Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hi,
I reached the goal I was talking int my first topic. The feeling of being tired and weak from summer passed away. Now I'm training my entier body 3 (next week 4) times per week. I train my body for 1h 15min. Is it suggest to increase that time and decrease the total training per week? I've started working last month so I don't expect visibile progress. I feel stronger and I see tiny growth of muscles. My final goal is obv bulking and have a good body definy, but I'm kinda obsessed with Abs. Three years ago I've trained them hard for 5 months, 2 years ago for 3 and since now I've come back in gym I've trained them 1-2 times per week. I don't see any progress. I do a lot of different works. 2 years ago I usually do 200 - 260 total reps and no results!!!! Am I doing something wrong? I've read on the site a split body work and abs are trained only 1 per week, so I'm doubting of my workout.
Ty

I would definately consider split training, you will be able to target specific body areas better, while allowing for recovery of one body part while training another. I would suggest doing some reseach yourself, or asking a personal trainer to find a program that suits you and your goals.
Try to engage your core muscles while lifting, this will help strengthen and tone abs, as well as keeping correct form.
I do split training, but I train my abs every second day at the end of a workout. I usually only do 2 excersizes, 3 sets, 12-20 reps, but I superset them to really make it difficult. You don't need to overdo it, just be consistant

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When I do direct ab work, I usually do things like hanging leg raises and ab wheel rollouts. Usually 3 sets of 10-12.

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Heavy, low reps.

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My training log

neither I and my gym have that roller :/ other ab works?
I do 30 hanging leg raises (x2) . Maybe too fast?
30 crunches on reclined bench. (x2)
30 twist crunches. (x1)
15 left side crunches and 15 & right.
Sometimes 30 legs tuck (x1). Before I was doing orizontal legs raise but after I felt pain in my back.

When I start training I usually crunches and twist crunches, then I do other body areas' works. After 30min I to legs raise, side crunches and legs tuck. Each one after another different exercise.

Ok I'll try next week to do a split program.


How?? Thx!

Intensity is key

If you wanna do a very high intensity ab workout, do your abs first. It works.
a lot of people do abs at the very end of their workout, which would most likely be not all that high intensity.

And yeah, ab wheel rocks

1. If you have too much body fat, it doesn't matter how great your abs look underneath, you simply won't see them. If that's the case, you need to lose more body fat overall until you get to REALLY low levels to get more definition. If you have too much fat, all it does by making your abs larger is to create the illusion of being fatter (something I've always had to deal with). Showing proper ab definition is about diet, not just about making the abs larger.

2. If you are ripped lean and still don't have much ab definition, then you either need to get slightly leaner and/or make your abs larger. Simply doing more and more sit-ups or crunches isn't magically going to keep making abs better - like with ALL lifting, it's quality over quantity, and just because I might curl a soup can ten thousand times doesn't mean I'll have arms like Mr. Olympia when I'm done. I've built big abs due to doing a lot of compound lifting and supportive lifting that work them indirectly without having done more than a few hundred total crunches this past 15 years, but my body fat does not go low enough to "show off" what's hidden underneath. But, again, doing endless crunches won't magically shred fat off your midsection, and doing low-effort/high repetition resistance will eventually not challenge your body to stimulate much growth, if any.

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"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

A superset is where you perform 2 exercises consecutively with little or no rest in between. So for example, perform a set of hanging leg raises, and straight away a set of crunches. Repeat 3-5 times. Have you tried adding resistance?
Maybe try placing a weighted ball between your knees for the hanging leg raises, and hold a weight/plate to your body for the crunches, and focus on going heavier with more sets and less reps.
Just try a few different things and mix it up, give your body a shock

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ty for advices! I'll try doing quality exs.

@VeganEssentials = I'm ectomorph and I usually do a 45-1hr of bike riding per day. I'm quite sure I have no fat. But for exemple, I've friends that are very skinny with defined abs and they don't don anything sportlike

@ Simi = I'll try supersets. So is better doing 4 ex, 10 reps with a heavier lift than 30 reps without? I was so wrong. I knew that Bruce Lee did 300reps per day 4 his Abs...

It's not necessarily better, although it's often recommended for building muscle to go heavier for less reps.
I just think it's a matter of trying new things to find what works for you, and mixing it up so you dont get too used to it and it always feels tough
Good luck!

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This is a photo of a gym buddy of mine. Notice how big his abs are. He is a super strong guy, does squats, deadlifts, bench etc with heavy heavy weights & fairly low reps, plus a few assistance exercises. He is also very meticulous when it comes to diet and it shows with how lean he is.

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Impressive, vegan?