The world would have you believe that the best way to work the abs is to lie on the floor and do hundreds of crunches. What if I told you, one way to make muscles bigger is to take a weight and do high volume?
Now let’s take the abs. How many people do 100 reps or more per ab workout? And how many people work the abs out multiple times per week? Do you think your abs will get bigger?
They might if you don’t over do it. Now, let me ask you. Is bigger abs what you want? If you’re like most people, bigger isn’t what your after. Stronger is. When I used to follow conventional thinking, I would do over 100 reps for the abs and most of that was from crunches.
What did I have to show for that? My upper abs, the area right below the rib cage, got bigger. I actually looked like I had a fatter stomach than I did. Now that I stopped the crunching all together and work out the way I do now, my upper abs are no longer huge.
What I think is the best ab exercise
In my humble opinion, I think the best ab exercise, are hanging leg lifts. These definitely work the front abs. In a good way. And since the intensity is high, no need to do 100 reps, even if you can.
If you can’t do hanging leg raises there are easier versions you can use to get stronger. like lying leg raises. And if you don’t want to hang or can’t, you could also do them on dip bars, or parallel bars.
The Abs are used as stabilzers, so try holding the top position for 1 minute, if you can:). If you do dead-lifts or clean and presses, I’m sure you can attest to this. My whole core feels solid and pumped after doing them. That’s because the core must be tense in order to protect the spine.
How to do Hanging Leg raises (3-step photo)
What’s your goto ab exercise?
photo credit: rings
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