crunches and push-ups

can I do crunches and push-ups everyday??????? How many????? I did 100 crunches today and 40 push-ups(knees, not toes)

Doing them every day.. My father does them every day. He does only low reps. He do 25 of each every day. I did work my abs every day during the ab week. That was a killer. Once i got past the soreness. I was hitting home runs with the ab work out. I add them in during my dance now.

But it is best to take a day off to let the muscles regroup.

Work them every other day.

it would be best to do pushups every other day but i've read that stomach workouts can be done everyday. they don't need to rest! haha. it sounds like you are doing great :)

Thanks for the reply, think the crunches will be okay but the push ups will be killer, maybe I will get use to them, think my muscles have been in hibernation, but they are starting to come around again..

I do sit ups everyday - stomach muscles recovery very quickly.  I only do push ups when it's my "chest and back"day for weights - I need the recovery time in between workouts

On your weight training days do you work different body parts on different days? How many reps and sets of push ups do you do?

im pretty into body building and although there is nothing like some good free weights free style lifting is amazing for tone. i know some fairly jacked people who ONLY do sit ups push ups, and pull ups. the benifits are there. u just have to find them and for women who are toneing i would say this is one of the best things for all of you.

i've been doing sit ups and other ab exercises for a while, and my abs are pretty toned, but i still have this annoying jiggly pudge right around my bellybutton. does anybody know what it is and how i can get rid of it?

don't remember where, but I recently read that 6-pack abs is all about body fat...or more correctly lack of it.  heypretty, likely what's going to get rid of the jiggly pudge is cardio, cardio, more cardio, general weight training to up the old metabolism and a clean diet.  But some pilates can't hurt! ;D

I can only speak for myself of course, but I do pushups everyday and
lift weights and I have really nice arms to show for it. I also do
squats, lunges, and plies everyday and it has done wonders for the
rear/thighs.  I wish I could get into the ab workouts but I hate
them lol :) I figure once I get to my goal weight I'll start trying to
firm up the abs :) I'll just have to force myself to do more of it
;) 

I do an ab workout every day unless they are sore from the previous day's workout.  If thats the case then I just give them a day off and hit them the next day.

I do a full body workout every other day to give the larger muscles a break and time to rebuild but I try to work the abs daily.

YES.  I do them everyday as well.

I would suggest timing yourself on the crunches to mix it up.  see how many you can do (with good form) in a minute.   then do some push ups, then switch back to a full minute or two of cruches.  if you do this 3-4 times you are getting a great work out.

Also make sure you are doing other types of core excercises.  there are lots of muscles in there and they all need to be worked for those amazing abs.

heypretty - I have that also.  I think the only way to get rid of that is through diet and cardio.  nothing more than just that.  its really hard for women to get rid of as well.

thank you! i guess i'll start running, then.

"...that annoying jiggly pudge..."

Oh! How well I know that pudge. I've had that my entire adult life. There's no way I know of to get rid of it. Even when I was underweight I had it. Even at my fittest I had it.

I think I'm just going to have to become a belly dancer and exploit it, instead of fighting it. :P

Heypretty and dcgirl: in order to have a 6 pack (which I imagine you're going for) you have to have an abnormally low percentage of body fat.  It's especially difficult for women to achieve.  The only way to lose body fat, as we hopefully all know, is diet and cardio but I wouldn't worry about it too much. 

As for the every day or not argument, I would say every other day is good.  My teacher always told us to work muscles only every other day so they can recover but abs do recover quickly.  Just make sure you're using good form for best results.  That means neck straight (no pulling on it with your hands!), shoulderblades off the ground, and elbows flat with the fingertips juuuuust touching your hair (Helps keep  you from yanking on your neck)

Oh yeah, if you can do 40 pushups on your knees, start doing them on your toes!  That really works your abs, too.  Go down until your chest touches the floor, if you can (I can't, but I try) and keep your back and neck straight.  Form is really important!

Hey guys I've just joined and I was wondering if im on the right path.  My weekly workouts go something like this:  One day intense cardio / leg weights.  Next day 3 Mile (Mild Cardio) / Upper body weights.  I alternate these two workouts by day, I also do about 100 pushups and 250 crunches every night.  I may move to every other day on my abs due to some irritation in my lower back.  Does this workout seem like a logical and time efficient progression towards a more ripped body?

This is in coherence with Heypretty's comment about her lower abs.  Cardio and diet have been the two methods that I have been focusing on to eliminate the small layer of fat over my lower mid section, I see some response to my efforts but not much.  I run at least 3 miles everyday, 5 every other day.  I was up to a 35 mile streak one week.  My upper abdomen looked flawless, but my lower abdomen saw no improvement.  I have seen very little response to my intense cardio workouts over the past 2 months, Even well-known body builders have the same problem we are experiencing, all we can do is try and hope for the best. 

I read somewhere that abs and shoulders are muscles that can be worked daily.  Don't know why the shoulders are different - and of course I can't find the reference now - with that said I wouldn't go crazy with the ab workouts daily.  Don't do it by "number" but maybe by time.  Limit yourself to 10 minutes of ab work.  Do 2 planks holding for at least 1 minute each time  Work the obliques and do reverse crunches and other stuff besides just crunches.

As far as push ups daily I don't know.  I would maybe do just a few each day - but don't do alot if you find you want to do them every day. 

I started to take Pilates lessons less than a year ago. I've been in shape and working out regularly (4-5 days a week) for 17 years, including 3+ years with an excellent personal trainer. Can't count how many crunches I did in those 17 years. But my tummy was never flat. I blamed getting fat while I was pregnant and not ever working out until my son was 4.  Wrong. It was the ineffectiveness of all those crunches. 

Less than a year of Pilates 2-3 times a week and my stomach is flatter (not to mention my ass is higher and my posture is better). Noticeably flatter. Pilates works your transverse abdominus, which is an ab muscle with horizontal fibers that runs around your mid-section like a big corset (want to feel your TA? put your hands around your waist and cough). Next time you go to do a million crunches, first cinch in your waist, like you're trying to squeeze into a pair of "skinny jeans", pull up with your pelvic floor muscles (pretend you're trying to stop peeing), get your pelvis into it's neutral position (put the heels of your hands on your hip bones, bring your fingers together on your pubic bone, those 3 points should be lined up horizontally..your low back should be OFF the mat just a bit). keep that pelvis in that neutral position, and NOW crunch up without those hips moving (your low back will naturally fall to the mat as you crunch up, but your pelvis should NOT move). Exhale to curl up. Inhale, hold at the top, exhale down, but keep those abs engaged. I'll guarantee you you won't be doing 250 of THOSE.  Start by trying to do 10. Do the "bicycle" the same way, transverse abdominus in (think of pulling your navel to your spine, and your sides in toward the center of your body), pelvic floor up, neutral spine, hips not moving, crunch up, curling just under the breasts and now staying lifted rotate side to side, but keep it strictly rotation, don't crunch to the side, just rotate your upper torso. exhale as you rotate to the side, inhale as you pass through the center. 10 each side. killer. that's just the beginning, engaging the TV is fundamental to many Pilates exercises, both mat work and on the equipment. if you really want to change your mid-section, find a good local Pilates teacher (or if not available or you can't afford it, rent or buy the 3 videos by Rael Isacowitz) and you will see changes (although some cardio and a good diet is still necessary!)

i, too, am pretty sure that it's fine to work the abs everyday. i do like 70 everyday. i do 15 push ups on my toes everyday too, but i don't think it's a good thing..