Do you do sit ups every day?

Do you do sit ups every day?

What else are you doing the rest of your body? Weights?

No, I dont do them daily and I dont believe most people should either. They are the same as any muscle group and should have a period of rest between workouts. Depending on what other workout methods you use you probably are getting an ab workout anyway even when you are not specifically targeting abs. Being that abs are your core they are worked out to some degree in every excersize you do. I would recommend working them specifically only 2-3 times a week.

"What else are you doing the rest of your body? Weights?"

Not enough, that's for sure!

I changed my eating habits, and I do a bit of cardio. I wish I lift weights more then I do, but I have been hitting one change at a time.

1st-changed eating (every day I eat good food, no crap!)
2nd-added cardio (walking quite a bit and sex)
3rd-added some weights (once, maybe twice a week)

Now I am at doing some work on my core. After I have done this, I will start over by increasing the number of meals I eat (I eat 4 right now), do more cardio (Longer walks, and maybe introduce jump rope), and increase the amount of times a week that I lift weights.

The reason I asked my question. I have done 50 sit ups every morning for a week before my shower and today my stomach hurt so I skipped them. Then I got to thinking that maybe everyday is not good. :confused: So I figured I would ask.

Do you do sit ups every day?

Yes. I do abs daily. I alternate weighted / body weight days. Most people don't agree with this method but i've got a real nice 6 pack to prove it works! Nobody can EVER tell me my ab routine doesn't produce great results.
As far as abs getting work indirectly, sure. However it is my belief that abs need to be isolated in order to get that real "cut - groove" look.
Also, I am absolutely positive that a six pack is out of reach for most people who aren't willing to eat correctly. They say abs are made in the kitchen, I've gotta agree.Diet is by far the singlemost important element in a nice midsection.
One more thing. This routine works for ME. That doesn't mean it will work for ANYONE else. If you choose to work abs daily I suggest you start real slow.

"What else are you doing the rest of your body? Weights?"

Not enough, that's for sure!

I changed my eating habits, and I do a bit of cardio. I wish I lift weights more then I do, but I have been hitting one change at a time.

I got to thinking that maybe everyday is not good. :confused: So I figured I would ask.

Let me warn you, you are losing weight. You aren't doing anything to build or maintain muscle. You are in danger of losing muscle, and thereby lowering metabolism. That sets you up for rebound weight gain, when you do eat more calories.

You need to lift weights. You shouldn't prolong it. Start an effective weight program.

The situps should be crunches, and it isn't the worst thing to do to hit the abs every 7 days. But, 2-3 times a week are enough. Remember you can't spot reduce an area with exercise or diet. But you can build, strengthen, and provide form to body with exercise.

Read the messages this weekend in this forum, go back at least 2 months. Get the feel of things. Try to understand the importance of Muscles. You aren't burning fat off with crunches.

I grew up watching Body by Jake, and learned to work my "abba-dabba's" everyday. I do different exercises each day on a rotation. Day one might be V-Up's followed by Medicine Ball Twists. Day two would be Inverted Sit-ups right into Inverted Static Hold/Crunches, all done on the inversion table. Day three would be Incline Weighted Crunches followed by Static held Twists with a bar across my shoulders. I just keep that rotation going. If I don't feel upto an ab workout one day...I don't sweat it because I know I'm doing plenty. :D

I have had a few threads moved. Sorry guys, I will catch on in time. Thanks for being patient.

So every other day you do sit ups and then on the alternate days you do them with a weight in your hands?

I have had a few threads moved. Sorry guys, I will catch on in time. Thanks for being patient.

So every other day you do sit ups and then on the alternate days you do them with a weight in your hands?

for me working myabs 4 times a week wrks for me, im with dd on this one. also im loving ur cardio :lol:

Just do body weight ab exercises when you are starting out. Too much weight will lead to poor form and you will be working every muscle BUT your abs.

also im loving ur cardio :lol:

It counts.......right? I figure 2-3 times a week and if I miss a day, I get in an extra walk.

So I am not building any muscle with the sit ups? Just burning calories?

Weights = Build & Cardio = Burn??????????

It counts.......right? I figure 2-3 times a week and if I miss a day, I get in an extra walk.

So I am not building any muscle with the sit ups? Just burning calories?

You are building some of the smallest muscles in your body with situps.

Cardio builds very few muscles.

Walk for 40 mins at say 3.5 mph = 227 calories.

Do some situps for 10 mins = 40 calories

That is less than 2 ozs of peanuts or almonds. It is better than nothing. We lose by taking in less calories than we expend. A pound of muscle burns 19 times what a pound of fat does at rest without activity. A pound of muscle takes up 20% less space than a pound of fat. Build muscle, reduce calories.

Congrads on losing +40 lbs. Try your best not to lose muscle, it can be hard to gain sometimes.

Congrads on losing +40 lbs. Try your best not to lose muscle, it can be hard to gain sometimes.

Thanks!

I did loose muscle, I can tell just from lifting weights. The nice thing is that I lost more fat then muscle, so I believe it could be worse.

So I really do need to hit the weights right away if I want to start building again? I guess I need to WORKout with WORK, eh. :rolleyes: I like your sig. :D

Thanks for all the advice, I will be putting it to good use.

I only do specific ab work one or two times a week. You need to find out what works for you. Everyone is different so what works for me, or someone else might not work for you.

sit ups just dont do it for me it feels like there doing nothing.
however
eating good, doing pushups andrunning/jogging is making my 8 pack visible. Pushups do the abs very well i believe depending on your stance when doing them and i do pushups nearly everyday, but have 1 or 2 days off every week to let muslces develop but its true you need to do some cardio to burn that fat off to see your 6 pack or 8 pack.

Pushups do the abs very well i believe depending on your stance when doing them

Really? Is that due to "proper posture" while doing them?

Do others agree with this?

Do others agree with this?

Yes

Yes. I do abs daily. I alternate weighted / body weight days. Most people don't agree with this method but i've got a real nice 6 pack to prove it works! Nobody can EVER tell me my ab routine doesn't produce great results.
As far as abs getting work indirectly, sure. However it is my belief that abs need to be isolated in order to get that real "cut - groove" look.
Also, I am absolutely positive that a six pack is out of reach for most people who aren't willing to eat correctly. They say abs are made in the kitchen, I've gotta agree.Diet is by far the singlemost important element in a nice midsection.
One more thing. This routine works for ME. That doesn't mean it will work for ANYONE else. If you choose to work abs daily I suggest you start real slow.


We always seem to agree, we should colaborate on a book or something. :lol:

Couldn't agree more. I've had countless debates with members (well, mostly former members) of this forum and other ones who said the only way to build abs is weighted exercises once, maybe twice per week or that unweighted ab exercises daily are a waste. Aside from a few month period a year or two ago that I tried abs twice a week, weighted, I've always done abs unweighted, nearly daily and have always had quite a 6-pack since a few months after starting them (no, i wasn't one of those people born with one). And these days, I don't even do ab exercises and my 6-pack doesn't fade. Not saying it's perfect, but it's good enough for me.

I'm not saying daily, unweighted exercises are necessary, but I've got a stomach that at least shows they work.

And ditto about the diet part mentioned above.

I don't. I have a pretty good 8-pack when lean. My abs get worked heavily from squats and other indirect compound work. And I hit them hard two days per week. One day is usually hanging pikes. And the other day is weighted crunches. Occasionally, I'll do some non-weighted ab work when the mood strikes me, but it's not a regular occurence. I think doing non-weighted crunches and abwork everyday is ok and an alternative approach that can yield good results. But doing weighted ab work or intense work like hanging pikes more than 2-3 times per week is pushing it in my opinion.

Just do body weight ab exercises when you are starting out. Too much weight will lead to poor form and you will be working every muscle BUT your abs.

I agree with this. I believe in weighted work, but you must learn to properly contract your abs BEFORE you start doing it.

...But doing weighted ab work or intense work like hanging pikes more than 2-3 times per week is pushing it in my opinion.

Good point. My take on the whole ab workout thing is this:

Unweighted exercises 5-7x/week

or

Weighted exercises 1-3x/week


If using weights, then I would tend to say doing abs daily is not the best idea. If not using weights, you may not get the results you hope for just doing them once or twice a week.

Good point. My take on the whole ab workout thing is this:

Unweighted exercises 5-7x/week

or

Weighted exercises 1-3x/week


If using weights, then I would tend to say doing abs daily is not the best idea. If not using weights, you may not get the results you hope for just doing them once or twice a week.


That's why I alternate days!!!!!!!

Walk for 40 mins at say 3.5 mph = 227 calories.

Do some situps for 10 mins = 40 calories



Note: These are likely configured to "rtestes." Being that walking briskly at 3.5 mph has a MET value of 4, that would mean rtestes weighs 188 lb's. Vigorously performing sit-ups at your weight rtestes for 10 min would amount to 114 calories burned though, so I'm not sure where you got those figures from.


Remember you can't spot reduce an area with exercise or diet.


I don't get what you mean by this. How would anyone be getting "workout results" in the abdominal region if you couldn't spot reduce via Exercise OR Diet? Spot reduction is basically the "fat reduction" in a specified area or "spot" on the body (such as your abdominal region). Spot gains is basically the gaining of muscle in a specified area or "spot" on your body (such as your biceps, etc.).


Also, your abdominal muscles aren't like the other muscles of your body in the fact that they don't always need days of rest in-between workouts; it has been proven time and time again that not resting your abdominal muscles does not halt any positive progress made in your abdominal region.

So to summarize this, I would say go ahead and do sit-ups every day if you want, it shouldn't produce any dramatically negative results; let alone any negative results. Good luck with your progress and keep at it! Persistency is key!

Note: These are likely configured to "rtestes." Being that walking briskly at 3.5 mph has a MET value of 4, that would mean rtestes weighs 188 lb's. Vigorously performing sit-ups at your weight rtestes for 10 min would amount to 114 calories burned though, so I'm not sure where you got those figures from.



I don't get what you mean by this. How would anyone be getting "workout results" in the abdominal region if you couldn't spot reduce via Exercise OR Diet? Spot reduction is basically the "fat reduction" in a specified area or "spot" on the body (such as your abdominal region). Spot gains is basically the gaining of muscle in a specified area or "spot" on your body (such as your biceps, etc.).


Also, your abdominal muscles aren't like the other muscles of your body in the fact that they don't always need days of rest in-between workouts; it has been proven time and time again that not resting your abdominal muscles does not halt any positive progress made in your abdominal region.

So to summarize this, I would say go ahead and do sit-ups every day if you want, it shouldn't produce any dramatically negative results; let alone any negative results. Good luck with your progress and keep at it! Persistency is key!

Your post is fairly unclear. You can spot gain. That's what working a muscle does. You really can't spot reduce with diet or exercise. You lose fat by creating a caloric defiict through diet and exercise. You'll lose fat throughout your body. It may not exactly uniform. But you can't just decide, "I want to lose fat in my gut but not my arms". It doesn't work that way. That what's meant whe you say we can't spot reduce. Doing heavy, weighted abwork every day probably IS detrimental and doesn't allow for recovery. Doing unweighted abwork is not. Your abs can handle the stimulation of this. There's not necessarily one right way. So much of abs is diet anyhow and being at low enough bodyfat to see them. But for the exercise side of the equation, there are people who do unweighted ab work every day who have great abs. And there are people that do heavy weighted work 2-3 times a week and have great abs. There are even people who do no direct abwork who have great abs since they are worked when doing squats and other compound movements when training appropriately.

I agree with this. I believe in weighted work, but you must learn to properly contract your abs BEFORE you start doing it.


Agreed 100%

Paradise2k, why the body can spot gain (muscle) and not spot reduce (fat):

Muscle grows through resistance exercise in a process called hypertrophy. You cause damage in the form of microscopic tears to your muscle fibers; the body then repairs the tears and thickens the fiber (adds a little extra) in order to prevent the fiber from tearing again under the same resistance.

You are able to spot gain because you can cause hypertrophy to a target muscle.

The body gets the energy it needs to function from the bloodstream. When there isn't enough energy available in the bloodstream (via mainly sugars), the body catabolizes your fat and muscle stores. In aerobic exercise, the body is able to use its fat stores easily. In anaerobic exercise, the body is not able to efficiently use its fat stores because the reactions involved in using fat require oxygen; muscle, however, does not need oxygen to be converted to energy so, during anaerobic exercise, the body uses increased amounts of muscle for energy and decreased amounts of fat, as less oxygen is available than is needed to convert an appropriate amount of fat to energy.

When you perform exercise such as running or swimming, a very large portion of your muscles are being used. Each of these muscles needs energy to continue working at optimal efficiency. So, the energy in your bloodsteam is quickly used. Once the available amount of energy in your bloodstream dwindles, after a relatively short period of exercise, the body begins tapping into its fat or muscle for energy -- the ratio depending on the intensity of your exercise, whether you're operating at aerobic or anaerobic levels.

Performing exercise daily while eating at a maintainence level (consuming the minimum amount of energy your body needs to sustain itself at rest) will force your body to use itself for energy because the increased activity level requires more energy than is available. Over a period of weeks, you will lose weight because your body has "eaten" some of itself.

You can't spot reduce because the body (nearly 100% of the time) does not bypass the bloodstream to look for energy. Even if you did 10 sit-ups every second for 24 hours every day for an entire month, the body would keep looking to the bloodstream for energy and, when it isn't found, the body will break fat and muscle down wherever its stored to supply the bloodstream and the muscles drawing from it.

*Note that, when I say the energy of the blood stream is used, I mean the energy directly supplied to the blood stream from the stomach as it breaks down the food and other matter you've consumed. This is why it's not recommended to do your cardio after eating a meal. If you don't have as much food available to be converted into energy, the body will tap into its own resources quicker.

**Also note that, to preserve your body composition, it's not enough to eat a meal directly before exercising. The stomach can only convert energy at so fast of a rate. If you're performing an intense enough exercise, the energy requirement will outpace the stomach's ability to fulfill and the body will still turn to its own resources to make up the remainder.

i stuck to my original plan of doing unweighted abdominal exercises 3-4 times a week since i started 16 months ago...i do 4 exercises of 3 sets each of the following (hip-ups, crunches, reverse crunches and "air bikes")
i got fairly good result with it but it took quite a time for my abs to pop out even when cold (about a year) especially the 5th and 6th packs...the last set of packs (the 7th and 8th) are a bit visible right now, particularly after my abs workout....am thinking of doing weighted exercises soon so they'll be visible even without the pump :db:

Anyone got any tips on making sure the abs are properly contracted during sit ups? ? ?

Anyone got any tips on making sure the abs are properly contracted during sit ups? ? ?

Instead of focusing on the standard sit up motion--which largely activates your hip flexors--concentrate on crunching your breast bone down to your pelvis. This will maximally activate the abs without having the hip flexors take over

Instead of focusing on the standard sit up motion--which largely activates your hip flexors--concentrate on crunching your breast bone down to your pelvis. This will maximally activate the abs without having the hip flexors take over
So, think about trying to sort of try to get the breast bone to touch my pelvis, will crunch the ab section more, and protude it more, meaning that more emphasis will be placed on that area? ? ?

So, think about trying to sort of try to get the breast bone to touch my pelvis, will crunch the ab section more, and protude it more, meaning that more emphasis will be placed on that area? ? ?

This sounds like some crazy contortionist move.I suggest you do a google search for AB EXCERCISES. Some of the sights have video clips showing proper execution.

This sounds like some crazy contortionist move.I suggest you do a google search for AB EXCERCISES. Some of the sights have video clips showing proper execution.

It's not a contortionist move. You're not actually touching your breastbone to your pelvis. Your just focusing on pushing from there when doing your contraction. It really does help activate the abs for and help take the hip flexors out of the equation. Particularly if you happen to be doing weighted crunches on an ab machine (which I personally don't really do-I mostly stick to weighted crunches on the ground or hanging pikes and other hanging work)

It's not a contortionist move. You're not actually touching your breastbone to your pelvis. Your just focusing on pushing from there when doing your contraction. It really does help activate the abs for and help take the hip flexors out of the equation. Particularly if you happen to be doing weighted crunches on an ab machine (which I personally don't really do-I mostly stick to weighted crunches on the ground or hanging pikes and other hanging work)

I understand that Justin but I find it very difficult to " explain " an excercise.I think a visual aid is much more effective.

I understand that Justin but I find it very difficult to " explain " an excercise.I think a visual aid is much more effective.

You're right. It was a good suggestion. I was just trying to clairfy. Visual aid does help.

You're right. It was a good suggestion. I was just trying to clairfy. Visual aid does help.

I find it tough to explain any excercise correctly. I'm afraid to give advise, I may cripple someone!!!!!

I find it tough to explain any excercise correctly. I'm afraid to give advise, I may cripple someone!!!!!

:lol:

Note: I don't get what you mean by this. How would anyone be getting "workout results" in the abdominal region if you couldn't spot reduce via Exercise OR Diet? Spot reduction is basically the "fat reduction" in a specified area or "spot" on the body (such as your abdominal region).

You sound like a recently certified trainer. Are you one?