I had a fitness test in gym class the other day. One of the things we did was see how many situps we could do in a minute. Right now i'm doing 160 lbs crunches, so its pretty safe to say that i've got the strongest abs for a 14 year old in my school.

But for some reason when i did as many situps in a minute as i could i only got 86---its good but it could be better. Is their anything i can do to help me do more situps faster (Is it just the same as getting them stronger)?

Well for one situps use the hip flexors for motion as well as the abs so perhaps you need to strengthen them a bit more to improve your situp speed

Sure, you can get rid of the weights and do more situps. Why on earth would you want to load 160 lbs on crunches? Just curious if there is a sport-specific reason or otherwise ... as plenty of functional strength and definition can be achieved by body weight alone.

What I mean by the weights versus situps is that you are comparing apples and oranges. Case in point, at the GNC show a few years back I got third in the pull-up competition. When I was banging them out, a bodybuilder was laughing because he was up next. This guy was huge, made me look like a tiny man to say the least - muscles rippling all over, lat spread the size of one of the great lakes. However, when he got up to do the pull-ups, he only was able to do about 8.

Now, if you loaded a 200 lb plate around his waist, he could have probably done a pull-up but it would have ripped my arms off.

Why?

Apples and oranges.

Doing a 160 lb crunch simply means you have explosive strenght in your abs - you can generate a major force in a short period of time.

Doing more situps in a minute, however, doesn't require strength, it requires local muscle endurance. These are two different factors entirely.

For example, when you train for endurance, your muscle responds by building more organelles - mitochondria, myoglobin, etc - to facilitate recovery and endurance. When you train for strength, your muscle becomes more efficient and you have a central nervous system response.

So if your goal is to do more situps, train with volume rather than weight - create the endurance to complement the explosive power.

Just like if you want to bang out more pull-ups, you don't do so by adding weight. You do it by doing more pull-ups.

Best of success.

Jeremy

I had a fitness test in gym class the other day. One of the things we did was see how many situps we could do in a minute. Right now i'm doing 160 lbs crunches, so its pretty safe to say that i've got the strongest abs for a 14 year old in my school.

But for some reason when i did as many situps in a minute as i could i only got 86---its good but it could be better. Is their anything i can do to help me do more situps faster (Is it just the same as getting them stronger)?

Great post Jeremy! Every one seems to be great though. :lol:

Sure, you can get rid of the weights and do more situps. Why on earth would you want to load 160 lbs on crunches? Just curious if there is a sport-specific reason or otherwise ... as plenty of functional strength and definition can be achieved by body weight alone.
I agree, I was repping in the 8-10 range with 90-100 pounds. The weight was starting to get heavier than I could easily stabilize (I held an appropriately sized dumbbell in front of my forehead). Sure it was nice to use so much weight and a neat trick to max out the ab machine at my school, but where was it going? Was I going to just keep adding weight until a dumbbell comes crashing into my face because my arms can't support it?

The point is one can go in a different direction. Now, I don't weight any of my ab exercises and use mostly ones borrowed from gymnastics - exercises that require that, in many cases, you generate massive amounts of core tension. As a result I can hold my body in positions that 99% of the people I know can't and truly be able to support my bodyweight.

Try these progressions (Google can tell you how to do the exercises):

L-sit -> V-sit

Hanging Knee Raises (knees to chest) -> Hanging Straight Leg Half-Raises (straight leg raise to parallel to floor) -> Hanging Straight Leg Raises (to over your head)

Hanging Straight Leg Raises -> Wipers
Hanging Straight Leg Raises -> Scissors (like in Jeremy's ab routine)
Hanging Straight Leg Raises + Arches + Skin The Cats -> Back Lever
Hanging Straight Leg Raises + Hollows -> Front Lever

Handstand against wall -> Freestanding -> One-arm

Handstand Lower to Straddle L -> Straddle Press Handstand -> Stalder Press to Handstand -> Pike Press to Handstand -> V-Press Handstand -> Wide Arm Press Handstand

Tuck Planche -> Straddle Planche -> Planche -> Planche Press Handstand
Straddle Planche -> Straddle Planche Press Handstand

To give you an idea of the massive strength and flexibility you'll have to develop to get through these progressions: the second item in the more than double progressions (with the exception of hanging straight-leg half raises and a handstand) is not possible for almost everyone you'll meet, and probably, on average, would take a well weight-trained individual nearly a month to develop the sufficient strength to perform it. By the third item, many amature gymnasts won't be able to perform the skill (other than hanging straight leg raises). With the exception of the L-sit to V-sit progression, all double progressions would not be possible for anyone but trained gymnasts. Of course, those that train using gymnastic exercises, but do not do gymnastics, can develop the sufficient fitness level to perform them as well.

I might mention that in almost all cases, except the V-sit and back lever, actively improving your flexibility is not a requirement as you will gradually gain flexibility just performing many of these exercises. But doing so will allow you to progress faster as gaining flexibility can give you more leverage to work with and allow your body to work in positions that it normally isn't placed in.

You have the power to take your fitness, strength, flexibilty, and core to an entire new level.

Resources: http://www.drillsandskills.com, http://www.powerathletesmag.com

Thanks for the help guys.

Jeremy i used to do tons of swiss-ball crunches at the begining of my ab routine--- then i hit a plateau. I work all my other muscles with large weight and low reps and tried it with my abs. Since then i've been making alot more progress on my midesection.

That's awesome to hear - thanks for sharing it, because it can certainly help others who hit a similar plateau as well. As I like to say, you know your body better than anyone else, sounds like you found a method that is working! I wonder if perhaps you would reach your goal by reducing the weight slightly and pursuing more reps each workout, or doing something like an escalating density workout where you keep the time frame fixed but move more weight or perform more reps in the timeframe?

A few ideas to help you improve that score.

Jeremy

Thanks for the help guys.

Jeremy i used to do tons of swiss-ball crunches at the begining of my ab routine--- then i hit a plateau. I work all my other muscles with large weight and low reps and tried it with my abs. Since then i've been making alot more progress on my midesection.

thanks man,