Exercise Myths: 6 Ab Mistakes That Are Holding You Back

Actually it is better to do abs at the end of a work out because you use your core muscles with every excercise that you do during a workout. So doing them say at the beginning could hinder your performance on your other workouts later because your core is already tired from doing your abs at the beginning.

push yourself away from the table.

that's cool

I've got to disagree with the super-slow comment (Myth #3). Going slower increases the intensity - the time the muscle is contracted - giving the muscles more of a workout. It works on arms, chest, etc. I wish they would have gone into each with more detail and depth. But I DO agree with the other person's comment that, basically, if your diet sucks, you won't see the fruits of your labor - sort of speak.

Amen to that James! Doesn't matter how tight the muscle is if there's 4 inches of fat on top of it!

everybodies so negative...cant you find the good in something? sometime?

I would add, to your excellent comments, that Abs will never be seen i.e. you won't have a six pack, until you eliminate the layer of fat under the skin.
Dr Di

Working a six pack is silly. Rectus abdominus muscles are very superficial. It is the deeper abdominal muscles that must be worked for strength, stability and posture.

beutiy is the most thing . we can feel it not see .

I did 100 crunches everyday for a yr. and never noticed a thing except that I lost 10-15 lbs....so it wasn't wasted.

Pretty good article, and I agree with the post that said diet is key. There is no easy way to get good abs, it's hard work - and "spot training" is basically a myth. I've gotten good results from using free weights in combination with decent cardio and a good diet...and putting in a lot of hard work.

If you intend on seeing any of your hard work from ab workouts, 95% of your concentration should be towards your diet!

Mommies with c-section issues.. Probably have to get plastic surgery, there is really no exercise, that can get rid of all that excess skin/ scar tissue. Remember NEVER have plastic surgery while Venus is Retrograde!

Many contend that part of the reason for doing abs last, particuluarly when lifting weights, is that you don't want fatigued abs when doing other exercises that require core strength for proper form and to prevent injury.

he is wrong about abs frequency of exercise. Abs are made of different muscle fiber than other muscles on our body. The other muscle that has similar structure is calf muscle. Clearly, these are two groups of muscles that can take outrageous working loads and they should be exercised as often as possible - they were designed that way. They recover very quickly from microscopic wear and tear (which is what you must accomplish on every session with every muscle in order to grow it). Almost every motion our body makes starts from our abdominal area. I got painfully reminded about that when they cut my stomach muscles in the hospital and left them open for five days. Every little move I tried to make - even seemingly unrelated to abs function - immediately triggered my abs into work mode. Am I any different from you? I doubt it. My advice: do abs as often as possible, not too long (he is right about that). You WILL end up not only with rock hard and cut abs but you will also gain overall strength for other groups as they will get the support they were designed by nature to receive. Just because the dude worked some chick from the movies does not make him mistake proof. And he is clearly wrong on that one.

Wow,all this time I've been trying to get the perfect abs and I never got any results,but what are some other abs workouts?

The key to "sleek sexy abs" is not doing crunches 3-5 days a week, it is ALL about the way that you eat. Doing abdominal workouts will make your abs strong of course, but the only way to visually see your six pack is by lowering your body fat so that you can see the muscles underneath! Achieving a lean physique and low body fat is attainable only through proper nutrition, plenty of cardio and you also need to strength train to keep your muscles strong and toned. Everyone has a six pack, it's just that most people can't see it hidden under the fat layers, if you don't eat right you will never see you abs no matter how many crunches and sit ups you do. The real myth here is that you can achieve a visual six pack through an abdominal workout.

lol well since I know many different abs workout, this is a good enough info and details for me ^_^ so for those who doesn't know ab workouts and need assistants, just search on youtube and look for different ab workouts, and use this as a guide...besides, seeing how to do is always better than reading how to do, because with one sentence on how to do something...no matter how clear it is, there is always to be someone to do something wrong hehe but most of this makes sense to me, I've been a body builder for years now.
Like there's one person here who said doing crunches as slow as possible gives more tensity to your workout...that is true, but there's so need to, normal speed's fine, but when you see fast crunches, you know that's fast and you know that's not correct, how you inhale and exhale everyday is how you do your crunches, that's the normal speed ^_^ and like the article says...working out with a normal speed motion helps with your everyday activity, not super slow motions. =P
I never liked using weights for abs, because bulky packs aren't the looks for me, so in this article there's a part where it talks about doing Pilates! Those are my favorites, they have many many clips on youtube on how to do those, and those workouts are very very affective. Try those out if you rather having slick abs than bulky Hulk abs hehe
So...that's just my opinion ^_^

These recommendations only work for someone who wants to look like Jennifer Aniston. True gym rats know most of these tips are stupid and/or incorrect. For Example, your abs are muscles and like any other muscle they require some sort of resistance training to firm, harden, and develop. You can do crunches till you're blue in the face but you will not get a six pack. Also, who wants sleek abs?

ohh yeah push-ups, work great. When you do a push up you have to tighten all the ab muscles. But again, this can be stressfull, at first.
Try just tightening youstomach muscles.
When I had Minor scoliosis as a teenager, th DR. told me to lie down and tighten my stomach muscles, while do a consistant breathing. Thi is very easy and doesn;t huirt anything, but makes your abs sore.
It cured my scoliosis, and now I do crunches with ease. But remeber, crunches are NOT easy, THAT IS THE REAL MYTH!