Increase muscle in abs

[Shaz]

Hi Cathe!

Most abdominal workouts involve high reps. However, I read recently that to add significant muscle to the midsection (rather than just tone), you should use extra resistance, eg by holding a weight to the chest while doing a short set of crunches. Do you ever do this?

Thanks,
Sharon.

 

[SammyB]

Sharon,

I'm interested in Cathe's opinion about weighted ab work. I asked a similar question on the General Forum a few months ago and not a single person replied, oddly enough.

I figured I'd just try it out and started using resistance along with a little hi-rep ab work and have been pleased with the results. I used to do only hi-rep work 3x a week. If I see too much bulk, then i'll stop, but for now, I just have a little more muscle in my rectus abdominus. (nothing noticeable with obliques though) Although the size increase isn't big, they feel a lot stronger than they ever were with only high reps.

Ginger

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

Hi Sharon! Yes, to add "significant" muscle to the mid section you will need to add weight. Most people just want to tone their mid-section and for this reason additional resistance was not as "popular" a method for ab work as simply using your own body weight (along with lever changes and some basic core work). But now with core work becoming increasingly more popular, medicine balls, stability balls, etc. have been added in to make the workous even more challenging. With this weight increase, the muscle will get a little bigger. Not a bad thing at all (indeed a great thing for posture improvement and functional fitness)but I find that when it happens, many people (woman especially so) will panic a bit feeling that they are getting a thicker waist. So I have been incorporating a combination of both, a little weight resistance mixed with traditional ab work, to get a better all around workout.

 

[Shaz]

Thanks Cathe!

 

[Shaz]

Hi Ginger. Do you follow Cathe's ab routines, but add a weight. How do you hold the weight?

Thanks!
Sharon.

 

[gingerdavis]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jul-24-02 AT 07:22PM (Est)[/font][p]Hi Sharon,

I still do Cathe's ab routines maybe 2x a week, but not with weight. They're too fast for using heavy enough weight to challenge the muscles. I guess I could slow it down to every other rep, huh? Might try that tomorrow. Some parts won't work of course, but it is an option.

For weighted work, i hold a plate on my chest (on upper area of pectorals) and do crunches on a Swiss ball alternating between obliques and rectus abdominus work. I like to do Cathe's plank work after this and really feel a good burn.

I also do Swiss ball curl ups (prone on the ball with hands on floor and shins on the ball and curl your quads in toward your chest, bringing in the ball, and then back out again). These aren't weighted, but i like them for something different. I love Cathe's ab routines (and they certainly still challenge me), AND i know change is good for muscle development, so i do a little of both.

Try it out--if you see too much development from the weights, just stop. Your muscles should atrophy if you stop using weights. Everyone's abs seem to be so different--they're shaped differently and develop differently, and then, of course, everyone has a different idea of what looks good and what they want.

Ginger

 

[Shaz]

Thanks Ginger. I'll definitely have a go. I'm not worried about putting on too much muscle in my abs, my middle is quite skinny (wish I could say the same about my legs!). The high rep work hasn't made very much difference to my abs, so I'm looking forward to trying this. I have some back issues of Muscle and Fitness, so I'm going to look for ideas there too.

Sharon.