What ab exercises work for everyone here? 200 marine core crunches in the morning...in between them I do 30 leg raises...pretty hard...and 30 toe touches..I do this workout twice a day....
You should always include back strengthening excercises to complement you ab work. Every morning (well, 6days a week) I do 30 sec crunches, 30 sec full cruchies (knees and elbows meet in the middle) 30 sec oblique, 30 sec other oblique, 30 sec pike (touch toes) crunches, 30 sec leg raises, (FLIP OVER- face down) 30 sec back extension (top half off floor) 30 sec leg raises (bottom half lifted off floor) 30 sec press-ups. 4 min 30 sec in total. I do that circut three times in the morning.
Alot of people spend far to long working the abs... best link i could recommend is: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/likness28.htm
I'll see your routine, and raise you two... www.t-mag.com/nation_articles/267ab2.html www.t-mag.com/html/123abs.html There is very rarely a need to train your abs more than 3 time each week, let alone nearly every day, as it appears most people do. The stronger your abdominals are, the greater likelihood for muscle imbalance with your lower back, which is why most people complain of back pain. It's the guys who never miss their 30+ push-ups everyday and 100+ sit-ups everyday who can't figure out why their low back is always giving them trouble. 'Cuz it's the weakest muscle there, ya' goofballs! If your training abs more than once each week, alternate the movement emphasis. Day 1 - Trunk flexion (crunch, reverse crunch) Day 2 - Ab rotation (side crunch, crossbody crunch) Day 3 - Ab stabilization (plank, ab wheel) That's it, done and finished.
i hope i'm not hiijacking this thread here...but, on the matter of working muscles more than 3 days a week, i have a bit of a problem. i had been lifting 3 times a week, using a routine designed for an mma fighter, based on the russian conjugate system. however, on tuesdays and thursdays, my grappling coaches also like to make me to horrible horrible things like infinities (squat, right lunge, left lunge, sprawl, pushup, headstand, headstand pushup, roll head to front, back, right, left, pushup, lunge, lunge, squat, repeat), and having someone lift us up from our guard, and do situps. should i drop my other lifting, or lower intensity, or...kill the coaches?
Surprised no one mentioned Parelette work.Basic Ring and Pommel Horse excerises. Plus Saxon side bends and Bent press. check these out http://www.t-mag.com/articles/205abs.html http://www.american-gymnast.com/tt/strength/circuits/midsection.htm http://www.t-mag.com/articles/197steel.html see what you think
so, you're jokingly suggesting i kill them? or...you're frightened and confused like a deer in the headlights of an oncoming robot dinosaur?
why not be more conventional and say car rather than oncoming robot dinosaur. on the topic though, you can't measure ab strength by how many you do. the world record guy did like 5000 something, and although that's one hell of a stomach, he was pretty fat looking. i guess a lot of it's contributed to the genes...six pack or a keg?
In our MT class we generally do 50 crunchers, 50 bicycles, and 50 leg raises. To work the lower back, we do 1 or 2 sets of 20 "supermen." To do these, you lay on your stomach with your arms bent in front of you (imagine you're Superman and are flying and looking down). Raise your legs and your head/chest/arms into the air and lower them back down. That's one. If you REALLY want to make your abs burn, get a 15 lb medicine ball. Hold it in your hands and sit down with your legs straight in front of you. Raise your legs about 2 inches off the ground. Move the medicine ball to one side and touch the ground with it, then across your lap and touch the ground on the other side, keeping your feet from touching the ground. Do sets of 20 of these and I promise your abs will be begging for mercy.
you couldn't reach the maximum apex with all that fat, which would take away from the effectiveness of the exercise.
Totality is right. I'd say that most elite level powerlifters are well above 16% bodyfat, which puts them in the "chubby hubby" range. But their ab strength (as well as total body strength) is no doubt beyond nearly any other athlete, regardless of their sport. Powerlifting great Marty Gallagher once said "Unless you can deadlift 500 pounds, you have to train your abs." Without strong abs, no one would ever squat 600 pounds, or pull a double-bodyweight deadlift.
One thing that no1 has mentioned yet is that having a larger quantity of fat and muscle in MA's is not a good thing. From wat i have herd and experienced the larger the muscle the more tension - thus loosing speed and i have herd that the larger the muscles on a person also makes grappling worse due to the amount of energy (myt not b the best of words to use there) used by the muscles, they will burn out after a few large bursts. So in saying that a smaller amount of working on a specific muscle group is better in my opinion.
the reason no one has mentioned it is that it's not true. you have to lift weights for many years, with hypertrophy in mind, to become large enough to impede your movement.
The reason no one has mentioned it is because it is not true. The size of a muscle has a very direct bearing on its strength, and hence on its speed. I assume when you blather about 'a smaller amount of working on a specific muscle group', you intend to imply isolation exercises. Please do not do this as it makes my knuckles itch. Additionally: I have it on good authority that once you are capable of doing crunches in numbers in excess of 20, they have bring little further benefits to the strength of your abs.
are you serious??? so as in i do 50 crunches, they are worth barely anything compared to if i could do only 20?
In a word, yes. Doing 50 consecutive reps of any exercise will not make you a better athlete, unless you are a long distance runner. I would much rather see you doing weighted crunches for 10 sets of 5. That way, you can still say you did a 50 crunches, only this time, it actually made you a better fighter. Actually, for calisthenics like push-ups and crunches, I'd add resistance once you can do 15 reps nonstop. Beyond that, you're training aerobic muscular endurance, which is not what martial artists need...at all...ever.
