Superhero Abs Workout Routines
A shredded midriff is a symbol of great physical conditioning. Apart from being aesthetically appealing, having ripped abs also represent a strong core. Physical conditioning, a strong core, and aesthetics are also common factors among almost all the superheroes.
Many people in their ab workouts perform some leg raises, crunches and they are done for the day. In this post, our team at Generation Iron takes a holistic approach to our midriff training and train our abs from all the angles.
Let’s break it down.
Ab Routine 1: Upper Abs
Crunches – 3 Sets 20 Reps
Cable Crunches – 3 Sets 10 Reps
Ab V-Ups – 3 Sets 10 Reps
Bicycle Crunches – 3 Sets 20 Reps
Overhead Weighted Sit-Ups – 3 Sets 10 Reps
The superhero ab workouts target your abs from every angle. The first routine focuses on your upper abs. Unlike doing a couple of sets, you’ll be training your abs just like you train all your other body parts.
In all these exercises, make sure you breathe in on the way down and breathe out and squeeze your abs at the top of the movement. If the specified number of reps are easy for you, feel free to hit failure on all the exercises.
Ab Routine 2: Lower Abs
Hanging Leg Raises – 3 Sets 15 Reps
Decline Bench Leg Raises – 3 Sets 12 Reps
Mountain Climbers – 3 Sets 20 Reps
Scissor Kicks – 3 Sets Failure
TRX Prone Pikes – 3 Sets 15 Reps
Other than the specified exercises, you could perform variations of these exercises. You could do the cross-body climbers in place of mountain climbers, hanging knee to chests instead of hanging leg raises.
Use your creativity and perform exercises which will optimally target your abs. In all of the exercises keep your abs tight at all times. Your abs should be on fire by the end of these workouts.
Ab Routine 3: Obliques
Side Crunches – 3 Sets 20 Reps
Russian Twists – 3 Sets 20 Reps
Spiderman – 3 Sets 20 Reps
Wood Choppers – 3 Sets 20 Reps
Landmines – 3 Sets 30 Reps
Obliques are one of the most overlooked muscle groups. They are the fish gill-like muscles on the side of the abs. A shredded midriff cannot be deemed complete without a set of ripped obliques. While using weights in the abs and obliques training, you don’t need to go super heavy.
Controlling the weights and contracting your muscles with every rep are the key to building a shredded midriff. For woodchoppers, you could use dumbbells or cable pulley machine for isolation.
Ab Routine 4: Midriff Workout
Roman Chair Leg Raise – 3 Sets 20 Reps
Tabletop Crunches – 3 Sets 20 Reps
Heel Taps – 3 Sets 20 Reps
Plank Rotations – 3 Sets 20 Reps
Dumbbell Side Bends – 3 Sets Failure
In this routine, we will be targeting the complete midriff. We start the fourth routine with Roman chair leg raises which target the lower abs and then move onto tabletop crunches which target the upper abs. The heel taps focus on the middle and lower abs.
In the plank rotation, take a planking position and rotate to your right side to take a side plank position. Come back to the starting position and repeat this on the left side. Doing so will target your obliques. Dumbbell Side targets your obliques.
Ab Routine 5: Core Strength
Planks – 3 Sets 2 Minutes
Side Planks – 3 Sets 2 Minutes
Superman Planks – 3 Sets 2 Minutes
Abs Wheel Roll Outs – 3 Sets 2 Minutes
Planks are one of the best ways to build core strength. There are many variations of planks which can target your complete midriff. You can also perform plank dips. In this variation, you lower your body towards the floor and then return back to the normal plank position.
Dipping puts extra tension on your core. You can add the dips to any form of planks. The ab wheel rollouts are a complete upper body exercise and will help you in building core strength as well as complete upper body strength.
Wrap Up
How often do you train your abs? Let us know in the comments below, and let us know if you are going to give this ab workout a try. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.
