Working the abs with weights

[bozco]

I've been doing ab crunches for ages without any sign of improvement (my diet is good).

Everyday I do the following:
200 crunches lying on my back like this /\___0
200 with my legs raised in the air
100 where I lie on my back and bring my knees close to my chest.


Today in the gym I decided to do 100 normal crunches with a 10kg weight on my stomach, and one hundred more with my legs raised in the air with the 10kg weight on my stomach. Is it safe to do this, will it be beneficial for developing my abs or should I stick to my normal ab routine? The 10kg weight on my stomach didnt make it any harder tbh, I could probably use 15kg or 20kg.

Thanks

[swordfish7]

maybe i don't understand you correctly, but putting a weight on your stomach isn't going to help. You need to hold the weight across your chest, behind your head, or strap weight to your ankles to get any benefit from it.

Cable stations are pretty good for doing weighted ab work too.

[Squats]

Pulldown abs, weighted crunches, decline crunch, leg raises.

[hvit]

You should read Pavel Tsatsouline's Bullet Proof Abs. There are plenty of great ab exercises you can do without weight.

Read into Jackknife Pushups, window washers, boxer twists, ab rollouts, stuff like that.

It's safe to work abs with weight, although I forget exactly what it does with your abs, in terms of making the bigger, etc.

[bozco]

thanks for the prompt advice guys.

so i should be doing crunches holding the weight on my chest?

[Squats]

thanks for the prompt advise guys.

so i should be doing crunches holding the weight on my chest?

Yeah.

[Worldwide]

Everyday I do the following:
200 crunches lying on my back like this /\___0
200 with my legs raised in the air
100 where I lie on my back and bring my knees close to my chest.

LMAO - this is some serious overkill.

What "results" are you looking for? Visible abs? That will only come when your body fat is low enough to make them visible.

[bozco]

I admit I am a tard when it comes to fitness. Worldwide, how many crunches would you advise doing? I am looking for visible strong abs, heres what I look like

[SKWeathers]

All of those crunches are pretty much useless. abs are just like any other muscle. You have to increase resistance to make them stronger. Do a couple sets of weighted crunches at the end of your workout two or three times a week and you will be fine. And make it fairly heavy weight. I would keep the reps fairly low.

[hvit]

BLAHHALFKJEOIFJQO:JALKF

Crunches aren't good, most people utilize their hip flexors more than their abs. Do Janda sit ups if you have a partner, and if not, in all honesty. Look up Jackknife pushups, they are stupidly hard, and you should have no problem in getting a good set of abs if you do them.

[WillB485]

BLAHHALFKJEOIFJQO:JALKF

Crunches aren't good, most people utilize their hip flexors more than their abs. Do Janda sit ups if you have a partner, and if not, in all honesty. Look up Jackknife pushups, they are stupidly hard, and you should have no problem in getting a good set of abs if you do them.

if you focus on doing an accordian-like movement during the crunch and keep constant tension on the abs, it uses very little hip flexors

[AnaerobicAndrew]

I admit I am a tard when it comes to fitness. Worldwide, how many crunches would you advise doing? I am looking for visible strong abs, heres what I look like

Based on your pics, you have very little LBM... sorry, its the truth. You need to do some serious full body training for at least a couple years before you shuold even begin worrying about the finer points of constructing your abs. Build your whole body; your abs will follow on their own.

[Bogaerts]

Based on your pics, you have very little LBM... sorry, its the truth. You need to do some serious full body training for at least a couple years before you shuold even begin worrying about the finer points of constructing your abs. Build your whole body; your abs will follow on their own.

Crazygerman beat me to it. He is exactly right. I was, and still am to a certain extent in this situation.

Looking at your pic, abs are the least of the things you should be concerned with. You need to add more LBM. For you to have abs that show right now, you would have to loose so much weight you would look like a starving ethiopian (with abs).

Your ab routine is not the problem, it's your overall bf% vs lm. I had to put aside my "quest" for abs and focus on the rest of my body. Yes, I still look in the mirror sometimes, and yes, I still think about a time when I will have a visible six pack. However, I have faith in my ab workout (much less now than before), and faith in building up enough lean mass to be able to cut down to a six pack in the future.....

Worry about the rest of your routine, squats, deads, bench, press, etc....when you have those things, the abs will come (and you probably wont need to do 200 - 300 crunches to get them either........

[bozco]

Guys, thanks for all the advice.

[AaronOC]

you need about another 40-50 lbs before you can start to worry about abs

[bigpump23]

to get that define looked you need to