Arnold Schwarzenegger 7x Mr Olympia: Fitnes

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Stop neglecting your abs training. These six strategies will help you retool your training to get the midsection you want

Here are 6 tips to help you conquer your abs neglect

Train abs, calves and forearms together

The big-boy lifts—the ones that build the most muscle—are quite understandably the priority for most guys at the gym. The problem is, once you're finished squatting, leg pressing and benching yourself to complete exhaustion, you probably don't want to dive into an abs session. To remedy this, We recommends scheduling one session a week for abs, calves and forearms. "Training all of these bodyparts together in one session ensures that you're attacking them with the utmost intensity," he says. "No need to worry about being too tired to get to them at the end of your workout"

Do your abs at home

The good thing about abs is that they can be trained anywhere. "If you find spend some time at night watching television, promise yourself to do abs during all commercial breaks," says M&F Senior Science Editor Jim Stoppani, PhD. Cycle between reverse crunches, oblique crunches and regular crunches for sets of 12-20 reps. You can also do this at the office. Every hour drop to the floor and cycle through these three exercises. (Note: This works best if you have an office with a door, or if you're not concerned about your coworkers thinking of you as a body-obsessed lunatic)

Do your abs in traffic

Yeah, you read that right. In traffic. But how? "Do static ab contractions while driving," says Stoppani. "Simply flex your abs and hard as possible while crunching down and exhaling. Hold for a count of five, then relax and repeat until you get to where you're going." You can also work your deep transverse abdominis—the muscles that keep you from having the dreaded beer gut—by pulling your belly button in toward your spine, and holding for a count of 10. Repeat this up to 10 times

Do staggered sets

In between sets, instead of resting with your glutes on the bench, rest that muscle group while doing an ab exercise between sets. "But only use this method if working a smaller bodypart," cautions Pena. "Doing abs in the middle of a heavy workout—between sets of squats, for example—can weaken your core and put you at risk of injury"

Learn to multitask

Instead of walking out on a good abs workout, learn how to multitask. In particular, you'll want to read up on the tri-sets method, which presents an equally challenging spin on the abs/calves/forearms workout listed above, and the cardio/abs HIIT (high-intensity interval training) routine, which is guaranteed to work in no time flat

Rethink abs training

Instead of merely focusing on the aesthetic reward at the end of the tunnel, give more thought to how abs training contributes to your overall body composition. "Having a strong set of abdominals absolutely makes you stronger on all of your bigger lifts like squats, deads, benches, and overhead presses," says Pena. "And those are really the lifts that cause lasting, dramatic changes in your body because they work the most muscle. If you're skipping abs workouts, then you're not just

What are the best moves for working on your six-pack? Sports scientist Ross Edgley looks at the latest evidence

Most of us are familiar with the idea that six-packs are made in the kitchen, meaning there's no point slaving away over exercises that target your abdominal muscles if a poor diet is keeping them hidden by a layer of flab. However, if you have your diet sorted and belly fat is no longer an issue, you may want to do abs exercises in an attempt to develop and enhance the defintion of you six-pack. But what type of moves are the best?

Core training improves stability, maintains mobility and reduces injury, say strength and conditioning coaches the world over – not to mention The American College of Sports Medicine. And of course, done correctly, it can produce a pretty awesome six-pack ready for beach season and who doesn’t want that?

But what’s the best training technique to activate the core muscles? Isolation exercises such as the standard crunch, or compound core exercises such as barbell rollouts or plank variations? A recent study conducted at Pennsylvania State University attempted to find the definitive answer – and the results could help you plan your summer abs routine.

Study background Compound movements such as plank variations are those that require ‘proximal limb’ muscles such as the deltoids and gluteals while activating the ‘primary trunk’ muscles (lumbar and abdominal). Isolation movements such as the standard crunch are those that only target the primary trunk muscles. Twenty healthy athletes were chosen to complete a series of core exercises while connected to surface electromyography (EMG) electrodes to monitor core muscle activation. Muscle engagement was measured during both isolation and compound exercises and then compared.

Results The figures showed activation of the abdominal and lumbar muscles was greatest during the compound movements. Specifically, the plank with reach exercise showed a 20% greater activation in the rectus abdominis muscle than the standard crunch. Anterior deltoid, erector spinae and gluteus maximus activation was also twice as great. This was supported by results that showed the compound side plank increased external oblique activity by 25% compared with the isolation side crunch.

Conclusion These results clearly show greater activation in the core muscles during the compound exercises. That’s not to say isolation movements aren’t without their benefits – if you are following a split training routine where you work different body parts on different days, for example, you may not always want to engage the proximal limb muscles, so isolation movements are ideal for this. But, if your goal is a strong, functional six-pack this summer, stick with planks and barbell rollouts.

The Kettlebell Renegade Row

The way that your abs and your whole core (which includes your glutes, your midsection, your lower back and those muscles in the middle of your back) functions is as a stabilizer.

Say for example, if I’m doing a kettlebell swing or I’m doing a goblet squat, my abs are tightening up to stabilize my trunk during functional movements.

So here is an exercise called the renegade row. This is a unique exercise, you may have see it before, but it is a great total body ab movement.

Grab two kettlebells. The basic version has you practicing shifting your weight back and forth. Shift your full weight to one side while keeping your abs tightened like you are doing a push up. This is SUPER helpful to get the proper weight distribution of the movement down.

Then you can go ahead and add a row to it. The move should now be exactly the same, except you’re actually doing a row.

If you want to make it more difficult, you can add a push up between each row.

Also important to note, my abs are bracing really hard to stabilize as I shift my weight and do a row on one side.

This is a total body exercise with a strong emphasis on the abs. There’s the kettlebell renegade row – a great exercise for abs!

f your gym has a weighted dragging sled, count yourself lucky. It can take your strength, cardio, and recovery to a new level. It can also allow you to perform one of the all-time toughest and most effective ab exercises—the alligator walk. There are so many challenges to the alligator walk, it’s no wonder you seldom see it being performed. Your core has to contract isometrically to keep your spine straight while you walk on your hands and drag the sled behind you. That means it’s fghting the urge to let your lower back and hips collapse, or to allow your torso to twist to either side—all while acting as a bridge between the force generated by your shoulders and arms and your legs trailling behind you with the heft of the sled beneath them.

Work alligator walks into your routine, either to finish a shoulder day or as part of a high-intensity ab or cardio circuit(they also get your heart rate up fast), and you’ll show everyone who the real animal in the gym is.

How to Do It

■ Get into a pushup position on the floor and rest your feet on the sled. Make sure your abs and glutes are braced and your arms are beneath your shoulders.

■ Maintain your body position and walk forward on your hands. You’ll look like an alligator dragging its tail. Go for distance or time, and build up from there.