Ab's every day?
 

I was wondering if abs should be trained every day. Some say you should give your abs rest while others say you can train them every day. I ran a search for answers but could not find anything. Any advice?
I have not really spent a lot of time focusing on my abs and just recently decided it was a good time to start. I am 28 and the old love handles which I never had to worry about are starting to show on my sides. I don't want to overtrain, yet I don't want to do them every day and do so few that it does no good. I know with other muscles on the body that if you train the same way and too often that it will not do any good. Your muscles will continue to tear down without building or defining.

Your abs are muscles just like your biceps. Do you train your biceps every day? Allow at least 48 hours rest and recovery to allow your body to repair the damage that you do to your muscle fibers during exercise.

Google phrases:
Fast twitch
Slow twitch
Muscle tissue repair

Thanks. That's what I have been hearing. Will resting at least 48 hours still give me definition? Do you work abs?

Hey check out this site: Shawn Philips - ABS-Solution

If you want well defined abs one of the best things you can do is exercise the rest of your body. Lean muscle mass burns more calories at rest than does fat. If you exercise the rest of your body along with a well balanced diet of high quality protiens, good complex carbohydrates (Atkins dieters - I feel sorry for you) you'll soon reveal those well toned abs you've been working on.

Edit: Yes I work my abs but on a Monday - Friday - Wednesday schedule.

having you're abs show is all about the amount of fat coving them. so as kjroh said, work out the rest of your body. do cardio to get rid of the fat covering them, lift weights to build muscle to help burn even more calories. even if you never work out your abs, if you have little enough fat for them to be seen, the will be seen.

they shoudl teach this in school

No the abs are not just like the biceps. Can you do 30 reps on your biceps, for one set with a decent weight at least 60% of max rep and do another 30, and then another 30 after that? And then move onto another 2 more excersizes for them after that? I highly doubt it and if you can your not working them out properly.
Your abs are like your calves....they have a very quick recovery rate. Yes they do need time to rest and heal but no where near as much as your other muscles do.
They get replensihed with lots of oxygen rich blood very quickly and probbaly alos have a higher ratio of fast twitch vs. slow twitch muscle fibre in them.
Yes you can most certanly work your abs out everyday but unless your young with age I wouldn't suggest it as you can easily over train your self.
I would suggest working them out every other day. Of course lots of good deep sleep, a good diet and a stress free enviroment will all contribute to a much healthier look and faster recovery times.
A good idea is to work your abs out one day and your calves the other.
Right now I'm seeing excellent results with this routine...

Day 1 Chest, Back, Calves, maintenance on abs (about 1 excersize, three sets)

Day 2 Cardio and Abs

Day 3 Shoulders, traps, Calves, maintenance on abs (about 1 excersize, three sets)

Day 4 Cardio Abs

Day 5 Biceps, Tricepts, Forearms, Cavles, Ab maintenance

Day 6 Cardio Abs

Day 7 Complete day off, rest, lounge, recover just relax

Right now I do not work out my legs as they are getting plenty of use with the cardio, how ever from time to time I will through in a leg routine on one of the cardio days.
Keep in mind though that legs are a huge role in gaining size if that's what your after so of course depending on your goals and genetics to begin with you should more than likely alter the routine to better suit you.

if you're doing 30 situps and then another 30 and then another 30 and then 2 more exercises, then you're not exercising them properly. if you want to build muscle, any muscle, then you have to work them not to fatigue, but to overload. you need to overload them so that the fibers breakdown and are rebuilt. which is why there's the 48 hour rest. so they can heal and rebuild stronger. if you're doing the 30/30/30 etc. all you're doing is fatigueing you're muscles, building aerobic endurance, but not doing much to increase their strength or size (and dman2 is interested in his being seen and the bigger they are, the thicker layer of subcutaneous abdominal fat that they may be able to be seen through). you're way is aerobically burning glucose. any soreness and fatigue you get from it will be from lactic acid, not muscle breakdown.

:thumbsup:

You da man, Hannukah Harry!