Good, Intense, Ab Workouts?

[VOC2112]

Lately ive been doing crunches and situps every day but they are starting to not do it for me. ie i can do over 200 reps before my abs start to kill and im becoming bored with them lol.

Can anyone reccommend some intense ab workouts where i will only have to do 10-20 reps? Thanks

I was thinking of starting doing sit ups with a barbell. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Please note, i regularly do squats and they are great but i am looking for an ab isolation exercise.

 

[Dancelot]

Heavy overhead squats.

 

[alex]

squat squat squat

 

[PowerBuilder]

do the ladder with deadlifts. Do a single rep. Rest for a breath. Do two reps. Wait a few breaths. Do three reps, wait a few breaths. After you do ten reps, start the drill from the start. Use a moderate weight

 

[Kyle Aaron]

The purpose of your abs is not really to make your upper body curl up, but to help you stand upright, or keep your midriff rigid.

When standing with your abs tight, instead of the load just going through your spine, it spreads around through your abs. When in the pushup position, keeping your body straight - rather than arse in the air, or peeling off the ground like a band-aid - requires the use of your abs.

Thus, prone braces will work. But any exercise can be, is and should be a core exercise. Standing upright with good posture requires the use of abs, thus standing upright with good posture under load requires more use of abs.

Squats, lunges, deadlifts, overhead presses, all these basic compound exercises will work your abs... and other muscles, too.

 

[haz]

bar rollouts, hanging leg raisers, wood choppers, pallof press, heaps of variations of planks.
a good plank i just read about it when you put 4-5 1.25kg and 2.5kg plates next to your right arm in a plank and then you move all the weight to your left side with your left hand and the move back over with your right hand.

 

[trofius]

get near the heaviest weight you can over head, and stand there for 60 seconds with it up there.. 1 REP

or do squats with a weight helt above your head... sets of 10..

 

[Goosey]

Lately ive been doing crunches and situps every day but they are starting to not do it for me. ie i can do over 200 reps before my abs start to kill and im becoming bored with them lol.

Can anyone reccommend some intense ab workouts where i will only have to do 10-20 reps? Thanks

I was thinking of starting doing sit ups with a barbell. Any suggestions are appreciated.

200? I'd rather slam my hang- downs in a car door.

Your abs or the one you can see should be trained just like any muscle in your body.
Hold a dumbell on your chest, a heavy one, maximum 20 rep's.
If you can do 200 you're doing something wrong.

 

[MikeW]

I agree with the others here that suggest squats and big upright compounds, but if you're looking for an isolation abdominal exercise then I'd suggest one of the following:

1. Decline bench ab curl with a 20kg plate on your chest.

I used to do these a lot and the weight really assists with the burn. Hold it in an embrace and curl up slowly. You can cheat on this by using your quads too much if you don't curl up.

2. Weighted hanging leg raises.

Keep your legs dead straight and slowly raise and lower. If you need more resistance then clasp a dumbell between your ankles.

3. Laying leg raises.

Use a decline bench but lay with your feet hanging down. Grasp the leg stabilisers with your hands above your head and extend your legs straight out in front so that you're pivoting at your waist at the end of the bench. Raise to vertical then curl your abdominals to lift your hips off the bench pointing your legs skyward. Lower your hips back to the bench then lower your legs back to slightly below horizontal. You can cross your ankles if you prefer and again can add weight to your ankles to add resistance.

My abs aren't great but I've found the above all worked when doing split routines but to be honest, the squats and standing overhead presses I'm doing now have really improved my core strength and probably brought my abs out better than any of the isolation work I did in the past. Plus they have the added benefit of stripping away fat due to the intense workout and muscle build that I'm getting. Often the problem with abs is not the lack of work you're giving the muscle but the excess of fat you've got hiding them.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Zarkov]

One of my favs - 10 sit ups on the floor (no homo sit up bench) and if you keep your feet flat on the floor the whole time you are doing well.Rollover and do 10 pushups.Continue for 10 reps or as many as you can.