Don’t know what oblique 45′s are.

The only way to get ugly obliques is to do weighted side bends with a dumbbell – so don’t do it

Was just looking at this site, one of the ones you reccommended and noticed that under the side plank section he said that they are not going to make the obliques bigger; he may have been talking about women as obviously they have lower testosterone levels so won’t put on muscle as easily but I was just wondering if this is true for a man.
Also, what do you think of oblique 45s?
cheers

http://www.hollywoodbodyfitness.com/hollywood-abs-the-best-exercises-for-a-six-pack

no problem. Yeah after 2 minutes it’s just too long and you need a new challenge. I’d suggest doing them 3-5x per week for 1-2 sets of max time. Add 5 sec each workout. Every time it’s gonna be hard but you’ll manage to beat your previous time.

If it’s too easy, lift up your leg.

1. I mean that real strength, the ability to push heavier weights, is built a bit slower (because tendons need to adapt to the heavy weights and tendons adapt slowly). Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, more related to increase in muscle size, is built faster, but is not related to significant increase in strength. So you look bigger and stronger, but are actually only slightly stronger.

2. The FCT cannot be done with dumbbell unfortunately. The lying twist seems too east and too subjective. I’d suggest doing “side planks” – those are good until you get to 2 minute holds…

try the full contact twist. Your obliques are gonna hate you for this

Cheers,

Yavor

p.s. Renegade rows and 5×5 do build muscle – but it is with the temp at which you build up your strength…

the lower back works in accord with all the muscles of the posterior chain (back of the body). So deadlifts work the lower back quite well. Any exercise really that makes you hold the arch position under resistance is good.

You can try good mornings ==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFDmJaFw5HU or the super man exercise ==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2f24JKuocI for a body weight variation.

Cheers,

Yavor

p.s. just remember to always keep the arch in the lower back tight. This also means keep the back tight when picking stuff up at home.

thanks for these articles – i love renegade rows. planks had gotten easy and boring, but with enough weight i find these realy challenging. can you recommend a similarly challenging lower back exercise?

thanks,

chica

yes it is pretty hard, but one can achieve core strength pretty fast

the important things about this drill are to shift the weight between the two arms and two flex and tense the muscles of the legs and butt.

Kieran

2-3 minutes are enough. Also – you can alternate between two exercises, for example renegade rows and a pressing (military press, etc) or leg (squats, linges) exercise. This saves time – you can rest from 0 to 60 seconds when alternating exercises (one set of exercise 1, followed by one set of exercise 2, etc..).

What do you recommend for rest periods between sets (i’m currently doing 3-5 sets of 5)