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Barbell What is your favorite ab exercise?

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I personally don't like direct ab training, though I should probably do some more. My favorites are kneeling ab wheel rollout (cause standing is just not possible for me at this point), planks, but generally just heavy training. Deadlifts, DBKBFSq, and overhead pressing get me pretty good. Oh and pullups with any volume work my abs pretty well.
 
I think of ab work as falling into three main overlapping categories:

Indirect:
Drills that are not nominally "ab" exercises, but still work the abs through both conscious feed-forward contraction and unconscious reflexive contraction. Example: Double KB FSQ.

Direct:
Drills that are done with the specific purpose of working the abs through conscious feed-forward contraction. Not necessarily isolation exercises, but including isolation exercises. Example: Wheel roll out.

Reflexive:
Exercises that are lower load and don't utilize strongly conscious feed-forward contraction, designed to fire up reflexive stability. Original Strength made me a lot more aware of this category. I don't necessarily buy into the theory behind this category; I consider it more a hypothesis than a fact. But empirically, I've experienced and observed that these type of exercises have a lot of benefits (freer, more comfortable movement; fewer aches, pains and injuries; better progress on main lifts, with fewer setbacks and plateaus). Examples: Deadbugs and crawling.

Although, I generally get away with mostly indirect ab work, I feel and function better when I regularly do the others.
 
@Steve W. , I would argue that the benefits you mention would definitely back up the theory! small tonic muscles ("inner core" though some outer core contribute) that reflexively stabilize allow the larger phasic muscles to reach their full potential
 
@Steve W. , I would argue that the benefits you mention would definitely back up the theory! small tonic muscles ("inner core" though some outer core contribute) that reflexively stabilize allow the larger phasic muscles to reach their full potential

Well, the benefits observed justify the value of the practice to me; they don't really say anything about the mechanism of action or any theory about why it works.

I find it easy to take advantage of the system without necessarily accepting the theories Tim and Geoff propose, or even paying them any attention at all. I look at it as a black box, empirically based system. These movements seems to help people feel and function better, and this is the basis for doing them. Input/output, stimulus response. Whatever happens in the black box in between is mostly irrelevant to me. As Pavel mentions in S&S (IIRC, quoting or paraphrasing Taleb), explanations change, but experience is constant.
 
I think most people benefit from doing ab work some of the time, e.g., I will do it when I'm deadlifting relatively light weights and drop it towards the end of a cycle.

I am _not_ casting aspersions here but visible abs don't necessarily mean they're as strong as they could be. And sometimes a little ab work helps you "find" your abs and start using them better in all your lifts. I do actually very little, sometimes as little as one or two reps, but I still find the "ab wakeup call" helpful.

-S-
I was half kidding. Agreed that visible abs don't necessarily mean a thing :) I also do accessory stuff to assist the midsection, such as Zercher squats to help my deadlift.
 
Well, a Zercher is certainly an ab exercise, albeit one that involves a lot else, so we are in agreement. :)

-S-
 
I believe that was a quote from Taleb - specifically Antifragile. Highly recommended book, I enjoyed it immensely
 
I have to go with the progressions within the hardstyle abs by pavel. Great resource and it changed my life earning the proper progression for the hanging leg raise.
 
Hey,

Janda sit ups are a great ab exercise in addition to hanging leg raises, above all when you do both in circuit 5 of 6 times.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
It's gotta be the "carries" family of exercises for me. Especially when the load is unbalanced. It works what I think abs should be, protection of my spine while I'm moving in the world. It helps me learn to brace my abs while walking and moving irregular objects

Other than that, I'm a big fan of HLRs (and the breathing exercises from Pavel's HS Abs; you can always make those harder). I can always feel them working, unlike other ab exercises I've done.

Gonna try some full contact twists in my next training cycle, and after all the hype I've read about it I'm hoping it'll be a new favorite.
 
Hey,

Recently, I changed my ab routine. I currently do dragon flags instead of my "traditional combo" (hanging leg raises / janda sit ups).

I do 3 or 4 sets of 3 or 4 reps, aiming to do 3 sets of 5. For the moment, I feel them more efficient than my previous routine. Indeed, it challenges more core strength, with a stato-dynamic approach. I think this is a good stuff to maintain your back straight when you do lifting exercises, and also to maintain a good posture in everyday life.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
#1- Heavy Front Squats with a Barbell.
#2- rollouts of some sort (Either wheel, or barbell)
 
I like loaded carries a lot as a finisher. Also hold the last rep of a deadlift or overhead press and breath 5-30 sec. I also like front or back squat walkouts, and pause reps.
 
Full-contact twists are pretty evil. I don't know what exercises they carry over to but they definitely teach you to connect your lower body to your hands. I don't know how much they hit the rectus abdominals vs. the sides of the abs though?
 
Don't forget vaccums and Pavel's breathing exercises. The can be a real secret weapon for building the ability to activate you lower abs in KB Presses.
 
Best ab workout:
Alright, so sit on the ground with your butt on the ground and knee's tucked to your chest. Have a parter take a medicine ball (I use 10lbs, try not to go overboard with weight) and throw it at you, and you catch it. Then throw it back. Have him/her throw it harder each time, and moving around, therefor including more of your obliques. It's a killer workout and works great!
 
I found progression to be incredibly important when I started focusing on ab strength. I had to spend a lot of time focusing on planks to get the initial strength and stability to do some of the tougher ab moves. I have found contact twists and hanging leg raises to be best, windmills and single arm suitcase dead lifts I have found to be excellent for obliques. Bear walks / plank walkouts also, where you move around on the floor using your hands and feet, not only did these give me some new abdominal strength but they also helped strengthen my shoulders and made them more mobile. For a time I used these exercises, no more than 2 in a program at a time, to build strength. 2 of those exercises performed once a week each, for a month, then choose another 2 and repeat helped me make huge difference to my core stability. I also tended to have one be a weighted exercise and the other a bodyweight exercise e.g. Suitcase deadlifts and planks, twists and bear walk, leg raise and kb windmill.
 
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