Ladies and gentlemen, guess who can finally see his abs. Yep, that’s right- this guy. For the first time in my life I have a four pack! And, well, it happened at me being close to the heaviest I’ve ever been. It feels pretty good if I’m honest, walking around at two twenty and still having them. It got me to thinking about how impressive the ab muscles really are. Nothing else on your body puts together your look than a solid stomach. You can have a big chest and broad shoulders all day, but nothing will put a stamp on it quite like the core. You gotta train abs.
I won’t lie to you and say that it came easily. I won’t even say I completely understand it yet. But, that’s what we’re here for isn’t it? Today, I’m going to go into the biggest question regarding ab training. How often should I do it? I’m going to cover two different opinions to start with. And then to finish off, I’ll discuss the single most important piece of ab gear you can own.
Train Abs More Than Once a Week?
This is one that I honestly only recently learned about. One school of thought regarding your core is that all you need is fifteen minutes at the end of your workouts three or more days a week.
It does make sense to me, of course. The muscles are there to stabilize your abs. So when you lift weights, you’ll always be using your core muscles to some extent. This goes double if you do big, heavy compound lifts during your workouts. Things like squats, deadlifts, and bench press are the first to come to mind.
So what you would do in this situation, is that after your big workouts you’d do a handful of core workouts. For example, if you’d do it, say, three days a week. On monday you would do your heavy bench press and chest workout. After, you can work your upper abs with crunches and sit ups for a few sets. Then, on wednesday, you can do your normal heavy leg training. Finish that up with a few sets of leg raises and hanging core workouts for your lower abs.
Train Abs On One Day?
Now, this one is a bit different. A lot of people believe in the idea that abs don’t even need direct work if you do heavy compound lifts. Move the needle slightly in another direction and you have this.
The belief generally goes that if you’re doing big, heavy compound movements that beat up your whole body that you only really need to dedicate one day to getting your abs. For example, if one week of training includes squats on one day, bench on another, and deadlift on a third, then your core has to stabilize you through all of that.
It certainly makes sense, and I’ve seen people have success with this. But those ab days are going to have to be pretty intense if you plan on giving them six days off.
One Thing We Can All Agree On
No matter what you train and who you ask, you’ll find there’s one thing that can be agreed on when it comes to how you train abs. And that’s the ab wheel.
Ab wheels are a low tech piece of equipment that have been around for decades. It’s a wheel with a rod in the middle, and your hands go on each side.
It is meant to roll while you are using it so that you can move your body forward and backward in different directions, and you will be able to focus on individual muscle groups.
It allows you to take planks to the next level, and really tear up your abs. Seriously, get one. There’s no better way for me to finish this. Get an ab wheel, guys.
