Are side crunches effective?

[far336]

Are they effective in getting stronger obliques? I am not looking to lean them out, just stronger. And if they are good to do, how many reps do you recommend if they are weighted?

[ironwill2008]

Are they effective in getting stronger obliques?

No. Deadlifts, Squats, and OHPs will do a much more efficient job of strengthening that area.

[Sargamatha]

If you want abs you need to lower your bodyfat, doing 100 ab exercises of 50 reps won't make your abs appear through the layers of fat.

Diet is the key to achieving a six pack.


Also as stated above^ doing compound lifts works the core as well, there are many lifters such as Zyzz that never worked their core, yet have nice defined abs due to low body fat and compound lifts, such as squats and deadlifts which strengthen the whole core.

The more intense the core exercise the more effective it is in strengthening the core muscles ( dragon flags, hanging leg raises, standing ab roll outs, ) are all badass exercises which require strong core, if you can perform these and still have no visible abs and rock hard core, change your diet, start shedding bodyfat

[far336]

If you want abs you need to lower your bodyfat, doing 100 ab exercises of 50 reps won't make your abs appear through the layers of fat.

Diet is the key to achieving a six pack.


Also as stated above^ doing compound lifts works the core as well, there are many lifters such as Zyzz that never worked their core, yet have nice defined abs due to low body fat and compound lifts, such as squats and deadlifts which strengthen the whole core.

The more intense the core exercise the more effective it is in strengthening the core muscles ( dragon flags, hanging leg raises, standing ab roll outs, ) are all badass exercises which require strong core, if you can perform these and still have no visible abs and rock hard core, change your diet, start shedding bodyfat

I already have a six pack showing, but as i stated before, I am not looking to get it more toned, just get my obliques more stronger.

[abendm]

I already have a six pack showing, but as i stated before, I am not looking to get it more toned, just get my obliques more stronger.

In that case heavy standing side bends, heavy side bends off a hyper bench, and heavy cable crunches to the sides would be good choices. There are also interesting standing cable twist sorts of exercises, but I can't imagine being able to load those effectively. "Side crunches" off the floor won't do much for strength. Compounds do indeed work the core quite a bit, but heavy loaded ab exercises will make compounds more solid generally, and are a necessity if your looking for the really chunky ab look.

About the chunky cinderblock abs... most ppl probably aren't looking for that. I have striated delts (super stoked about that) and veins in my quads, but because i do 100lb sets of cable crunches, my abs are huge and it still looks like I'm fat until I flex.