Ab routines that don’t suck

Winter is upon Jo’burg and as one of my weirder habits go, I get a burning desire to hit the gym at 5am or late afternoon. Some time ago (two months ago to be precise — it was a sad day in April when I discovered I’m not the usual 32″), I realised that unless I train for some sport, be it road-running or cycling or triathlons, I will continue ballooning around the waist until I look like Andy Garcia without a guitar. So, this month I’m hitting back with a strict low-carb diet, cardio training and general strength training in the gym. As a visible objective I have a washboard stomach in mind — your rectus abdmoninis muscle cannot be visible unless you have a low body fat and suitably developed.

Me now

Me later?

Showing off this muscle has been the nirvana for thousands of casual trainers such as myself. Interestingly, it only entered popular body building fashion the past ten years or so (pick up a copy of Men’s Health circa 1990 and compare it with last month’s if you want proof of this). Getting there shouldn’t be too much of a problem, its basically just a function of proper eating and proper exercise:

• Eating: Having been a low-carb fan for quite a few years, I don’t have much problem getting rid of sugar and excess carbs in my diet – its mostly a matter of dropping Candarel instead of sugar, keeping clear of sweets and white food like bread, rice, potatoes, mielies and wheat. Tim Ferris had an interesting blog post a while ago on this. I started drinking liters of water every day, keeping clear of flavoured water — even Aspartame-sweetened water can contain up to 20g of carbs per 500ml! I use Phedracut XT (if I remember) and take AnimalPak on workout days.

• Exercise: The American Council on Exercise sponsored an abdominal exercise study in 2001 at the San Diego State University. Their findings:

For strengthening the rectus abdominus, the 13 exercise were ranked most to least effective:

1. Bicycle maneuver
2. Captain’s chair
3. Crunches on exercise ball
4. Vertical leg crunch
5. Torso Track
6. Long arm crunch
7. Reverse crunch
8. Crunch with heel push
9. Ab Roller
10. Hover
11. Traditional crunch
12. Exercise tubing pull
13. Ab Rocker

For strengthening the obliques, the 13 exercise were ranked most to least effective:

1. Captain’s chair
2. Bicycle maneuver
3. Reverse crunch
4. Hover
5. Vertical leg crunch
6. Crunch on exercise ball
7. Torso Track
8. Crunch with heel push
9. Long arm crunch
10. Ab Roller
11. Traditional crunch
12. Exercise tubing pull
13. Ab Rocker

I don’t spend too much time on exclusive abdominal exercises such as these above, but I do work them until failure on every workout day (which is twice or three times a week) — a good routine is the “commando cardio ab annihilation” from this more sensible website than most that I found on the topic. On the same days I’ll spend 30 mins rowing or cycling with my heart rate typically hovering the 75%-85% of max. I’ll post some process updates as winter progresses…