HBBS Form Check

255x4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFRA33-Qkmw

Do ab exercises actually do anything to flatten your ab/belly area? I know it's not going to make it thinner, but wondering if it does anything to kinda even it out.

Someone didn't read the FAQ, but it's the Beg. thread so I'll be nice.

Q. How do I get 6-pack abs?
A. 6-pack abs are largely a function of diet, exercise and genetics.

As an addition to that, you cannot "spot reduce" fat. Which means if you have a beer belly, doing a million crunches will not get rid of it if you don't change your diet and lose weight.

If you want a flatter stomach, the best way to go about it is getting a better diet(losing body fat and/or weight), and doing compound exercises.

So far when doing PC's I've been avoiding dropping the bar, because 1) I'm pretty sure I'll get yelled at, and 2) the place is so small there's a nonzero chance I'll drop it on the foot of someone walking by. I'm still doing pretty light weight (like 150lb) and have had no problems just lowering it against my thighs and then putting it down...can I conceivably keep doing this as weight goes up, or will I eventually rip an elbow out of its socket or something?

i have expanded powerblocks that go up to 90 in each hand. i don't think i'll need much past that for quite a while as i've really just started working out and i'm pretty weak. is it a good idea to pick a few of these and do like a modified SS type workout?

Did read the faq. Question is not about getting a 6 pack or even spot reducing really. Basically I've lost a ton of weight, am actually getting ready to start bulking, but my stomach is kinda... lumpy maybe? I dunno. I've been doing SS and haven't added any sort of ab exercises and was just wondering if there was a point.

Edit: Basically, does strengthening your ab muscles help you hold in your gut more evenly?

SS is working your abs a ton. If you want a 'flatter' belly, continue to lose weight.

http://startingstrength.com/articles/abs_rippetoe.pdf

Not sure I understand your question fully. If you want to strengthen your abs, keep doing Squats, Deadlifts and Presses. They will get stronger. Extra ab work isn't necessary, but if you want, knock yourself out.

If you've lost a lot of weight and your stomach is flabby as a result, lipo? Strengthening the abs won't really help this.

FWIW Ripples himself advocates weighted sit-ups/L-chins for ab work, without going into programming specifics.

I've been considering buying some decent single ply knee sleeves for a while to keep my ligaments warm and knee functioning properly. Bought some cheap £1.75 made in China types but found that there is no compression with them. After reading an article at Starting Strength about the use of knee sleeves I'm now strongly considering getting a decent pair.

However, in the UK they are damn expensive. Rehbands go for about £45 a pair which I'm not prepared to pay. Tommy Kono sleeves are £30 per pair and I've found some Hercules knee sleeves for £16.50 on ebay here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...tchlink:top:en

Hercules are a lot cheaper than the TK sleeves, should I get them?

Those Herculean sleeves look nothing like the Rehband' s or Kono's, they look like the APT sleeves which are really thin, not tight, and not supportive at all.

Get the Kono's. I like them better than the Rehband's anyway, personally.

It sort of irritates me that Rip simply refuses to acknowledge that people have goals besides pure strength.

qft

Just finished reading his book and reminds me of the Charles Atlas ads from the 40's, where the skinny guy who had sand kicked in his face at the beach, if he follows this program will become a man. As long as he does exactly as he's told.

Its a good read and full of usefull info, but the my way or the highway stuff gets a little old.

I'm not a 100% certain how creatine works. We know that some people don't have any effect with creatine. And some people gain (water) weight while using it.

Is it possible to see an effect (not placebo...) without gaining any water weight?
Is it possible to gain water weight as a consequence of creatine but not seeing any strength gains?

I don't want to come off like a die-hard rip fanboi, but this isn't really true...

In PPST (and I'm fairly sure SS) he talks about taking different directions in your training depending on your goals. iirc he talks about intermediate programming for hypertrophy and I'm fairly sure he specifically says that if your goal is sports related, you likely never need to advance past an intermediate level of strength.

Just sayin'

I'm not sure what soulman's issue with the abs article is. Elaborate.

Well, like the FAQ says a 6-pack is mostly based on genetics/BF %. I still haven't seen anyone write anything about this except for this one sentence. So basically my issue is, if you care about the appearance of abs at all, to what extent does working them specifically (with good stuff like weighted sit-ups, L-chins etc) play a role? Is it useless? I liked the article, but I would have found it even better if he threw something in about appearance.

And Snitch, he's pretty accommodating with answering sports-related stuff. I was mostly talking about appearance.

And before everything thinks I'm gonna start oiling myself up and buy leather thongs at eBay, this is a pretty small rock for me.

If he thinks the main lifts are sufficient for ab strength I don't think he's going to change his mind and say they are insufficient for those who want visible abs, but I don't think he'd complain if someone did some situps. Doesn't sound unreasonable to me and it's something that you just have to extrapolate from his writings. He's not going to spell everything out and he isn't going to spend time dealing with those who are just working out for appearances, it's just not his thing.

Yeah he's not a huge fan of catering to an audience, heh. Although I'd bet that a huge percentage of even SS-ers care about appearance to some degree - it's not an either/or thing after all.

Admittedly I haven't exactly been searching around for hypertrophy literature...

I don't think that's what he says at all. SS is just a starting place for noobs, and then you add exercises depending on your goals. The point of SS is to get people into the gym and keep the workout time reasonable. Once you get some base strength from SS, the powerlifters will add assistance exercises; the athletes will do more oly, plyo, and dumbell exercises; the beauty queens will do their 10-rep isolation stuff including going for 6-packs; the endurance athletes will do their 20+ rep stuff.

Do you care to provide the "my way or the highway" passages? He gives reasons for choosing low-bar squat over high-bar and front squats. He says he doesn't like the popular ab work because it places weight on the spine without adding much utility to the ab muscles. He doesn't want noobs doing curls because they can spend their energy better doing more compound exercises. If you want more arm work than the bench/press provides, I think he'd tell you to do chin-ups and pull-ups until you're done.

Rip sent me his article on fencing-oriented strength program that includes hammer curls among the exercises, so he's not just completely anti-curl.

I think SS partially doesn't "cater to the audience" because "the audience" doesn't read exercise books, they just glance at articles and hire PTs.

I appreciate that Rip doesn't pretend to have authority in an area he isn't as well versed in.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/creatine.html

Thanks, but I don't think my questions are answered in that guide.