Secondary Abs Training
Ab training is involved in every movement you perform. When you’re running it uses your abs, when you’re walking it uses your abs, when you’re playing gold it uses your abs, when you’re doing a bench press it uses your abs and when you throw a punch it engages your abs. This is why good strong abs are so important, but it can also be used to our advantage to help make training them a 24 hour affair and to train them all the time in the gym.
Training just one muscle group is incredibly difficult, so much so that doing so requires specifically designed ‘isolation’ exercises. During most exercise however at least two muscle groups will be involved. For example when doing a bench press, the pecs are the focus of the exercise, but the triceps, shoulders, traps and abs will also be involved. These are then referred to as the ‘secondary’ muscle groups when doing that exercise.
As it happens, the abs are secondary muscles in just about every exercise. This means that any exercise, no matter the body part you’re focussing on, will provide training for the abs. For some exercises this is more true than for others and some will involve the abs as secondary muscles in a big way. This is particularly the case with calisthenics exercises, as they often require core stability to balance the body weight. This includes press ups and pull ups, both of which require a lot of involvement from the abs.
This then of course needs to be factored into how you train your abs. If you’re aiming to give your abs a chance to rest between workouts, then you should follow an abs workout immediately up with a session of pull ups and press ups. At the same time though, if you feel your abs could do with a bit more work that week, you can use exercises that train your stomach in a secondary manner when training other body parts.
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