Abs - Six Pack

[Withered Soul]

I want to find a really good abs exercise website. I weight at a measly 7 stone (can't put weight on/off for the past 3 years) but I have a pot belly.
Much appreciated.

 

[Robbo]

Best exercise's I did came from a article in BB. You did 10 sets of crunchs with your feet being in different positions for each set. You'd have to do some research for it on the BB site, but it was awesome...hurt like a #$#@@.

Rob

 

[Withered Soul]

Ah. Bit of a problem. I'm in England. We don't have Black Belt magazine. We have Martial Arts Illustrated.
Could you be a bit more specific on what these exercises look like please?

 

[Robbo]

try their website. It's kind of hard w/o pictures but I'll try if you can't find it.

Rob

 

[Elfan]

You wont have a "six-pack" unltil you loose that pot belly.

 

[Matt Stone]

Having a "six-pack" and a bulging tummy are not mutually exclusive... IMAists here should know that in time, the breathing that is peculiar to most forms of qigong will develop a "buddha belly" that is made of pure muscle.

Check out www.dragondoor.com. Pavel Tsatsouline's ab workouts will most definitely challenge you. They deliver!

Gambarimasu.
:asian: :tank: :asian:

 

[ECYili]

I second what yiliquan1 says. That is some pretty wicked stuff. It's not in how many reps you do, it's what you do with the few reps you actually do.

I've done alot of other ab stuff and this stuff is really good for MAists.

 

[Withered Soul]

Some of you may be a bit confused by my 'pot-belly' remark. What I ment was it's muscles are very releaxed. I know this because if I tense them they turn into a semi-six pack if you get what I mean.
Ta for the website though.

 

[melteye]

Generally for a six-pack to be visible in a male you have to have a bodyfat percentage in the single digits. No amount or type of excercise will work unless your bodyfat is low enough.

I personally do modified weighted crunches (known as cap'n crunches):

Hold a dumbbell of a desired weight behind your head, under your neck as if it were a pillow. Hold it in this postition with your hands (to not press it against your body). Keep your legs raised to reduce the risk of injuring your lower back. Perform normal crunches (be sure to use only your abs to pull your body up) and hold it in the highest position for 5 seconds. I usually do 3 sets of 10. If done correctly they are extremely painful (in a good way), people stare at me in the gym because I make so much noise sometimes.

 

[jeffkyle]

Originally posted by melteye
Generally for a six-pack to be visible in a male you have to have a bodyfat percentage in the single digits. No amount or type of excercise will work unless your bodyfat is low enough.

I personally do modified weighted crunches (known as cap'n crunches):

Hold a dumbbell of a desired weight behind your head, under your neck as if it were a pillow. Hold it in this postition with your hands (to not press it against your body). Keep your legs raised to reduce the risk of injuring your lower back. Perform normal crunches (be sure to use only your abs to pull your body up) and hold it in the highest position for 5 seconds. I usually do 3 sets of 10. If done correctly they are extremely painful (in a good way), people stare at me in the gym because I make so much noise sometimes.

That sounds good...like they might do the trick. And not take hundreds and hundreds to do so! I will have to try them! Thanks.

 

[lvwhitebir]

Originally posted by jeffkyle
And not take hundreds and hundreds to do so! I will have to try them! Thanks.

If you're doing more than 25-30 crunches per set, then you're probably either doing the exercise incorrectly or need more challenging exercises. I know of 4 or 5 variations of the standard crunch alone that offer different difficulty levels. A lot of magazines, like Muscle and Fitness, occasionally have a lot of ab work in them of varying intensity. They should give you some more ideas.

Also, in order to fully work any muscle, I like to work on tiring it a little first. Do a few sets of a bunch of different crunches to get the muscles a little tired before hitting the main part of your routine.

But, in the end, it is always about the percent of body fat. As someone said, everyone has a six pack, it's just that it usually doesn't show.

WhiteBirch

 

[Erkki]

Originally posted by lvwhitebir
If you're doing more than 25-30 crunches per set, then you're probably either doing the exercise incorrectly or need more challenging exercises.

I agree with this, only I'd take the reps down to 5. Any more than 5 reps is wasting your time. Muscles respond best to super high tension. When you do your crunches, tighten your butt really hard (have someone kick you in the butt to get the feeling) and flex your abs really hard while performing the crunch slowly (the slower you move, the more tension is generated). Make a point to generate enough tension that you tire yourself out by the time you get 3-5 reps. Do 3-5 sets like this. You'll notice at increase in ab hardness in days and the six pack look is merely fat loss away.
Like Yiliquan1 and ECYili have said, do yourself a huge favor and go to http://www.dragondoor.com and pick up Pavel's book on abs, Bullet Proof Abs. If you don't want to do that, do a web search on the Janda situp. Janda situps make the regular fitness club crunches look like the pansy exercise movement it is.