Ab Workout Every Day or Every Other Day

[GetSwoll]

Hi CF

I am in a debate between two ways of going about working my abs.

One Side - the reasons that Chris has brought up in the Abdominal Development Thread

Originally Posted by Chris

Your abs are just like every other muscle in your body. You need to stimulate them through stress and work, then give them time to recover for rest and growth. And just like other body parts, you need to vary your ab training routines every 4-8 weeks for continued development.

If you're training them hard enough and really overloading your abs with each workout, I would not train them any more than twice per week. Training them any more than that may give you a quick result, with too much added stress for long peroids will result in overtraining and lessen your results as well as weaken your core on other lifts throughout the week. Your abs need time to rest & recover just like every other body part for growth.

This makes great sense to me and is a very well back argument.

The other side is from Arnold Schwarzenegger's Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding. In his "Level 1 Workout Routine" he includes an abdominal workout every day. I do this workout just because it is Schwarzenegger's advice and he is a very reputable source, but I don't know what his reason is behind this workout.

Does anyone have any thoughts debating these two arguments?

[Chris]

Well, it's important to note that Arnold wasn't training naturally either. That will definately speed up your recovery time. Many times people tend to do ab work with a less than intense focus. You don't see anyone pushing and grunting on their abs as they would on a squat. This is a mistake. If you want to grow any bodypart I challenge you to train full tilt...even your abs. But, I know you're looking for other opinions, so hopefully some others will chime in for you.

[bronson]

Originally Posted by Chris

Well, it's important to note that Arnold wasn't training naturally either. That will definately speed up your recovery time. Many times people tend to do ab work with a less than intense focus. You don't see anyone pushing and grunting on their abs as they would on a squat. This is a mistake. If you want to grow any bodypart I challenge you to train full tilt...even your abs. But, I know you're looking for other opinions, so hopefully some others will chime in for you.

I agree with this post and Chris brings up a good point here.When reading advice from a top notch bodybuilder, you have to understand that they have the best of everything. First they are invited to a certain location to train under the guidance of the best trainers. They are supplied with the best drugs, the best free supplements, that they will endorse for large amounts of money. They don't have to work. They have acsess to the best training facilities for free. If training isn't going according to plan, advice is a phone call away. And if need be, the best trainer will be there the next day to guide every contraction.Add to this outstanding genetics.

A top level bodybuilder can get up at 5 in the morning, have a full tilt workout, go home and sleep, get back up and take the best steroids of that era and go back to the gym at night and have another full tilt workout. Average people can't do this. A top notch pro and the average guy are like night and day.Follow along here, there is a senseable conclusion to all this yacking.

And remember that at this level there is a lot of money involved in endorsements and book sales. There was a time when Arnold trained under Vince Gironda. Vince always had his students train abs at the end of other workouts and at the same intensity. Now to the POINT! If Arnold knows you have to train abs at the same intensity as other body parts, he probably feels the average guy could not do this without the aid of steroids and all the other advantages that he had.

So for you to achieve this intensity, he recomends everyday. Another point though is many say to train abs the same as other body parts and not to train them any harder. If you can train your abs with the same intensity as other body parts then the workout plan Chris talks about would work for you!

Hope this helps. Good Luck! bronson.

[w0cyru01]

What is your goal?

[Chris32431]

Very nicely explained by Chris and Bronson good job guys