silly question,
I often hear women say they do 100 crunches a night.
How long does that take, 5 minutes?
How many calories could one burn doing 100 crunches?
Does anyone do this?
How has it helped?

In my opinion, if you can do 100 crunches a night and it takes 5 minutes, you're not doing them right! 15 minutes of abs KILLS me and I'm not sure that I ever do 100 of them--and like any muscle, after you work it, you should give it a day of rest before working it again (so I wouldn't do crunches every night, anyway). I do abs about 3 days a week for 15 minutes at a time, usually in conjunction with a class I'm taking. I'm not sure about calories...but any exercise done laying down burns less calories than those you do standing up.

Hope that helped!

I agree with Azure- if you can do 100 crunches, do something harder that you can only do 10-15. Do different types of ab exercise which target your entire core in multiplanar movements. Plain crunches only keep you in one plane. You should incorporate some twisting motions for your obliques as well. Don't forget the rest of your body!

Mel

I've always wondered why people think it's ok to train your abs every day, when we have to rest every other muscle group one day between training sessions. I just assumed it was a myth that keeps spreading around. I've heard it from people who are otherwise very educated about muscle training, so I've started to wonder if perhaps I'm wrong and you really CAN do abs every day. But I really can't see the logic behind it.

I don't think you're wrong, Lisa.

The head trainer for the entire Ballys chain of gyms came to talk to us last year and said - no, do not train abs every day! They ARE like every other muscle group and need at least a day of rest between training sessions. If you work abs every day, you'll create micro-scarring in the muscle, which will hinder ab development.

He reinforced what I had always been taught, which is abs no more than three times a week. Who has time for more than that anyway, if you're working all your other muscle groups and doing cardio?

People are funny about abs though. I see lots of people at the gym whose regular workout regimen includes cardio followed by some kind of ab work and NOTHING else. I wonder what they think they're doing. Certainly none of them have low enough body fat % for their abs to be visible. I suspect that the idea that you can't spot reduce has not sunk in to the general public with regard to their abs.

We've got gym members like that too, whose "workout" is 100 crunches, 100 reps on the inner and outer thighs machines, a little cardio, and they're out of there.