Program Design #8: Finding Time for Abs

Ahh, there’s always time for abs right?

I feel like abdominal training exists in one of two extremes. There are those who do far too much of it and spend in excess of thirty minutes multiple times per week working their abs and then there are those who completely forget it or maybe tack on a careless set or two at the end of a workout.

I would like to encourage you to not be in either of those camps. And often with I think of abdominal training, I am actually thinking of core training. Thus, the type of core/abdominal work I like often will involve the obliques, serratus, transverse abdominis and glutes as well. Working these muscles together is much more “real world” in the sense that they are often called upon to be utilized together. Very seldom in life will you be called upon to simply crunch your ribs towards your pelvis. You will however be called upon to stabilize your spine as you face twisting forces from picking up children, putting away groceries, doing household chores, picking up dropped items, etc.

Now, please hear me, I am NOT saying to never do crunches. I AM saying that adequate abdominal/core training will involve more than crunches.

Luckily, abs can actually be easy to work into your training. One great way to do so is with opposing supersets. There are several reasons to use abdominal/core exercises as supersets.

1) A strong core helps your performance on all lifts, particularly the heavier ones. Force is always transferred through your body to the ground from the barbell, thus any weak link in the system can cause force to be dissipated. Often this weak link is the core.

2) Core work often will not interfere too much with the exercise you are performing provided it isn’t squats or deadlift.

3) Sometimes it is hard to find an exercise to superset, when that happens, choose abs!

Related to #2 above, again, I am not saying you can’t work abs with squats or deadlifts. But, squats and deadlifts are very demanding exercises and depending on your strength levels, it can become very hard to do any type of superset with a squat or deadlift. Often, beginners can get away with supersetting with squats or deadlifts because they are simply not strong enough to elicit that much fatigue yet. However, even an advanced trainee could do a superset with squats and deadlifts dependent upon the rest involved and the load chosen.

Related to #3 above, when I say it can be hard to find an exercise to superset, I mean in several ways. First, if you are working out at a commercial gym, you may not want to occupy two machines either due to gym etiquette or convenience. Second, you may find that some exercises simply do not have a nice “opposite” or mirror image. For example, a bench press has a row as its logical opposite as a dip has a pullup. However, what is the opposite of a lunge or face pull for example?

Do I have to superset abs? AB-solutely not (I cannot resist puns, sorry). I suggested that as a way to make sure you train them. The important thing is to make sure you train the core. You can tack them on at the end of a workout or as a separate session. If you do tack them at the end, make sure you are focused and able to do them well, make sure they are not an afterthought. And if you do them as separate session later in the day when you have time, you probably do not need thirty plus minutes, a well planned out 10 minutes will likely be more than enough.

Try to include an anti-extension movement like planks and an anti-rotation movement like shoulder taps along with your standard crunch-flexion type movement. Those three types of movements will give you a fairly complete core workout.

Not that kind of core!