Newbie alert!

How long do you wait between lifting sessions for same muscle groups? On BFL there is a 4 day wait between groups, but I am thinking when I was lifting many moons ago it was only a 48 hour wait. Tonight I was reading an Ab book at BooksAMillion and they had exercises to do every day, so that would only be a 24 hour wait. Are abs different from other muscle groups?

According my readings and training, you can work abs and calves everday (ugh, why would you want to?). The general rule of thumb is to give large muscle groups at least a 4 day recovery time (quads, hams, back, chest) and smaller groups a minimum of 2-3 days. Most experienced lifters settle into a 6 or 7 day rotation of muscles groups, even tho they may lift 6 out of 7 days.
I do a 4 day split over 7 days. Except for this week, when for some bizarre reason I thought doing a heavy leg workout on both Wednesday and Saturday instead of cardio today would be more fun.

ps: Abs are mad in the kitchen!

Mel

Thanks Mel! Abs are probably the weakest muscle group in my body, so that's good to know that I can work them more often. Ick, that sounds terrible. They're the weakest for a reason, I HATE ab exercises!

Aha! So *that's* my problem - unless I feed them healthy food, my abs get angry with me and refuse to cooperate...

I hear ya there Jennifer - historically, abs have been the last bodypart I bothered working. Generally I would toss in a few minutes of abwork after doing my 'regular' weights and cardio. Since I added Pilates to the mix, however, my abs are getting a GREAT workout and I'm seeing total results! Pilates is definitely a great 'add-in' workout to weights and cardio - HIGHLY recommended by moi

My abs are always mad. They always want more food!
Sorry for the typo.

Heck, don't apologize - I needed a chuckle this afternoon! It takes away from the pain in my right arm...

There is an old (older than I) book I found on Amazon.com called The Lotte Berk Method that has a good ab section. Different, anyway. No crunches, which makes me and my bad back very happy.

Here is a description of one of the exercises from there, if it sounds interesting you might try it:

"Sit with a very straight back and place your feet and knees several inches apart. (Knees bent.) Grasp firmly the inner thighs with your hands. (Grab on, don't just rest your hands there.) Make sure your elbows are very high & open.

Pull your inner thighs hard toward you, using them as leverage to round & stretch across your shoulder blads. As you round your back, start to lower you back toward the floor. You should feel a very definite stretch across your upper back.

Lower your back slowly until you feel the small of your back touch the floor. Then let go of your hands & stretch them above your head. Hold to a count to 10 then relax by lowering your back to the floor gradually."

What happens when you lean back like that is you force your abs to engage to hold your torso up. The book says you might not feel your abs working immediately, but I sure did! It sounds like such a simple exercise, but you will feel it the next day. About 5 reps of that (holding to a 10-count) is about all I can do before my back starts bugging me. There is also a variation where you have one leg straight & the other knee bent that is good.

Just a suggestion.

Hey Sabra! I love the line in your signature about losing more weight than your daughters' weights combined! That is awesome -- big congratulations to you.

I hear ya about the lower back. I should have stuck with what was working instead of doing something goofy with my knees and elbows. Ah ya exercise and ya learn!

The reason most sources tell you that you can work abs every day is that you rarely do exercises intense enough to get to failure. Kathy Smith recommends proper form proper form proper form and working abs to failure, just like you would any other muscle group. If you do that, you need a 48-hour rest for them as well -- there's nothing special about ab muscles that allows them to rebuild quicker. In her most recent strength training video, Lift Weights to Lose Weight vol. 2, she has a lot of ab exercises that incorporate Pilates principles. If you do those, you won't WANT to work them two days in a row.

Jenn, can I jump on to your newbie alert? I am such a newbie to any kind of exercise, but especially lifting!

Pilates is great! I am doing a video at home, and can tell that I am slowly getting stronger, as I can do some of the exercises I couldn't before. It really is amazing stuff, and so hard! My heart is pounding and I sweat like crazy after 20 mins of yoga/pilates. I think it ought to count as cardio!

I was wondering about this same thing, Jennifer! Thanks for asking!

I'm doing a workout designed by a trainer at my gym, and one of the ab exercises was really interesting and unique, I thought...you sit on a bench perpendicular, and rest your hands, palms down, on the edge of the bench. Lean back until your back is at a 45 degree angle. Now bring your knees up to your chest while bringing your torso up closer to 90 degrees, then release. This really works all of your muscles, but especially the abs...you're supposed to use your hands only to keep you from falling over...but let your abs do the work. It's something else!

Hi Laurie! We can be dumbbells together.

Amen, sistah!

Another questions in the "how long between sessions" vein--if you work, say, arms in the morning of one day, can you work them in the afternoon of that same day? For example, I had to rush through my workout this morning because I had to run an errand. I'd like to do a little bit more with my arm workout, but did too much time elapse?

Thanks!