I NEVER WENT TO THE GYM TO “WORK OUT”.
RATHER I WENT TO LEARN.
THE WORKOUT WAS INCIDENTAL.
—DR. ED THOMAS
T People love making categorical statements like “The abs must be trained every day!”, “The abs should never be trained every day!”, “Train your abs three times a week”, etc. Yes and no to all of the above. Strength coaches’ experience tells us that a wide variety of schedules may work. For instance, powerlifting champions train their bench press anywhere between once and eight times a week—an enormous spread.
The individual frequency, volume, etc. depend on many variables. Start with the following cookie cutter recommendations, then adjust. I am not going to waste pages explaining the logic behind the following template. If you are familiar with my previous work, you already understand it. If you are not, remember that the Party is always right and follow the orders without questioning them.
• Treat your training session as a “practice”—not a “workout”. Focus on maximizing the tension in different midsection muscles and linkage between them.
• Do not evaluate your progress by the number of reps you can do; as your tension skill improves, your rep count might drop. Instead, track your ability to perform more advanced versions of the given exercises or other challenging midsection exercises.
• Do not train your abs before heavy lifting or when you are tired. The ideal time is after a low volume strength workout or in a separate workout.
• It is safer to perform spine flexion exercises in the evening than in the morning.
• Train your midsection three times per week.
• Alternate two weeks of Hardstyle sit-ups and two weeks of leg raises (block training).
• Feel free to use different variations of the same exercise in different workouts (specialized variety).
— E.g. Hardstyle sit-ups starting from the top on Monday, starting from the floor and relaxing between reps on Wednesday, “1 ½” reps on Friday.
• Perform 1-5 repetitions per set.
• Never train to failure. Stop when you still have 1-2 reps “in the bank”.
• Do a total of 10-25 reps per session.
— E.g. 5x2, 3x5, (2,3,5)x2, (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), etc.
• If greater hypertrophy is the goal, slowly increase this number to 50 in one of the weekly sessions.
— E.g. 10x5 (sets x reps), (2, 3, 5)x5.
• The length of rest between the sets in minutes should approximately match the number of reps in the last set. You do not need a stopwatch, close enough is good enough. You may reduce these intervals when hypertrophy is the priority.
— E.g. 2min of rest after 2 reps, 5min after 5 reps, etc.
• Stretch your abs and perform some easy non-related exercise during the rest intervals.
— E.g., practice Fast & Loose drills, shadowbox, stretch your hips, foam roll your piriformis and IT bands, do some calf raises, etc.
— I am a fan of the protocol by Steve Baccari, RKC: every couple of minutes alternate sets on the Ab Pavelizer™ and Captains of Crush® grippers. I do not know an easier way to significantly improve one’s strength in almost any exercise and performance in almost any sport than heavy ab training plus heavy gripper training.
A Captains of Crush® gripper. Get yours from www.ironmind.com
• If you are short on time, you may divide your abdominal practice into two.
— E.g. 2x5 in the morning and 3x5 in the evening.
• If you are unable to do your scheduled abdominal workout, practice Hardstyle breathing throughout the day.
• If you are on a high volume strength regimen, reduce or eliminate direct ab work.
— Enter the Kettlebell! Program Minimum. Given the volume of get-ups, any sit-up work would be redundant. 10 HLRs twice a week on GU free days should not be a problem.
— Enter the Kettlebell! Rite of Passage. One-arm military press ladders smoke the midsection. At most you should do a total of 10 reps of either Hardstyle sit-ups or HLRs on variety days. Or none at all.
— Return of the Kettlebell!, Kettlebell Muscle, Smolov Squat, Russian Squat Routine. Don’t even think about it.
— Power to the People! The “Bear” will tolerate no direct ab work. On the other hand, the base PTP plan and Hardstyle Abs are fully compatible.
— The Naked Warrior. 10 reps per workout twice a week of Hardstyle sit-ups or HLRs, as one-arm pushups are very demanding on the midsection.
• Follow the Hardstyle Abs plan twice a year for 8-12 weeks.
What should one do in the interim?—Heavy lifting.
Dr. Franco Columbu told me that he hated abdominal exercises. So he just focused on contracting his abs hard in every strength exercise—even the bench press. “Every exercise was about my abs!” Not only did he win the Mr. Olympia title, but the “Best Abs” award as well. Behold the power of high tension!
At a buck eighty Columbu deadlifted over 700 pounds. I hope you follow this old school bodybuilder’s suit and never allow your physique goals to distract you from being strong.
Power to you!
Opposite and following page: Strong + lean = ripped
Photos courtesy Dr. Franco Columbu
