The Importance of Weighted Ab Workouts
Getting a six pack and ripped abdominals is often times the hardest part of working out.
People often train until they are blue in the face and still cannot develop a toned midsection.
Therefore, you have to realize that the most important part in the path to a six pack is in your diet.
No matter how hard or frequent you train abs, you will never get the results you want without a strict diet.
You don't need to eat perfectly to get a great stomach but enough to get your body fat well under 10%.
Once your body fat is under 10% your abs should start showing.
But only once you shred your midsection of almost all of its bodyfat will your abs begin to ripple.
You could have the best set of abs around, but they could be covered under a layer of fat, never giving your abs the chance to show itself to the world.
You need to train your abs hard to develop the muscle, but more importantly cut the fat.
Now, let's get to the training aspect: The biggest mistake people do when training abs is failing to do the right kinds of workouts for abs.
When you walk in the gym and you hear people whine about why their abs don't show, it's either because they are neglecting their abs/cardio/diet completely or they simply go about it the wrong way.
Most people think that merely sit-ups and high reps will provide you with deep cuts in your midsection.
Wrong! When you train other parts of your body, do you do reps upwards of 50 reps for every set! When you train legs, do you train them every day? No! Your abs are a muscle, too! Just like your chest, triceps, or biceps are! Train them like you would anything else.
Although the abs recover much quicker than larger muscle groups, they still are a muscle group and need adequate rest of atleast 48 hours.
Most likely, your rep range will be between 8-15 reps for your other bodyparts.
That's exactly the way you should train your abs.
Just like your chest, legs or any other muscle group, your abdominals are a muscle.
You need to stimulate the abs enough to grow.
Doing a set of 50 reps for crunches every time won't stimulate your muscles to grow in terms of making huge muscles that will pop out and provide you with the six pack of women you see in model shoots and guys you see in magazines.
Once in a while it is good to do to offer something new, but the basis of your abs training should be of a moderate rep range, where you are shooting for maximal stimulation.
I'm not saying to never do a set of 50.
Doing such high reps can shock your muscles into new growth and give it a much added pump.
However, such high reps should never be the foundation of your workout, especially in this case for abs.
Hence, in order to make your abs stick out like you want them to, you need to perform weighted movements.
Your abs need stimulation just like your other bodyparts do.
You wouldn't just do push ups for chest or just pull ups for back or just bodyweight squats for legs.
While those are all great substitutes and can be incorporated into your routine, they should never constitute the foundation of your workout.
Weighted movements are the best way to make your abs stick out and to "pop out.
" Part of getting a set of nicely shredded abs is to develop the muscles underneath the fat.
You don't develop muscle by doing super high reps, rather you get them by some form of weight resistance.
When you workout your abs with weight, you will target the fast twitch muscle fibers in the abs and create a six pack with deeper ridges and grooves in between.
Weighted abs do not give you a bloated stomach as some people may think.
They stimulate the "muscle" to grow, not the fat around it.
So, you will have a chiseled midsection that will look proportional to your body.
In addition, strong abs will increase your strength in other areas as well.
The core is your body's foundation.
It is where the body derives its power from.
You will increase your bench press, squat, and deadlift immediately upon a great set of abs.
The best way to train abs is to do them 3 times a week at no more than 20 minutes each time.
Just like any other muscle, you don't want to overtrain your abs to the point of breaking down muscle and hindering its growth.
Abdominals tend to have a faster time of recovery and can be done more than once a week (as opposed to the other bodyparts), but they don't require heavy stimulation like your legs do in a single bout to grow.
20 minutes is plenty long, provided you rest minimally in between sets.
Your abs are a small muscle group that recover quick in terms of resting after a workout and quick in terms of resting in between sets.
Take that into account, so you should be only resting 10-30 seconds in between sets of abs.
Although there are many great weighted ab workouts to choose from, the one that I have found to work the best is the machine crunch where you are able to adjust the weight to contract your abs to.
This workout builds tremendous strength in your abs and helps it to "pop" out of the midsection.
Another important factor is that this workout puts virtually no stress on the legs, something many people find bothering them when doing certain ab workouts.
Often times, people stop doing an ab workout because their legs are too fatigued.
As a result you should find a workout that puts maximal stress on the abs with virtually no stress on any other muscle group.
The weighted crunch machine is often times a great way to eliminate unneeded stress and resistance on other parts of the body.
Although the abs are one muscle group (not split into upper and lower abdominals), the weighted crunch does tend to emphasize the upper and middle portion of the abdominals.
Therefore, complement this with a floor wiper, where you lie flat on the ground and a hold a bar up in the air, bringing your legs to each side of the plate.
Try this workout: The goal of this workout on the weighted crunch machine is to do 10 reps for every set with no more than 10-15 seconds between sets.
You want to start at a moderately light weight and do a set of 10.
10-15 seconds later, do a little heavier weight for 10 all the way up to a heavy set but that you can still control for 10 (remember to adjust the weight accordingly; not everyone is as strong as others).
In other words, you want to increase the weight 10 pounds and rest for 10-15 seconds and start again.
The light sets are only needed to really warm up your abs enough so that they aren't injured in the process.
You are going to put tremendous resistance on your abs with this workout so warming them up enough is crucial.
The reason why this workout is so great is because you are constantly stimulating your abdominal muscles with heavy weight.
Most importantly, it isn't boring like doing a set of 50 crunches.
You are constantly challenging yourself with this routine so try to go for 10 more pounds every week or add one more rep to your existing rep scheme.
People often train until they are blue in the face and still cannot develop a toned midsection.
Therefore, you have to realize that the most important part in the path to a six pack is in your diet.
No matter how hard or frequent you train abs, you will never get the results you want without a strict diet.
You don't need to eat perfectly to get a great stomach but enough to get your body fat well under 10%.
Once your body fat is under 10% your abs should start showing.
But only once you shred your midsection of almost all of its bodyfat will your abs begin to ripple.
You could have the best set of abs around, but they could be covered under a layer of fat, never giving your abs the chance to show itself to the world.
You need to train your abs hard to develop the muscle, but more importantly cut the fat.
Now, let's get to the training aspect: The biggest mistake people do when training abs is failing to do the right kinds of workouts for abs.
When you walk in the gym and you hear people whine about why their abs don't show, it's either because they are neglecting their abs/cardio/diet completely or they simply go about it the wrong way.
Most people think that merely sit-ups and high reps will provide you with deep cuts in your midsection.
Wrong! When you train other parts of your body, do you do reps upwards of 50 reps for every set! When you train legs, do you train them every day? No! Your abs are a muscle, too! Just like your chest, triceps, or biceps are! Train them like you would anything else.
Although the abs recover much quicker than larger muscle groups, they still are a muscle group and need adequate rest of atleast 48 hours.
Most likely, your rep range will be between 8-15 reps for your other bodyparts.
That's exactly the way you should train your abs.
Just like your chest, legs or any other muscle group, your abdominals are a muscle.
You need to stimulate the abs enough to grow.
Doing a set of 50 reps for crunches every time won't stimulate your muscles to grow in terms of making huge muscles that will pop out and provide you with the six pack of women you see in model shoots and guys you see in magazines.
Once in a while it is good to do to offer something new, but the basis of your abs training should be of a moderate rep range, where you are shooting for maximal stimulation.
I'm not saying to never do a set of 50.
Doing such high reps can shock your muscles into new growth and give it a much added pump.
However, such high reps should never be the foundation of your workout, especially in this case for abs.
Hence, in order to make your abs stick out like you want them to, you need to perform weighted movements.
Your abs need stimulation just like your other bodyparts do.
You wouldn't just do push ups for chest or just pull ups for back or just bodyweight squats for legs.
While those are all great substitutes and can be incorporated into your routine, they should never constitute the foundation of your workout.
Weighted movements are the best way to make your abs stick out and to "pop out.
" Part of getting a set of nicely shredded abs is to develop the muscles underneath the fat.
You don't develop muscle by doing super high reps, rather you get them by some form of weight resistance.
When you workout your abs with weight, you will target the fast twitch muscle fibers in the abs and create a six pack with deeper ridges and grooves in between.
Weighted abs do not give you a bloated stomach as some people may think.
They stimulate the "muscle" to grow, not the fat around it.
So, you will have a chiseled midsection that will look proportional to your body.
In addition, strong abs will increase your strength in other areas as well.
The core is your body's foundation.
It is where the body derives its power from.
You will increase your bench press, squat, and deadlift immediately upon a great set of abs.
The best way to train abs is to do them 3 times a week at no more than 20 minutes each time.
Just like any other muscle, you don't want to overtrain your abs to the point of breaking down muscle and hindering its growth.
Abdominals tend to have a faster time of recovery and can be done more than once a week (as opposed to the other bodyparts), but they don't require heavy stimulation like your legs do in a single bout to grow.
20 minutes is plenty long, provided you rest minimally in between sets.
Your abs are a small muscle group that recover quick in terms of resting after a workout and quick in terms of resting in between sets.
Take that into account, so you should be only resting 10-30 seconds in between sets of abs.
Although there are many great weighted ab workouts to choose from, the one that I have found to work the best is the machine crunch where you are able to adjust the weight to contract your abs to.
This workout builds tremendous strength in your abs and helps it to "pop" out of the midsection.
Another important factor is that this workout puts virtually no stress on the legs, something many people find bothering them when doing certain ab workouts.
Often times, people stop doing an ab workout because their legs are too fatigued.
As a result you should find a workout that puts maximal stress on the abs with virtually no stress on any other muscle group.
The weighted crunch machine is often times a great way to eliminate unneeded stress and resistance on other parts of the body.
Although the abs are one muscle group (not split into upper and lower abdominals), the weighted crunch does tend to emphasize the upper and middle portion of the abdominals.
Therefore, complement this with a floor wiper, where you lie flat on the ground and a hold a bar up in the air, bringing your legs to each side of the plate.
Try this workout: The goal of this workout on the weighted crunch machine is to do 10 reps for every set with no more than 10-15 seconds between sets.
You want to start at a moderately light weight and do a set of 10.
10-15 seconds later, do a little heavier weight for 10 all the way up to a heavy set but that you can still control for 10 (remember to adjust the weight accordingly; not everyone is as strong as others).
In other words, you want to increase the weight 10 pounds and rest for 10-15 seconds and start again.
The light sets are only needed to really warm up your abs enough so that they aren't injured in the process.
You are going to put tremendous resistance on your abs with this workout so warming them up enough is crucial.
The reason why this workout is so great is because you are constantly stimulating your abdominal muscles with heavy weight.
Most importantly, it isn't boring like doing a set of 50 crunches.
You are constantly challenging yourself with this routine so try to go for 10 more pounds every week or add one more rep to your existing rep scheme.