Convalescence period for abs?
Hi,
Does anyone know how long you should wait before you can work your abs again?
Last week, I did Squat thrusts (Burpees) 3 sets of 12. My abs were so sore for days afterwards, I knew I had pushed myself too far.
I waited one week and just tried it again. With the first move I felt a sharp pain running up the left side of my abdomen. This really sets me back in trying to get more exercise.
How long should I wait? I don't want to continue to hurt myself but at the same time I don't want to wait so long that I get out of shape.
thanks!
Treat them like any other muscle. At least 48 hours of rest if you are working them out intensely.
If you think you strained them, however, give yourself a week or two before working them out again.
they can be worked on daily, but what's the benefit? Why would not giving your abs a chance to repair themselves help in any way? You can work out your abs day and night for your whole life, but if you don't burn the fat on top of them, then you wasted your time.
Original Post by nicholas_shannon:
I disagree. I think abs can be worked on daily. It might be a case where you need to push through the pain and you'll feel better. You could drop the Burpees and do other ab excersises too.
Interesting view.
Original Post by armandounc:
Treat them like any other muscle. At least 48 hours of rest if you are working them out intensely.
If you think you strained them, however, give yourself a week or two before working them out again.
What would you classify as intensely? I work out my abs most days regardless if I'm doing cardio or strength training. I usually include planks and byciles into my stretching/cool down. I don't find myself sore afterwards, except if I push my self during a strength workout. But the soreness usually goes away in the afternoon before my next work out.
I'm curious if you think this might be counter productive?
Not counter productive but it's not going to get you any better gains that you would get working out less, IMO.
I don't understand why people think the abs are different from any other muscle in the body. What other muscle do you work out every single day that gets you better results than rest? The abs are no different. Not the upper rectus, or the lower rectus, or the intercostals (I know, not really abs), or the obliques.
I also don't understand why people don't rest between ab exercises at the gym the way they rest between sets of squats or bench press or what have you.
I am no fitness expert but I have never heard or read anything that says the ab muscles are so different from the rest that you should work them out so differently.
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I personally work them out both directly and indirectly. I squat and deadlift as well as some other Olympic lifts, which very much involve a strong core. I also devote a day strictly to core in which I do circuits of planks, side planks, supermans, burpees, mountain climbers, etc, etc. I'll do planks up to 3:00 minutes each and side planks up to 1:45 or so. I definitely get sore the following day(s) after my ab workouts.
Edit: Because I haven't read/heard about it, doesn't mean I'm right, however. If someone has literature that goes against what I think then by all means direct me to it so I can stop spreading bad advice.
Original Post by armandounc:
I also don't understand why people don't rest between ab exercises at the gym the way they rest between sets of squats or bench press or what have you.
Because if your ab work is as intense as a squat, bench or deadlift then you're doing something wrong.
Bicep curls aren't as intense. Do you do 40 continuous reps or do you rest between sets?
No exercise is as intense as squatting. That doesn't mean you don't need to rest between sets.
Original Post by armandounc:
Bicep curls aren't as intense. Do you do 40 continuous reps or do you rest between sets?
No exercise is as intense as squatting. That doesn't mean you don't need to rest between sets.
If you're doing them with any decent amount of weight (enough for a training effect) a curl will be too intense to rep continuously, although many adopt rest-pause techniques.
People reduce the rest time on ab work to increase intensity. Some do the same with weights too, but it's easier to just add more reps or add another plate on the end of the barbell to increase intensity.
Ok. But I still maintain that there is a need to rest between ab "sets". The problem, IMO, is that too many (i.e. almost all) of people who work their core don't do anything worth their while. If you're doing crunches, which I hope we can all agree are worthless, of course you need to do hundreds of them to feel an effect.
I'm saying there are proper ways to work the core with intense enough exercises that you need to take rest, just as you would with other muscles. Try doing a 15 minute plank. Almost impossible. Doing 3 sets of 5 minute planks with rest? That's possible.
Same as you would with any other muscle in the body,.
Edit - I am just going to point out again as I did in the beginning. This is only my opinion based on my observations and what I've heard/read from others. If you can substantiate proof against what I say, I'll eat my words.
Original Post by armandounc:
Ok. But I still maintain that there is a need to rest between ab "sets". The problem, IMO, is that too many (i.e. almost all) of people who work their core don't do anything worth their while. If you're doing crunches, which I hope we can all agree are worthless, of course you need to do hundreds of them to feel an effect.
I'm saying there are proper ways to work the core with intense enough exercises that you need to take rest, just as you would with other muscles. Try doing a 15 minute plank. Almost impossible. Doing 3 sets of 5 minute planks with rest? That's possible.
Same as you would with any other muscle in the body,.
Edit - I am just going to point out again as I did in the beginning. This is only my opinion based on my observations and what I've heard/read from others. If you can substantiate proof against what I say, I'll eat my words.
I have no idea if it gets less gains than more intense ab work.
I don't do any ab work at all.
The idea of not resting to increase intensity probably comes from an old Bodybuilding magazine somewhere or there could actually be some physiology behind it, who knows.
Crunches can have some rehab benefits I believe but from a physique point of view I really don't know.
I HAVE to rest between my plank and other core workouts. I also only work them every other day.
It sounds like maybe you've done more than just worked the muscles hard. Strainging them too much.
I would rest until you can do the exercise with little to no pain.
Maybe try doing some planks/ side planks, elevated planks
Thanks everyone so far for your input. It's nice to see people out there just as interested in this subject as I am.
I've always been into sports and training isn't new to me, even though I took a 10 year hiatus from having it as an integral part of my life.I still remember some of the fundamentals driven into me over and over again.
(From my point of view, and my former coaches)
There's pain, and then there's pain. The trick is knowing which pain is the normal muscle building pain/soreness (lasting a couple days) and and which pain means you actually did something wrong and you risk making it MUCH worse if you don't give it a chance to heal.
In any case as it was explained to me over and over again by my team, all the pain comes from the same source...you're breaking muscle protein and then it repairs itself stronger and bigger to compensate for the stress. For normal muscle building you have to play the balancing game to know just how much stress will provoke a repair-and-build in just one or two days.
In my case, I KNOW the sharp pain I had wasn't a normal hey-I'm-exercising-and-out-of-shape pain. I knew enough not to push it for a week, however, what spurred my posting this topic is that I was surprised that 1 week wasn't enough. With the first small move on Sunday, I felt like I had retorn whatever had been in the process of healing. Since some muscles can be tasked on a daily basis more than others, I was wondering if someone had information on the normal convalescence time for injured abs.
Yesterday I did some yoga, and even when I moved from the plank position to downward dog (which requires your abs) I felt the sharp pain was still there. So obviously, I can't even do the softest ab work.
(By the way, I'm concentrating on ab work, as a way of strengthening my core because I suffer from a herniated disk and better abs will reduce my back pain. Boy, do I feel like an old doll falling apart.)
Original Post by nek68:
Thanks everyone so far for your input. It's nice to see people out there just as interested in this subject as I am.
I've always been into sports and training isn't new to me, even though I took a 10 year hiatus from having it as an integral part of my life.I still remember some of the fundamentals driven into me over and over again.
(From my point of view, and my former coaches)
There's pain, and then there's pain. The trick is knowing which pain is the normal muscle building pain/soreness (lasting a couple days) and and which pain means you actually did something wrong and you risk making it MUCH worse if you don't give it a chance to heal.
In any case as it was explained to me over and over again by my team, all the pain comes from the same source...you're breaking muscle protein and then it repairs itself stronger and bigger to compensate for the stress. For normal muscle building you have to play the balancing game to know just how much stress will provoke a repair-and-build in just one or two days.
In my case, I KNOW the sharp pain I had wasn't a normal hey-I'm-exercising-and-out-of-shape pain. I knew enough not to push it for a week, however, what spurred my posting this topic is that I was surprised that 1 week wasn't enough. With the first small move on Sunday, I felt like I had retorn whatever had been in the process of healing. Since some muscles can be tasked on a daily basis more than others, I was wondering if someone had information on the normal convalescence time for injured abs.
Yesterday I did some yoga, and even when I moved from the plank position to downward dog (which requires your abs) I felt the sharp pain was still there. So obviously, I can't even do the softest ab work.
(By the way, I'm concentrating on ab work, as a way of strengthening my core because I suffer from a herniated disk and better abs will reduce my back pain. Boy, do I feel like an old doll falling apart.)
Not sure if you follow the NBA, but Chris Bosh from the Miami Heat had to sit out for well over a week with an abdominal strain, and he has some of the best training staff in the world. So if he can't recover in one week, chances are you won't either.
Give it time. It's normal for injuries to take a while to heal.
Could also be the start of a ventral or umbilical hernia- make sure you don't have anything "bulging"
That could be ambiguous to all us males out here on the forums.
Ha Ha!! But females can get hernias too. I see it often working for a surgeon.
