weighted ab excercises

low weight and high reps will only work to an extent.. moderate weight and lower reps get you farther. high sets and reps will train the slow twitch fibers more i believe(if i'm wrong someone correct me plz) and the will firm things up but only to a point . you need to challenge your body to make gains. other wise things plateau. thats just the way your body works, metabloism etc, all factor in. someone jump in here and explain this better than me. i get it i just can't explain it very well i think.. i'm not an expert(far from) this is just what i understand.. with higher weights and lower reps i have seen good progress, i did the whole high reps low weight thing for a long time and i always stayed at the same place, since training for strength i have made more improvments than before in a resonable time frame..
 
maybe jp, evo or dex can jump in here and sort this out .. plzzz :)
 
Abs aren't any different. If you want to make them "pop", they have to be bigger. You make a muscle grow by recruiting white fast twitch motor units, which means heavy, and they will take shape. However, I must caution against the myth that you must "do abs" to make your abs appear more cut. They are usually sufficiently stimulated by any core movement (chin-ups, front squat for example). In other words, doing weighted crunches has about as much meaning to me as doing dumbbell curls. Occassionally I may have you do them, but only as a finisher, if that. It's just an afterthought. All your real progress should be done in the process of supporting your trunk while moving heavy objects.
 
jpfitness said:
Abs aren't any different. If you want to make them "pop", they have to be bigger. You make a muscle grow by recruiting white fast twitch motor units, which means heavy, and they will take shape. However, I must caution against the myth that you must "do abs" to make your abs appear more cut. They are usually sufficiently stimulated by any core movement (chin-ups, front squat for example). In other words, doing weighted crunches has about as much meaning to me as doing dumbbell curls. Occassionally I may have you do them, but only as a finisher, if that. It's just an afterthought. All your real progress should be done in the process of supporting your trunk while moving heavy objects.

If you could give some specific examples, I'd appreciate it. The excercises I do are all on my diary (in the womens section!! eek) any additional work I should consider?
 
jpfitness, you really build up my confidence in "American Minded" trainers. I dont think I've ever heard a personal trainer recommend chin ups for abs but it's the truth.

high rep builds up a fluid in the muscle which makes it feel temporarily more tight but deflates and the leaves the msucle flabby. few people who do high rep workouts find much benefit and if they do it, it scientifically isn't from the high reps. it's like crunches, everyone says crunches are the best exercise and everyone does them...but very few people have nice abs.
 
i agree withyou jp in that the core is strengthend thru bigger movements, squats pullups deadlifts etc.. i do weighted crunches 2 times a week, so is that wrong???
i do planks for stability and that i know for sure is good, but you have me wondering about the crunches?? i'm doing 3x10 @ 52lbs at the end of the lower body day.. and thought that that was okay... so its not?? ooohhh i need some solid info you got some links or some books to recommend as i can't get onto you site whilest the change over is happening.. thanks in advance jp
 
Yeah, we ran into a glitch moving servers.

Read The New Rules of Lifting by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove. One of the best books I have come across in a long time. Very readable compared to my usual sources, so I think you will find it accessible. In fact, I require my trainers to read this book if they want to work for me!

Plank is a great exercise. I do side planks too. One thing you will see me do on a machine is a cable "push-pull", on a crossover machine with one pulley set at the lowest setting, and one at the highest. Like so:


Stand between high and low pulleys, facing low pulley. Place one foot back and grasp high pulley stirrup from behind with the hand on the same side as the rear foot. Position stirrup to side of chest and grasp low pulley stirrup with opposite hand (same side as forward foot) with arm extended straight. Face low pulley with hips turned out approximately 45 degrees. Pull low pulley stirrup back to side of ribcage while pushing high pulley stirrup forward until arm is extended, allowing torso to rotate to opposite side.

This really hits a lot of parts, like chest (push) and back (pull), while activating the core with a twist.
 
hmm thanks jp its looking like i'm gonna have to join a gym... yuk. no offense but all we have here is the y and well you know!! need i say more and at $72 a month ouch right now that hurts.. i have loads of free weights and two saw horses, plus a whole lot of determination but we'll see what happens.. thanks for the quick response :)
 
1. Lay down on a bench, with your feet on the floor. Hold a x lb. weight between your feet. Extend your legs then pull them to the point where they are straight up.

2. Hang from a bar. Hold a x lb. weight between our feet and pull your knees up.

Both lower ab workouts
 
Well, I tried a few new ones today. I tried a simple weighted crunch on a swiss ball with extended arms but, this was at the end of my workout and, my arms were so fatigued that they suffered long before I felt anything in my abs! Plus, my form must have been bad cos by back ached a lot. So, I moved onto kneeling cable crunches. I quite liked those, I could feel the isolation even though I kept the weights quite low. I had to resist the tendency to hyper-extend though. Then I tried a machine they have - the something chair, can't remember the name but, its a 'tucking' action and I could feel the isolation there too.

With all this experimentation, I rather suspect my abs are gonna kill tomorrow!! :D
 
Back
Top