Karky;248831[QUOTE said:
]I've done ab rollouts (with a BB though, not a wheel, don't have one). though they didn't really progress that much, I got to 3x5 kneeling going all the way down and up again.
And I got that I'm suppose to be able to do those 3 things before I add weight to anything, but why?
I just don't get it. If I can do 100bw crunches, but can't hold a plank for 2 min, should I do 3x100 crunches instead of adding weight and doing 3x10?
No it isn't that really so much as you need to not being doing crunches in the first place more so. See the crunches are obviously pointless for you to be doing because you are dominate in some area. Further talk could help me figure out where, my money goes on your hip flexors. If you can do 100 crunches with ease I can assure you that you aren't doing them right if you can't do a 2 min plank. My point is instead of putting weight on an exercise that you can't fire properly, work on exercises that you either
1-Can fire properly or
2-Forces you to fire properly
The reason those things make great tests is that all three combine help to force that firing. The Ab wheel I like because you can fake your way through a leg raise, even a plank, but you have to be pretty strong in the upper body and just have no neuro control to not use a large amount of core muscles in that movement. Alternating arms and legs doing a elbow plank movement is good as well if your upper body or even hip flexors are dominating in a plank movement.
A good test when doing a plank to see if you are focusing it correctly is where you start to feel pain or shake as you get tired. If you start to feel the pressure on your upper back, shoulders or arms take and draw in your scaps and better brace your core region. You should only fail in your core region, your should only really shake and lose strength in your core region. Anywhere else and you are not receiving the benefit of that exercise which is likely why you were not advancing in it, because you weren't getting any benefit from it.
What should I do if my hip flexors are to dominant? and I didn't get the part with putting your weight on the elbows and shoulders? are you saying not to do this? and to evenly distribute the weight instead?
The answer is above, but I wanted to point out that fact.
and I always train my abs towards the end of every workout, with exercises like: crunches, situps, renegade rows, full contact twists, woodchoppers, hanging leg raises, leg raises, etc
.
Twist, chops and rows are all great. I would personally stray from crunches, situps and raises until you can stabilize and compress correctly.
If all of these are progressing, but I still suck at the ab wheel and planks, why should I drop everything else to focus on that? Why are those exercises the exercises best suited to test if you're core is strong enough, when there are so many different core movements out there?
Like I said before its not that these are the only or king movements, they are just good movements to trick firing. Some other good movements are supermans, hyperextentions, reverse hypers, knee ups, etc.