is 3 sets of weighted crunches enough for abs

[appealmaxed]

is it enough for ab growth?

 

[unknownducks]

4 sets would be ideal

 

[appealmaxed]

4 sets would be ideal

is only 1 exercises enough tho?

 

[triggr]

you don’t specify the frequency of this volume in your message (like per week or however many days). but ideally you’d want a movement to target both the upper and lower ab musculature. crunches bias the upper so you already have that, but now you ideally should bias the lower rectus abdominis. choose between hanging leg raises, gar hammers, etc. switch to 2 sets, take one of these or another choice and your crunches to failure every set, and do that 2x/week, maybe 3 if you want.

 

[unknownducks]

is only 1 exercises enough tho?

no 3 would be better than 1 you dont want to do to much tho

 

[triggr]

no 3 would be better than 1 you dont want to do to much tho

3 is unnecessary. the only case I’d see you doing that would be if you were to also train the obliques, but that’s probably counterproductive because it increases the width of your waist. to include 3 for the rectus abdominis would mean you have 2 upper ab biased movements and 1 lower or 2 lower and 1 upper, or 3 of one of them if you’re ignorant. either way it’s redundant, UNLESS you do 4 different exercises total and two on one day and two on the other, which is viable so as to limit adaptive resistance

 

[appealmaxed]

no 3 would be better than 1 you dont want to do to much tho

3 is unnecessary. the only case I’d see you doing that would be if you were to also train the obliques, but that’s probably counterproductive because it increases the width of your waist. to include 3 for the rectus abdominis would mean you have 2 upper ab biased movements and 1 lower or 2 lower and 1 upper, or 3 of one of them if you’re ignorant. either way it’s redundant, UNLESS you do 4 different exercises total and two on one day and two on the other, which is viable so as to limit adaptive resistance

so 1-2 separate exercises is ideal?

 

[triggr]

yes, the simplest and safest would be to 2 separate exercises for 2 straight sets to failure, one that biases the upper abs, one that biases the lower abs. you also however could do 3-4 difference exercises in the same fashion, but split it between 2 days, 2 of the exercises one day and 1-2 different exercises the other day. do a lower ab biased movement first in the session because they generally don’t show as much as the upper, and exercises placed earlier in the session result in more growth.

 

[sub5outsider]

i havent trained my abs in 3 years

 

[ZaC]

ab exercises are cope

just put put down the fork and if you have good ab insertions you are good

 

[alien]

What kind of weighted crunches? With a dumbbell on the floor? You will max out on that quite quickly. Cable crunches have much better progressive overload potential.

Personally I like to do weighted decline sit-ups with a dumbbell or plate as I haven't maxed out on dumbbells/plates yet. And I find that this movement targets my abs much better than cable crunches.

Just do 3 sets to failure of whichever ab exercise you choose. Once you can do 3x20, increase the weight.

I think the whole upper ab/lower ab thing is cope. I don't think biasing lower abs with hanging leg raises is necessary. If you can't see your lower abs very well, it's probably because you're holding more body fat there. Personally I tend to hold a disproportionate amount of fat in my lower abdominal region. Visceral fat. I'm 17% body fat @ 167cm (5'6") 69.25kg (152.7 lbs) but have a visceral fat rating of 9 according to my scale.

 

[alien]

ab exercises are cope

just put put down the fork and if you have good ab insertions you are good

I have seen dudes on this forum who are less fat than me (I'm 17% body fat according to my scale) who have less visible abs than me. So some people do have to build the abdominus rectus muscle to some extent to get them to show even at low body fat %.

On the flip side, because I'm 17% body fat @ 167cm (5'6") 69.25kg (152.7 lbs) with a visceral fat rating of 9, I have some lower belly fat so my lower abs are going to be well hidden underneath that layer of fat no matter how hard I train them. I either have to go into a calorie deficit and risk losing my gains to get a flat hard stomach and Adonis belt. Or continue to slowly maingain my way to more muscle mass and a lower body fat % as I'm doing now. Or bulk up to 20% body fat and then cut down to 10%. For now I am choosing maingaining as my compromise strategy. Women on Tinder didn't give a shit about my abs when I was 133 lbs. And I was made fun of for posting gym selfies when I was 134 lbs. And I have a girlfriend now anyways. So I'm just going to prioritize building muscle mass for now. But I also don't want to put my health at risk so I chose to switch to maingaining instead of continuing my bulk. Once I maingain down to 15% body fat, I'm probably going to bulk to 20% and then cut. Because my girlfriend has said that she wants me to get bigger and doesn't care about abs.

So you need both low body fat % and also train the abs. Unless you are genetically gifted to the point where you don't need to train abs directly.

 

[autistic_tendencies]

Training abs is overrated

 

[alien]

Training abs is overrated

It's only really worth doing if your abs are not showing at a low body fat % because you have diminutive abs.
At 17% body fat, I feel like maybe its a waste of my time and energy to do the 3 sets once a week that I do. I still have the first two visible vertical ab lines when I look in the bathroom (even when the lights are off). And horizontal ab lines. But the last vertical ab line is so faint in good lighting. It's like its not even there. And my girlfriend has never once complimented my abs. But my other muscles. She cooks for me often and says that she wants to fatten me up. She has said that she is in awe that I can eat as much as I do and not get fat. lmfao. If I stopped training abs and lost those visible ab lines, I don't think my girlfriend will give a single shit. And I can always get those ab lines back in the future by training abs again later. Muscle memory is a thing in bodybuilding. Building new muscle is way harder than rebuilding lost muscle.

I usually superset abs with some other isolation like rear delts, lateral delts, tris, bis, calves, quads, hamstrings, back extensions so I'm technically not saving a ton of time by not doing them. But I would save some time and energy for sure.

 

[autistic_tendencies]

It's only really worth doing if your abs are not showing at a low body fat % because you have diminutive abs.
At 17% body fat, I feel like maybe its a waste of my time and energy to do the 3 sets once a week that I do. I still have the first two visible vertical ab lines when I look in the bathroom (even when the lights are off). And horizontal ab lines. But the last vertical ab line is so faint in good lighting. It's like its not even there. And my girlfriend has never once complimented my abs. But my other muscles. She cooks for me often and says that she wants to fatten me up. She has said that she is in awe that I can eat as much as I do and not get fat. lmfao. If I stopped training abs and lost those visible ab lines, I don't think my girlfriend will give a single shit. And I can always get those ab lines back in the future by training abs again later. Muscle memory is a thing in bodybuilding. Building new muscle is way harder than rebuilding lost muscle.

I usually superset abs with some other isolation like rear delts, lateral delts, tris and bis so I'm technically not saving a ton of time by not doing them. But I would save some time and energy for sure.

Yeah probably gives you a bubble gut look too if overtrained