Posted by: Shawn
If you train with weights on a regular basis then you would no doubt have heard that people who do compounds like dead lifts and squats don't need to work abs. The truth is working your abs when your body-fat is higher than 15% is a waste of time because any change in shape of your rectus abdominis is not gonna be seen.
The shape of your abdominals are genetic as you will see bodybuilders who have perfectly shaped abs like Shawn Ray or you get the off-set abs like Arnolds where the abdominals are shown on either side of the transversus abdominis (TVA) are slightly above or below each other and not perfectly in line like Shawn.
The specifics of each muscle group seen will depend on how strictly you watch what you are eating. We cannot lose fat in one area so you need to decrease your total body-fat and that can only happen if you are living a negative calorie lifestyle which is tough.
Your abdominals consist of four muscle groups, the rectus abdominis, the obliques, the transversus abdominis (TVA) and the serratus. To notice the difference between your obliques and your abdominis your body-fat needs to be at least 10% body-fat. Unless you are doing it for a specific reason, like competing, then doing specific movements to isolate these muscle groups in your abs is useless.
The point is that sculpting your abs needs to be done with a refined low-fat diet. If you want an abdominal workout that will work all four muscle groups in the abdominal region, then take a look below.
Hanging leg raises 2 X 15 Lower abs
Hanging knee raises 2 X 10 Lower abs
Swiss ball crunches with D/B 2 X 25 Rectus abdominis
Russian twists 2 X 10 Obliques
Oblique hold 1 X 45 (each side) Obliques
1-arm planks 30 sec (each side) TVA
Side knee tucks 1 X 12 Obliques
Cable crunches 2 X 20 Rectus Abdominis