Building Great Abdominals

2008-02-15T15:02:00.000-08:00

A lot of people seem to believe that there is some great 'secret' that only the top Body Builders know of to build great abs. Well I'll tell you a little secret, it's just not true!

The simple facts are

(1) you don't need all the latest and most expensive gym equipment to build great abs

(2) It does not involve starving yourself or going on the latest and greatest diet

(3) It does not include doing hundreds of crunches each day

(4) It does not require you to take pills to lose weight

Just think about it for a moment, people have been building great abs for a long long time, way before all these new expensive gizmo's came along. You will also notice that most of this new equipment is powered by rubber bands or some other light resistance weights. Ask someone who is doing 200 or 300 pound crunches about these lighweight rubber bands, they will laugh at you and tell you not to waste your time and money.

Taking weight loss pills will do nothing but leave you with an empty wallet because diet pills only treat the symptoms and not the cause. Without focussing on the cause and developing a well rounded campaign to deal with both the nutritional aspects as well as lifestyle and fitness regimes you will end up back where you started.

If your goal this year is to get great abs then you need to start training 5 to 7 times a week. The harder you train your abs the more rest they will need. If your goal is to build your abs into dense muscle then a higher load and less frequency is required, around 2 to 4 times a week

For best results divide your abdominal muscles into two seperate workouts.

(1) Truck Flexion (upper abs)

(2) Hip Flexion (lower abs)

(3) Rotation (obliques)

(4) Lateral Flexion (obliques)

....for example Truck Flexion and Hip Flexion is one group and Rotation and Lateral Flexion is another.

Now organise these so that you can alternate each group of exercises over a 4 day period.

Day 1

Trunk Flexion, Hip Flexion

Day 2

Rotation, Lateral Flexion

Day 3

Trunk Flexion, Hip Flexion

Day 4

Rotation, Lateral Flexion

Top 3 Flexion Exercises

(1) Lying Hip Raise

(2) Incline Hip Raise

(3) Hanging Hip Raise

Top 3 Trunk Flexion Exercises

(1) Swiss Ball Crunch

(2) Weighted Swiss Ball Crunches

(3) Weighted Cable Crunches

Top 3 Rotation Exercises

(1) Russian Twist

(2) Weighted Russian Twist

(3) Weighted Cable Crossover

Top 3 Lateral Flexion Exercises

(1) Lateral Flexion on back extension machine

(2) Lateral Flexion with medicine ball overhead

(3) Lateral Flexion with medicine ball and twist

Building great abs is not the easiest task in the world but it is certainly not the hardest either. Consistent training along with good nutrition and diet will have you sporting great looking abs in no time.

For more great tips and 10 Video Coaching Lessons Free check out No-Nonsense Muscle Building

No - Nonsense Muscle Building

Building Great Abdominals