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How often should you train your abs
and for how long ?
This is a great question. Many people always
ask me how often they should train their abs. I usually tell people who
are new to working out that they should start off their training program
with 2 effective abdominal training sessions per week training each of
the abdominal sections, start off slow and just do 4-5 sets of crunches
at each session. Then, as they feel they are getting less sore and
better conditioned for that type of workout, they should add a few more
sets to each session or throw in new exercises, like hanging knee raises
or any of the other on this site. I take the 2-3 times per week approach
(when I started training my abs, I began with 1 session a week and
worked my way up). I think this is much better because you are still
training the muscle often enough to get great results, but your aren't
over training the muscle. I only do 6-8 sets for my abs at each workout,
and that's only during my pre-contest cutting phase (in the off season,
or bulk up phase, I only train my abs once a week). I usually do 3-4
sets of crunches and 3-4 sets of hanging knee raises, 2-3 times per
week. I let the dieting and the cardio work do the rest. Both of them
combined help me eliminate all the unwanted body fat that's covering up
the cuts in my abs.
As far as on "how often" and "how long" you should
train your abs, you should concentrate more on quality, instead of
quantity. Effective ab training is where it's at, not so much "how
often" and "how long". If you train your abs on Monday,
and they get sore, I mean really sore, then there is absolutely no
possible way that you can train them again on Wednesday. And if you did,
your abs won't get any more cut or developed because you are not
allowing enough time for the muscle to recover properly.
Sometimes, after a really hard ab workout, my abs will get sore for 4
days. I won't touch them again until the following week, which is
usually 5 or 6 days later. Other times, I'll only get sore for a day, or
2 or 3 days later, I'll train them again. You just have to listen to
your body, it'll tell you when it's time to train them again. I did mention "effective ab training" so let me get back to
that. It means you train the muscle with perfect form, to failure. So if
you are allowing your legs to extend all the way to the bottom before
bringing them back up again on the hanging knee raises, then your form
is bad. When you do your knees raises, lift your knees all the way up as
high as you can, allow them to only come down a few inches, and then
lift them back up. On the crunches, do the same thing. Crunch up as high
as you can, only come down a few inches, and then crunch back up again.
You want to keep the tension on the muscle, it's the only way you fire
all the fibers in your abdominal region. Don't ever allow your abs to
rest during a set or else you're just wasting your time. You should
experience an excruciatingly painful burn in your abs when you perform
your sets this way. Just make sure your form is perfect and you train to failure. Another
thing, keep your rep range between 20-25 reps, that should be perfect.
Another side note, make sure you're doing cardio work and eating clean.
You can do sit ups, crunches, and hanging knee raises until the cows
come home, but if you don't diet off that layer of fat over your ab
muscles, you will never see the cuts of your abs.
Good luck, and train hard!
Ricky Gonzalez
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