Abs question

[OLD FORUM ARCHIVE]

Hi Kerry, hope you are well.

Just a quick question, i've been having a discussion with a few lads at work today, as one of them said for their abs they did 500 situps everynight.

Obviously I thought this was rediculous and said if you did 4 x 12reps correctly, you'd only need to do your abs once a week maybe twice.

I said to them just to treat it like any other muscle group.

Am i right in thinking this??

Cheers

[OLD FORUM ARCHIVE]

kk - You are right John, there is very little difference in the way you should train a muscle, if you want that muscle to get firmer, stronger or bigger you contract it against a resistance. With situps that resistance is gravity, your friend, to do 500 sit ups cannot possibly be doing them strict (good form) he must be using momentum, and if he is using momentum, he is putting less resistance on the muscle.

If he is doing CV training, then he can do 500 sit ups as that will tax his lungs but if he is doing 500 sit up trying to get a good set of abs, he is doing it wrong, you are totally right, 3,4 or 5 sets of any rep between 8-15 with good form will work his abs better.

You could have the best set of abs in the world but if they are covered with a layer of body fat sit ups will not get rid of that body fat to show your abs. To get rid of that body fat you have to do some aerobic work and control your kcalorie intake.

Kerry Kayes signing off Friday afternoon...