“Should I workout abs everyday or just once a week?”
There is a lot of confusion about ab workouts, should you do them every day or just once a week? The arguments go on endlessly on bodybuilding forums everywhere and the reason is that there is no right answer, it depends on your goals!
There are two basic ab workout methodologies:
- A hardcore, long and grueling ab workout done once a week like you would for any other muscle group wanted to get big and strong
- A quick ab workout done daily or every other day.
As I said, both these will give you the core strength you need for sports and to prevent back injuries, its mainly a cosmetics issue. Do you want small, tight abs like a marathon runner or do you want big muscular, powerful abs with big ridges and deep valleys like a bodybuilder?
The abs are no different than any other muscle in the body. When you make it work with resistance training, it responds by adapting, becoming stronger and bigger. Doing ab exercises makes your ab muscles bigger. At first, this added muscle makes the waist smaller because the muscles are strong enough to contract and hold the abdominal cavity in its compressed state. After that, any ab muscles added make the waist bigger, not smaller.
Now lets look at the two kinds of ab workouts:
| If you want a small waist with tight, flat abs like a marathon runner then do this 3 minute ab workout. Its takes only 3 minutes and you do it every other day. It makes your abs strong enough to keep your abdominal cavity compressed and supported but it wont add so much muscle so as to increase your waist. | [Video being re-edited and will be re-uploaded next week] |
| If you want big, powerful abs like a bodybuilder with big ridges and deep valleys then do this workout. This workout is like any other workout for a muscle that you want to get big and strong, its an intense hour long workout with heavy weights that you do once a week. |
As an aside, many people are grossed out by pro bodybuilders abs – the “pregnant bodybuilder” look. These men are massive 300 pound walls of pure muscle but yet they have huge distended barrel bellies unless they suck them in (as they do onstage). These huge distended bellies are NOT the result of too many ab exercises, they are the result of massive amounts of steroids and growth hormones. You don’t need to worry about either of the above two ab workouts making you look pregnant!
Please see the Big Abs, Flat Abs page on my website