Six-pack possible without sit ups? page

[Howard44]

For the last two months I've stopped doing sit ups entirely and focused more on my core with raised side planks, throwing a 15kg plate behind me from overhead on alternate sides, 'windshield wipers' and dragon fly's on a bench. I initially found the last two exercises very, very difficult but am now getting much better form and finding them more achievable. The thing is, my abs are showing a LOT more now than when I was doing endless sit ups and crunches and my core feels tight and stronger than I've ever felt. Has anyone else had a similar experience? When I'm in the gym I'm now getting a few younger guys asking me how to do the wipers and flys and they seem very surprised that an "old guy" (I'm 45) can do these exercises when they really struggle with them. What I'm seeing is big, muscular guys who seem to have a weak core and it's making me realise that people can be fit and strong without the need for huge muscles. It's been a real learning curve and now I want to take it to the next level and want to know if anyone out there can recommend any other good core exercises that they've had good results with. Thanks for your input and Grok on!

[smilingjustalittlebit]

Bodyweight situps are WAY down my list of 6 pack killers. Hanging leg raises are great, get a dumbbell between the feet if you need something more. Overhead squats too, I find BIG box jumps are a tough one on my core, burpees, barbell rollouts, there's a pretty endless list really. If you must do situps at least get a big barbell plate in your hands for added resistance.

[cayla29s]

For the last two months I've stopped doing sit ups entirely and focused more on my core with raised side planks, throwing a 15kg plate behind me from overhead on alternate sides, 'windshield wipers' and dragon fly's on a bench. I initially found the last two exercises very, very difficult but am now getting much better form and finding them more achievable. The thing is, my abs are showing a LOT more now than when I was doing endless sit ups and crunches and my core feels tight and stronger than I've ever felt. Has anyone else had a similar experience? When I'm in the gym I'm now getting a few younger guys asking me how to do the wipers and flys and they seem very surprised that an "old guy" (I'm 45) can do these exercises when they really struggle with them. What I'm seeing is big, muscular guys who seem to have a weak core and it's making me realise that people can be fit and strong without the need for huge muscles. It's been a real learning curve and now I want to take it to the next level and want to know if anyone out there can recommend any other good core exercises that they've had good results with. Thanks for your input and Grok on!

Have you leaned out as well? Sit ups sucks. It's the last ab exercises I would do. I love doing planks and wood choppers. When I do ab training I like to add resistance.

[wolfman]

My abs looked the best (and were the strongest) when I did dragon flys, and squated heavy and stayed super tight during standing military press.

[boxcarguy07]

definitely possible. i do little to no direct ab work. abs are mostly about bf%

[jfreaksho]

One-arm pushups seem to have really developed my obliques as well. Situps and crunches never did anything useful for my abs, I think. Military press/overhead press and squats really hammer my core, as well as pullups/chinups and leg raises. Unfortunately, my grip is not at the same level as the rest of my body, so it seems to be my limiting factor sometimes.

I work with a a lot of young fit people, and very few of them can do very many bodyweight exercises beyond squats and pushups and situps. A few have respectable pullup numbers. I'm trying to get them to start working through CC during our breaks, but they mostly don't seem to care.

[Winterbike]

definitely possible. i do little to no direct ab work. abs are mostly about bf%

Can't believe the whole ''sit-ups to get a 6-pack'' myth is still out there.

Abs are mostly about bf %

Again:

Abs are mostly about bf %

[KV8R]

Can't believe the whole ''sit-ups to get a 6-pack'' myth is still out there.

Abs are mostly about bf %

Again:

Abs are mostly about bf %

Yeah, I agree. I do air squats and planks and that's it for ab work, and mine are starting to show really nicely, mostly from using diet to lower my BF% though.

[Howard44]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, the relevance of overall bf% has been a real eye-opener for me. I know a lot people, both men and women, who do (what would be for me) huge amounts of crunches and sit ups as their way of achieving a solid core and/or a six pack and of those people, only one guy has got there and he has really low bf. It makes me sad when I see people who are carrying a lot of surplus weight in the gym struggling to do dozens of crunches, it looks awkward and painful and I'm beginning to think that its not really a good exercise for them to be doing. I'm going to work on my military press, squats and also cut out the cider, a weakness of mine, for two weeks and see where that takes me. Thanks again.

[wolfman]

Abs have nothing to do with best friends %