Abs?

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-15-2005
Abs?
5
Thu, 03-17-2005 - 3:06pm

What is the best way to do a good ab workout? I try to do them as s-l-o-w as possible and I do atleast 500 a day (when I workout), lately I started doing 1000 because I've heard several boxers do between 1000 to 2000. Believe it or not, as much as I work out I should be totally lean but, I'm not :-(. I do have strength in my abs, sometimes, I do 500 abs and not feel a thing. I'm not sure if my muscles are used to it or what. I do have 'some' cuts but, not completely lean.

Any suggestions?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-11-2004
In reply to: lisasmith2005
Thu, 03-17-2005 - 3:17pm

my suggestion is to move on to another exercise. or preferably several exercises. there's no need to be doing 1000 reps of any ab exercise - if you can do that many either you aren't doing the exercise with the proper form or it's too easy for you. plus, by doing just one type of ab exercise, you are only working one part of your abs, probably through a very small range of motion.


to mix it up, you could do some exercises on the stability ball. jean would have a lot of good suggestions for that. another suggestion is pilates. pilates really helps you learn to work your transversus abdominis, which is what is going to make you look leaner and give you the most functional strength and support. plus, it's really tough, even for people who thought they had really strong abs before they started doing pilates.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
In reply to: lisasmith2005
Thu, 03-17-2005 - 3:17pm

Are you doing crunches?






iVillage Member
Registered: 02-15-2005
In reply to: lisasmith2005
Thu, 03-17-2005 - 4:35pm
I never said I did a thousand of ONE ab exercise. You assumed I did that. I do 10 different exercises in sets of 100 to add up to 1000. And, I do change them around. That is the problem, I probably do every conceivable ab exercise at one point or another. I know many many people that do over a thousand ab exercises daily. I don't know why you sound surprised. It's not unusual in my gym. Even the instructors at the gym suggest you do atleast hundreds very slowly to work the muscles properly. Well, I've lost weight and much (well I've never been that fat to begin with but, I've lost what I did have) fat but, the ab area is the only one I can't seem to completely tone. I'm aware cuts are genetics but, as I said I do have some. It just seems like I can't get I completely lean.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-22-2004
In reply to: lisasmith2005
Thu, 03-17-2005 - 11:04pm
Just curious, how long does this take you? I'm totally amazed.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
In reply to: lisasmith2005
Fri, 03-18-2005 - 7:07am
In terms of looking "lean", as we said, a lot of it is genetics--besides that diet is about 80%, not that I'm assuming you don't have a good diet.