How to structure the perfect abs workout. As most of you would know, abdominal training is a very popular discussion between every day gym goers and also your hard-core athlete or physique competitor.
Although you may think throwing a few abdominal exercises together and completing a heap of reps is all it takes to train the abs effectively, you actually need to structure your ab training just as you would with any other muscle group. Now I want to add that I classify direct abdominal training and core training as two separate things. Crunches will NOT really strengthen your core, although they WILL grow your abdominal muscles. Whereas an exercise such as a palov press will NOT give you 3D popping abs, but it WILL strengthen your core and improve performance.
START FROM THE GROUND UP- The most effective way to structure an ab workout is to start from the ground up.
Meaning, lower abs, upper abs (Rectus abdominis) and finally the oblique’s (Internal and external), with inner core muscles (Transverses abdominis) and stabilizers thrown in there also.
To help you structure the perfect workout, I have listed 3 of my favourite lower, upper and oblique exercises (along with some core exercises at the end also) for you to choose from along with a bit of a template to follow in regards to sets and reps.
LOWER
-Hanging knee/leg raises
-Reverse crunches
-Lying leg raises with a Swiss ball between your feet
UPPER
-Cable rope crunches
-Decline crunches (weighted if possible)
-Basic crunch
OBLIQUES
-Cable woodchops
-Hanging oblique knee raises
-Russian twists (weighted if possible)
CORE
-Palov press (REPS)
-Ab rollouts (REPS)
-Plank (TIME)
-V sit (TIME)
ABDOMINAL WORKOUT TEMPLATE
(Choose an exercise from the lists above and fill in the blanks)
- LOWER 5 x 10
- UPPER 4 x 15
- OBLIQUE 3 x 12
- LOWER SUPERSET WITH UPPER 3 x 15
- OBLIQUE SUPERSET WITH CORE (REP) 3 x 15
- CORE (TIME) 2 x 60-90 seconds
*30 seconds in between sets
*Contract the abs on each and every rep
*Exhale on every contraction
*Limit momentum and focus on mind/muscle connection
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For more abdominal and core workouts you can pick up my eBook ’10 workouts for a stronger core’ for just $9.99. Just click here.