Ive decided to start doing ab exercises. I have all the info and im going to try a different variety of them to see which works best for me. What I was wondering though is how much I can exercise my abs? Can I do it everyday or every other day?

You can work them everyday if you want but there is no point if you dont have up to scratch nutrition and a solid whole body training regime. Read the stickies for some sound advice.

Welcome to the forum too.

i personally think it is more effective to work your abs very hard one day, rest them the next, and then work them again the following. in order to gain more muscle you must break it down, create soreness, and then build the muscle back up.

check out the ab workouts at Core Training Workouts & Programs.

Your abs are no different than any other muscle in your body. I work mine 2 - 3 x / week.

I have always worked my abs for 20 minutes every day. I just do different exercises each day. For example, one day, I'll hang from a bar and do ab exercises that way (gymnastics stuff -- not fun.). The next day, I'll do my ab work on my back (bicycles, crunches, knee-up crunches, half-up twists, etc.). The next day, I'll do planks with small balance balls under both feet to make it tougher, oblique leg extensions, bridged leg lifts, birddogs with 5-8 pound DBs, etc. Anything to get my core fired up. I can't stand not working my core.

My abs have never really complained that much. Must be the prunes ...

Pilates feels like it does wonders for my abs, I've seen a little bit of improvement and Ive gotten complimented on them. There are videos of pilates abdominal sets on YouTube.com. I would link you to one but I'm on my iTouch and Apple left out the copy paste feature -_-

Your should work out on your muscles evenly.
I do curl-ups on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays along with some push-ups.
Let your abs have some rest boyyy.

I don't think my abs don't need the rest. They are very accustomed to being punished. In fact, I don't think they mind it at all. They're never sore the next day. Maybe I just don't do enough reps. But I like quality, not quantity. I think you get nicer looking abs that way

Core work is actually like a "cool down" for me after my regular workouts with weights.

You're exactly right.

Soreness is not an indication that the core was or was not adequately stimulated. Additionally, building the entire body beautifies the core, IMO, when body fat is low enough to reveal the work that was completed. In addition, the diet can kill, bring out and/or intensify the efforts in the gym.

What is your diet structure like?

What is your "entire" fitness program like?

I am one that doesnt advocate training the core everyday, and see it as potentially unnecessary. Personally I never trained (directly) my core more than three times per week while leaving the structured format of the other parts of my fitness training to take care of the rest: Building a body that is structured to work together as one unit (and devising a training program with this in mind), and believe this is the better approach (for most, dependent on the situation).

The core, like any other muscle of the body, needs adequate stimulation in the gym, but it grows and stengthens (with rest and recuperation) along with a proper diet. Muscle improves upon "resting" not in the gym. Give the core the break it deserves. And, you will be rewarded.

Best wishes,


Chillen

Chillen, your post has made me smile And may I take this opportunity to tell you that you have the most symmetrical abs I've ever seen in my life.

I'm female. 5'4", 152lbs. Unfortunately, pretty much solid muscle. Not certain about my body fat because I haven't had it tested for a couple of years. I really have no idea what it is now. I'm still menstruating, so it's got to be high enough for that. 15%?

I have a 42" chest, 31" waist, 39" hips, 24" thigh, 15" calf ... don't know what my biceps are ... maybe 12 or 13"? You get the picture. I'm not your average chick.

Yes, I am fully aware that the body works best as a whole unit I pretty much know everything you're saying. But I'm accustomed to working my core every day. I've been doing it all my life. I'm not working my abs to the point of fatigue. It's what works for me.

Diet structure:

Low carbs, high protein and high fat. I eat really good foods (mostly organic), no junk food, and probably ingest close to 2500-3000 calories a day. I try not to eat more than 150gms of carbs a day, but if I'm doing cardio, I'll eat more carbs because I'll bonk if I don't. I'm diabetic. I inject 5-7 times a day. I eat 4-6 times a day.

Entire fitness program:

Background: been pretty much been using my body since I was 8. Dance, then gymnastics, then track and field. When I was competing, I trained 4-8 hours a day (depending on what we needed to focus on), six days a week. I'm definitely NOT overtraining any body parts now

Eventually I stopped competing, and have worked out with weights ever since (about 15 years). Dabbled in powerlifting, but found it to be pretty hard on a person's body. You can't powerlift forever. Tried bodybuilding, but didn't like it because I felt as though I wasn't really doing anything. I found I actually lost strength while bodybuilding. It wasn't keeping my body as strong as when I had done strength training. So I switched back to strength training and have been doing that ever since.

I'm not heavy on cardio. I know I should do more, but I don't want to lose what little fat I have.

I work out 4-6 times a week. I'm on a 3-day split, and since I'm not lifting super heavy weights if Day 1 was Monday, the next Day 1 will be Thursday or whenever I get back into the gym. Most of my workouts are maintenance, but for the last 10 months, they've also consisted of some serious rehab.

I can't do "real" squats or deadlifts yet because of the SI/lumbar/pelvic injuries I sustained in the two car accidents I was involvedin (one in May, one last September), but I'm working towards that. I did some wall squats with the bar on my back last night. It felt pretty good. I'll try going into the box and putting a couple of 25lb plates on the bar next time. That'll only be about 100 pounds. We'll see how my back and neck likes that

I hope to get up to 250lbs by the end of the year. I don't know about deadlifts, though. I may have to forego those, which would really suck.

What else would you like to know or need to know?

I stand corrected. My chest is only 41", my biceps are 12", and my thighs are only 22" now in the middle. I've apparently lost some serious muscle mass in my legs from not being able to squat

Pics or your a man.

I can assure you that I am a fully functioning female -- XX all the way

I do have boobies. If I didn't, my chest wouldn't be 41". It would only be about 36". I have a large rib cage, OK?

If I do happen to submit a pic, I will be in lycra and I'll have a tape measure around my waist so you can see that it is, in fact, that freaking large and that everything else (in comparison) must be that large, too. If you want me to flex, I'm more than happy to :P

Us males could use some appropriate pics. So let it rip...

I would be interested in seeing a female with your specs.

Additionally, if you get good results with working the core 7 days per week, each day of the month, and 365 days of the year (and 366 in a leap year .........this deserves a:


ROCK ON!!!!!!!!!!





He, he

Best wishes,


Chillen