins did progress. He FINALLY was able to get one rock solid, full range, pushup. Then one lead to several. Now he can do about 8 before form starts to break down. Chins also progressed to the point he could do one while maintaining the hanging hollow body position then on to two good reps. I started alternating pullup singles with the chins, pullups were much harder and it took some time to achieve a single quality hollow body pullup. After each rep, chin or pullup I would request that he did slow controlled negatives but he would usually drop straight down saying he didn't have the strength. Over and over again I told him he was wasting the most beneficial part of the rep. It took the entire summer before he caught on to the negative. You all get it, you can't tell your kid anything.
Now my son, being 14, is naturally low in body fat. That is, he has visible abs. He has noticed over the summer that they have gotten more defined. He's always flexing now, which is funny as hell because he's still a toothpick. Now that summer is over, and school has started, our workouts are pretty much over. In addition to school, he's in one rec basketball league, one basketball prep program and doing the pre-season basketball workouts the high school coaching staff runs 3 days per week. I've talked him into continuing with TBDLs after school to at least work on full body strength before basketball tryouts in November. Three weeks ago I put our free standing pullup bar in the family room and told him to hit a couple of pullups/chins and a few reps of pushups every hour or so when he walks through. GTG style. He's very much liking this and has been GTG every day.
Since I'm usually in the family room when he jumps on the bar I've noticed the last few nights that he's always doing the pullups/chins with a very nice and controlled negative. The positive phase is smooth from a dead hang now too. Just out of curiosity I asked him to try a hollow body hold and to try hanging knee raises. We haven't done hollow body hold in five weeks and we haven't tried hanging knee raises since the beginning of the summer. First he went to the bar, grabbed hold and easily lifted his knees almost up to his face and he could do reps. Next he laid down and did a perfect hollow body hold with his feet 6 inches off the ground, first with hands flat on the ground outside his hips, then with straight arms back over his head. In my opinion this increase in abs performance is directly related to all GTG work he's been doing on pullups and chins. Perhaps holding the plank position during GTG pushups helped too but I'm inclined to give much more credit to the pulls.
So the point to this very long story is this: if you're relatively new to strength building and you want to significantly strengthen your abs, spend a lot of time working pullups. You might find that like my son, once you can do quality pullups for reps that your abs also got a lot stronger for free. A nice WTH effect.
I have a 14 year old son who I like to train with over the summers. Last summer, 2018, I got him to the point were he could just barely do a chin-up, with involuntary kipping and we never did achieve full pushups from the ground, only hands elevated pushups. Once school started, school, sports, and friends took over and we stopped training together. His abs have always been a weak spot. He couldn't do dead bugs, hollow body holds, etc. When we did lying leg raise holds for time, he would have to hold his feet a good 30 inches off the ground. I figured over time we'd be able to get them lower but no go. I've also had him try hanging knee raises but he couldn't get past a 90 degree bend and couldn't do any reps.
This summer, 2019, he got the training bug again so we started working out together again. Within a week or two he was right back where he left off last year. I utilized two different circuits, an A and B workout, doing each twice per week. (A) had chins either as singles, or multiple reps with a band assist, pushups, hollow body hold, then vertical and horizontal jumps and finished with him pushing the car in the driveway. (B) had TBDL, glute bridges, double KB push presses, and stir the pot. There was no "science" behind my exercise selections and I would choose differently for pure strength building. I was just trying to cover most of the bases and keep his interest so he would get a little stronger heading into freshman basketball season. He wants to make the freshman team but is only 5'6" and about 110 pounds. Anyway, over the course of the summer the hollow body holds were much like last summer, not really progressing. He did get slightly better with stir the pot but couldn't really get his elbows very far forward at the top of the circle. I've had him try ab wheel rollouts before and he's never been able to roll out far enough to make it a useful exercise. And again this year we tried hanging knee raises early on but just like last year, he couldn't really do them so we dropped them.
Over the course of this summer, pushups and chins did progress. He FINALLY was able to get one rock solid, full range, pushup. Then one lead to several. Now he can do about 8 before form starts to break down. Chins also progressed to the point he could do one while maintaining the hanging hollow body position then on to two good reps. I started alternating pullup singles with the chins, pullups were much harder and it took some time to achieve a single quality hollow body pullup. After each rep, chin or pullup I would request that he did slow controlled negatives but he would usually drop straight down saying he didn't have the strength. Over and over again I told him he was wasting the most beneficial part of the rep. It took the entire summer before he caught on to the negative. You all get it, you can't tell your kid anything.
Now my son, being 14, is naturally low in body fat. That is, he has visible abs. He has noticed over the summer that they have gotten more defined. He's always flexing now, which is funny as hell because he's still a toothpick. Now that summer is over, and school has started, our workouts are pretty much over. In addition to school, he's in one rec basketball league, one basketball prep program and doing the pre-season basketball workouts the high school coaching staff runs 3 days per week. I've talked him into continuing with TBDLs after school to at least work on full body strength before basketball tryouts in November. Three weeks ago I put our free standing pullup bar in the family room and told him to hit a couple of pullups/chins and a few reps of pushups every hour or so when he walks through. GTG style. He's very much liking this and has been GTG every day.
Since I'm usually in the family room when he jumps on the bar I've noticed the last few nights that he's always doing the pullups/chins with a very nice and controlled negative. The positive phase is smooth from a dead hang now too. Just out of curiosity I asked him to try a hollow body hold and to try hanging knee raises. We haven't done hollow body hold in five weeks and we haven't tried hanging knee raises since the beginning of the summer. First he went to the bar, grabbed hold and easily lifted his knees almost up to his face and he could do reps. Next he laid down and did a perfect hollow body hold with his feet 6 inches off the ground, first with hands flat on the ground outside his hips, then with straight arms back over his head. In my opinion this increase in abs performance is directly related to all GTG work he's been doing on pullups and chins. Perhaps holding the plank position during GTG pushups helped too but I'm inclined to give much more credit to the pulls.
So the point to this very long story is this: if you're relatively new to strength building and you want to significantly strengthen your abs, spend a lot of time working pullups. You might find that like my son, once you can do quality pullups for reps that your abs also got a lot stronger for free. A nice WTH effect.
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