mihou
Rang: Administrateur
Nombre de messages : 8092
Localisation : Washington D.C.
Date d'inscription : 28/05/2005
 | | Ab Training: High Reps vs. Low Reps with Resistance | |
Ab Training: High Reps vs. Low Reps with
Resistance
by Christian Thibaudeau What's better for ab training, lots of light reps or a small
number of low reps using some type of resistance? Let's see what
the abdominal court has to say!The Plaintiffs — High rep proponents: These individuals
make the argument that abdominals, being postural muscles, are
predominantly slow twitch. As a result, they'd be better suited for
work of long duration at a low intensity. High rep proponents also argue that since the ab muscles are
activated almost all day long, they're built to handle a lot of
training volume. Most of the time they recommend performing
unloaded (non-weighted) sets of basic ab exercises, generally doing
at least 15 reps per set and sometimes up to 50-plus reps. The Defendants — Low reps with added resistance
proponents: According to this school of thought, muscle tissue is
muscle tissue. The abs are no different than any other muscle group
in the body and should be trained accordingly. This group sneers at the supposed slow twitch dominance of the
abs, arguing that even slow twitch fibers have the potential to
hypertrophy and should still be trained in a hypertrophy-friendly
zone. Their recommendation is to train the abs just like any other
muscle group: if you want more abdominal definition you must
hypertrophy them, and that requires work in the 6-12 rep range with
added resistance. Loaded crunch on Swiss ballThe Verdict: Both camps have valid arguments. It's true
that muscle tissue is muscle tissue and if you want to hypertrophy
your abs, you must respect the overload principle. At some point
that'll require using added resistance. A lot of people cringe when they hear "abdominal" and
"hypertrophy" in the same sentence: they think that this
necessarily means making their waist thick and blocky. Not so! In
fact, if you want maximum abdominal definition, you must hypertrophy them! That's what will cause the contrast between
the muscle bellies and the linea alba, which will give you that
six-pack look.On the other hand, EMG research has shown that unloaded
exercises such as the crunch, reverse crunch, V-sit, and crunch
with a twist all activate the ab muscles to at least 60% of their
maximum capacity, with a high point of 75% for some exercises. This
is a sufficient hypertrophy threshold for beginners and even for
intermediate trainees.  The V-SitOne last point is that some people have dysfunctional
abdominals. As a result they have a tendency to switch the bulk of
the workload to the psoas and rectus femoris, taking away from the
abs. Using added resistance will only compound the problem as the
body will be even more prone to resort to the more powerful hip
flexors. Individuals with dysfunctional abs should start with unloaded
abdominal work performed at a slow tempo, focusing on contracting
their abs maximally. (Touch training, or touching the abdominal
muscles as they contract, can also be of great
help.)The verdict is that both types of work (loaded and unloaded)
should be part of your ab training program. With loaded exercises
you should train in the upper portion of the hypertrophy zone which
is 10-12 reps. Beginners should use mostly unloaded slow movements
and intermediates should use an equal mix of both. Finally,
advanced trainees should use a ratio of two loaded exercises for
one unloaded exercise. | |
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