What's the point of doing bunches of crunches if you're not FEELING any kind of a burn? Short answer: There is none!
If you want see results, you have to challenge your body!
Despite regular workouts, a FitPerez reader named Stan hasn't had much luck in the abdominal department so he wrote celeb trainer Mike Donavanik for help!
Hi Mike,
I have questions about simple abdominal exercises. I have been doing many sets of abdominal exercises every day, such as vertical leg crunches, traditional crunches, and the ab rocker at the same time. However, about 2 months after I started this, I feel no more burn. What can I do to improve my own program?
According to Mike D:
Hi Stan!
If you’re not feeling the burn, those exercises probably aren’t challenging you anymore. If you can complete them without feeling any difficulty, it’s definitely time to change up your current routine. One of the easiest things you can do – without adding any equipment – is create an abdominal specific exercise circuit. So, piece together three to five abdominal exercises and perform them back-to-back.
Here’s a quick example (perform 3-5 sets):
1. Leg Raises – 15 reps
2. Crunches with Legs Elevated – 15 reps
3. V-Ups – 15 reps
4. Bicycle Crunches – 15 reps each side (30 total)
5. Russian Twists – 15 reps each side (30 total)
Another way to challenge yourself is to add some weighted resistance to your abdominal exercises and/or pick more challenging abdominal exercises. If you’re going to add some weighted resistance, all you’ll need is between 5 and 15 pounds. While it may not seem like a lot, that weight will definitely add up, especially if you add it to an abdominal circuit. Some challenging exercises that you may want to add to your routine are: hanging leg raises, hanging windshield wipers, stability ball pikes, TRX Pikes and the list goes on and on.
Your abdominal muscles are just like any other muscle in your body, they’re eventually going to adapt to a given stimulus. To continually challenge yourself and make gains, be sure to change up your routine every 3-4 weeks.
We're feeling the burn just reading this! If you've got more questions, write Tips@FitPerez.com or tweet @MikeDonavanik on Twitter for more answers!
Tags: ab routines, ab workout, abdominal region, answer, celebrity trainer, exercise, midsection, mike donavanik, muscles, question, trainer, twitter
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