What's the best way to work on your abs?

by Pyromnc on Jun 23, 2011 5:42 PM EDT

I've been researching the best ways to work your abs, or how much you should work them in a given week. Some sites say you should work them everyday and others say no more than twice a week.

I know when I did P90X I was doing it 3 times a week at 15 minutes per but I didn't get the results I wanted... Probably because at the time I was a 260lb man standing at 5'11. Now I'm down to 173 and would like to focus on this area as I still have a little flab on the belly.

So my questions are:

1) How often should I work my abs.

2) What should my focus be when working them? Meaning, should I focus on different areas on each workout or do the same like I did in P90X.

3) Should I eat lots of proteins after doing an ab workout like I do with weight lifting workouts?

(Just to clarify with the P90X, I dropped all my weight doing this workout. I'm sure if I had done one more round of it I would get the results I want.)

Thanks for the help.

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I don't do muh beyond planks

And I find them to be fantastic; they have made me superbly lean, and my core is very strong. They are definitely worth giving a try, although they are probably not what you are looking for.

As far as nutrition is concerned, I can’t be of much help there, as all I ever consume post – work out is a pint of milk, a banana, and a big plate of pasta.

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by Drunken cutman on Jun 25, 2011 6:24 AM EDT reply actions

Hmm, I had forgotten about those...

I’ll have to add them to my exercises. How often do you do them?

by Pyromnc on Jun 27, 2011 5:01 PM EDT up reply actions

planks worked really well for me while I was doing PT — even a set of 3 30-second planks 2x a day seemed to make a difference, and then 3 sets of 20-second side planks 2x a day.

I’ve gotten a little out of my core strength/PT routine since I’ve felt better, but it really did seem to be something that made a nice difference in not much time.

by BrianS on Jun 28, 2011 12:50 PM EDT up reply actions

From what I hear, and I'm no exercise consultant,

abs are just like pecs, delts, bi’s, tri’s, etc. They are a muscle. Working them out once a week to failure is enough. Do low reps with weights to make them bigger (the ridges or “washboard”), work them out high reps, low weight as often as everyday for a lean, flat stomach. There is also a saying “Abs are made more in the kitchen then in the weight room”. Diet is probably about 85% of it if your looking for definition. But I’m not an expert. I have a strong core, and no pot belly. I have tried for years to get definition, but, I like to eat. Pizza is kind of my weakness! Good luck!

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by OCBlazerFan1 on Jun 28, 2011 2:22 PM EDT reply actions

There are whole books about this...

…among them The New Rules of Lifting For Abs, by Schuler and Cosgrove.

One of the take home messages of the book is that the best way to work the core is to make your WHOLE WORKOUT a core challenge rather than focusing on isolating the abdominal wall. Planks, as BrianS pointed out, are useful to a point, but you’ve eventually got to move past them if you want to keep getting stronger. Rollouts, Swiss Ball pike-ups, Valslide Walkouts, and Inchworms are all great moves that work the core functionally—in conjunction with other muscle groups, doing movements that mimic the kind of challenge that the core was designed to handle. Once planks become easy or boring (it happens!) I’d say push on to these other variations. Good luck and congratulations on the weight loss. A

by Andrew Heffernan on Jul 1, 2011 12:39 AM EDT reply actions

Thanks a lot.

I’ll take a look at those books.

I tend to challenge my core during my workout but like how P90X also does a 10-15 min workout a couple times a week on top of that. Just wanted to kind of change up some of the moves from that ab exercise.

Thanks again.

by Pyromnc on Jul 5, 2011 4:33 PM EDT up reply actions