I said it’s part of a fitness envelope, not the only aspect. Also, BJ or JR weren’t asked to chose between abs and running, they did both! Anyway, go with us for our indoor core circuit which has a repertoire of about 50 exercises (we don’t do them all), or our 300 abs with or without med ball performed after tempo, or the tempo runs with abs btw reps, you will see it’s really part of the fitness build up for us. Looking at the global picture, there are bridges btw those core exercises, the runnings, the throws, the jumps and the therapy, as well as pedagogical considerations.
My question is this, how important is it to perform high volume ab work if the athlete is sprinting-jumping-throwing-lifting? I find ab work to be extremely boring and usually slack on it a lot. Seems like even at the lower levels athletes are performing 1000-1500 reps of abs weekly.
I don’t think there are many, if any, on this board that can do situps at 1/sec for anything over 100 situps. And I can’t see any valid reason to do 30 sets of 100 situps even if its spread out over the day. Its not close to being specific to sprinting and there are better ways to develop fitness that take a lot less time.
I did 1000 situps, 1000 push ups, and 1000 squats every night for 3 weeks straight…it pretty much took over my life. At the very best, I could knock out the push ups and squats in around 50 minutes by doing 20 of each on the minute every minute. The sit-ups, on the other hand, took FOREVER. The most I ever did continuously was 505 and that took 30 minutes nonstop. These exercises usually ended up taking hours upon hours because I broke it down into smaller chunks.
Doing it helped me regain some muscular development that I had lost from not lifting weights for over 6 months. I did end up losing weight though. I went from mid 190’s to 187. It made me look a lot more lean and defined and I was already very lean to begin with.
they used a ton of exercises, not just sit-ups crunches but bicycle kicks, med ball work and plenty more. Many of the reps do not come all the way up like traditional sit-ups.
I don’t see any problem with time when you are a professional athlete. Once track practice and weight room work is over, you have HOURS to kill before the next day starts.
For the first time in my life last year I just jumped into doing 800 reps of ab work (with a 18lbs med ball) a week, and in about 2-4 weeks in, I felt a difference in my sprinting, as in, I felt I had more stability when I ran and my reflexes were much more sharp and crisp. Also, the looks of my mid section changed to match the rest of my body in that of an athletic appearance.
You figure there has got to be a reason why such an old fitness technique (med ball sit ups) has been around as a staple for such a long time.
This seems much more reasonable than 1000’s of unresisted situps. A little over 100 reps per day, even 200 reps per day, with resistance seems a much more effecient way to work the abs.
Well yea, you got to find what works best for you… In my case, being that I don’t get paid to run I think dedicating 800-2000 reps of med ball is enough to get me in the game if I’m good enough. If I was getting paid, I would be doing 4k a week with no complaints or gripes about it.
Hmmm, not sure if you are using a med ball but it helps because it makes it fun! I just take my time with it, rest when I need and change how I throw the ball. After a while you go into BEAST mode and you just refuse to give up until you reach the number in your mind.
I was going mine in the gym but I no longer go to the gym that had the med balls so I need to buy my own real quick! I plan on using the med ball outside against a brick wall that is right next to the track I use and resume my abb routine after tempo. BTW, I just started doing sit ups and abs DURING tempo and I have noticed a change. Wow man, Charlie has his stuff down pack! You just got to put it all together and do it.
I would be doing 4k a week with no complaints or gripes about it.