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2004/09/13, 04:51 PM
I signed up for the 12 ab program, and I didn't like the two days of ab workout a week it gave me so I decided to do 40 situps on an incline bench, 40 crunches on an excercise ball, and 20 leg raises after each daily excercise.
Here's the question, I feel it in my abs while I am doing the workout, but the next day I don't feel anything like I do with my arms and whatnot. Are you supposed to feel it in your abs? If so, should I raise my sets or do some more exercises for the abs?
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2004/09/13, 05:40 PM
You are doing too many situps in one set. Try doing to sets of 10, and do them very slowly while contacting your abs.
Do your abs at the most 3 time a week, they need to recover like your other muscles do.
Some of us don't feel any soreness until 2 days later and some, none at all.
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"A will finds a way, failure is not an option"
Ivan
carivan@freetrainers.com
Montreal Canada
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2004/09/14, 01:35 AM
How do you add resistance to crunches, leg raises and seated twists. That's what the 12 week ab program has me doing i'm in my 3rd week i always ignored my abs so i did 2 weeks without resistance but now i want to add some weight as i have read that in order to show your abs you need to add some restance just like any other muscle.
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2004/09/14, 07:24 AM
There are many ways, you can for instance do upper pulley cable crunches, these are awesome. If you are doing the swiss ball crunches, hold a weight plate on your chest, same for incline crunches. With leg raises, which are an awesome ab exercise, you can put a dumbbell between your feet. Resistance is needed to build these muscles to see that "6 pack" that you covet. Simple situps will not do this, you will simply burn more calories which of course may not be a bad thing, it will go with your caloric deficit if you are trying to lose fat, but it will not build the muscles to any extent.
As far as the ab "soreness" problem, remember, abs are a core muscle. They are involved in most movements in a secondary way, and it is quite typical not to feel sore after the initial few times. You will need to work your lower back also, as this ties in. I would work them at max 3 times per week, as Carivan says, they are muscles that need to be worked and rested also.
One other note, twists are basically a useless exercise. Twisting from side to side again may burn a few calories at best, but is not going to aid you in building abs. Most folks do these thnking they are working their "love handles", but in fact are not and cannot. You cannot target a fat area like that anyway, they work the obliques and intercostals if they do anything and are done correctly.
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If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything....
bb1fit@freetrainers.com
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