How often can, or more importantly, should I train per week? Optimum recovery time between training sessions is essential if one is going to continue to make progress. Training frequency, which is determined by ones recovery ability, is often a forgotten part of most training protocols. It never ceases to amaze me how many people train for months and years experiencing little or no success, and never consider the fact they may be doing too much.

Don’t be so concerned with how many training sessions you can handle per week. Be more concerned about the optimal amount. More is not always better. In fact, when somebody comes to me for advice because they’ve stopped making progress, usually I either reduce the workout volume or add days off. There is no reason in going to the gym if you’re not going to make progress. In every workout, if you have fully recovered, and you come ready to work, you should make progress, which is gauged by your strength.

How can anyone get stronger every workout? One can only bench press so much. Eventually, you have to hit a plateau. This is true. If one stays with the same exercises, the same number of reps and the same number of sets, progress may eventually stop. If the proper changes aren’t made at the right time, eventually the body adapts to the stimulus. And this is where the “art” of program design comes to play.

It’s easy to follow a workout. The real challenge is assuring the stimulus is sufficient and more importantly, you recovery from workout to workout so that progress continues over a long period of time. Sometimes this entails having the discipline to deviate from something that is not working. If you’re not making progrss, and you’re training with all out intensity, try taking an extra day off.

For those interested in getting your abs to pop (and really, who isn?t?), you might want to try doing the plank exercise a couple times a week. It?s a fairly simply exercise to complete and you don?t have to go to the gym in order to knock it.

Men?s Fitness.com breaks down the details of the exercise:

Get into pushup position on the floor.

Now bend your elbows 90 degrees and rest your weight on your forearms. Your elbows should be directly beneath your shoulders, and your body should form a straight line from your head to your feet. Hold the position for as long as you can. Your goal should be to hold it for two minutes.

“The plank helps develop strength in the core, shoulders, arms, and glutes,” says Scott, making it a great prerequisite for lifting heavy weights or playing intense sports. Even though you aren’t moving or lifting weight, you have to constantly squeeze your abs to hold the position?most people can’t last 30 seconds on their first attempt.

To read the entire article, click here.

I?ve personally done the plank for a month now and while it shouldn?t be the main exercise in your ab routine, it makes for a nice complement. Always remember that a clean diet and a good weight-training program are keys to finding your abs. But exercises like these can really help your abs ?pop?.

How often can, or much more importantly, should I train per week? Optimum recovery time between training sessions is essential if one is going to continue to make progress. Training frequency, which is determined by ones recovery ability, is often a forgotten part of most training protocols. It never ceases to amaze me, how many people train for months and years experiencing little or no success, and never consider the fact they maybe doing too much.

You can never train too hard, but you can train too much. Training ?too much? can actually be described in two ways. The first and probably the most common way, is training too often. If you are training with 100% intensity, you should not be able to train a body part any more frequently than once every 6-8 days. Everyone should realize that if you are still feeling it from the previous workout of the same body part, then it is best to take a few more days of rest. I have actually heard people say that they train even if they are sore because it is harder on the muscles. True, it is harder on the muscles, but not in a positive way. Ask yourself, ?Where is the logic in training a muscle before it is recovered?? The muscle hasn?t had a chance to adapt to a previous training session and you tear it down with another. Training may stimulate your muscles to grow, but they don’t grow during training. Proper nutrition and enough rest between sessions is what facilitates recovery and allows the muscles to grow. If you train before the muscle is recovered, you not only slow or put a halt to your progress, you increase your risk of injury.

If you’re having a hard time getting your abs to come in, make sure you’re not passing by the squat rack on your way to the exercise mat to do countless crunches. Squats and deadlifts essentially work your abs just as well (if not more) than standard crunches.

If you’re looking for a solid ab routine to supplement into your workout, try this one from Men’s Fitness.com. It’s basic and you can do it on your off days.

Tons of people waste their money on expensive abdominal equipment every year, not knowing that some of the most effective AB exercises can be done without the aid of any fancy, high-priced machines.

According to several online sources, the bicycle maneuver is the most efficient ab exercise that we can do, because instead of only targeting one group of muscle, it can hit the entire abdominal family. ?

How to do the bicycle maneuver:

Lie flat on the floor with your lower back pressed to the ground. Put your hands beside your head. Bring your knees up to about a 45-degree angle and slowly go through a bicycle pedal motion. Touch your left elbow to your right knee, then your right elbow to your left knee. Breathe evenly throughout the exercise.
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Now with any abdominal work, the most important thing to remember is that diet comes first. It makes no sense to work your abs once or twice a week and not have the proper diet. You might as well not work your abs at all.

After sifting through a magazine about a month ago, I came across an abdominal exercise that I hadn’t done for awhile: the hanging leg raise.

For about three weeks now, I’ve done the hanging leg raise at the end of my workouts, every few days. It has done wonders for me, not only targeting my lower abs, but also working my entire midsection. A bonus is that it has also helped me with my grip, which is obviously used in other exercises.

While this exercise is great for strengthen your midsection, don’t forget that abs aren’t made in the gym; they’re made in the kitchen. Like Mike Furci always says: Working your abs is not the key to attaining abs.

Let me start by saying, “there is no such thing as spot reduction”.? In fact, it’s so important let me repeat it,”THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPOT REDUCTION”!? Now that you know a scientific fact, look at what you’re doing in order to get a wasboard set of abs.? Many of you work your abs 3 – 4 days per week while some of you work them everyday.? I would like to put an end to this craziness once and for all.

The key to a washboard set of abs is?diet.? Without adjusting your diet, you can do abs until your blue in the face and it wont make a bit of difference.?

Our inability to process carbohydrates in large amounts is the result of millions of years of evolution. According to many experts man evolved on a diet consisting of 65% – 80% protein coming mainly from fish sources. The rest was a mixture of grains, nuts and fruit if available. For millions of years, man didn’t have candy, pasta, cereal or other highly processed carbs. We’ve only had refined sugar as part of our diet for a mere blink of time. You can begin to understand why carbs play such a big roll in obesity, diabetes and heart disease. We just do not have the ability to eat carbs, especially simple sugars, in the amounts that we do.

Washboard abs, a comprehensive strategy:? Part I

So, if working your abs has nothing to do with a lean midsection, why should we work abs?? You should work your abs for functional strength and injury prevention.? A strong set of abs is the best prescription for a healthy back.? However, working the abdominals only is not effective.? You need to use exercises that target the entire core.? In short the core consists of abdominals, obliques, hips and low back