If you are looking to build more visible and blocky abs, then is time to boost the intensity of your abdominal workouts! Anyone can drop their bodyfat percentage to begin to see abs. But if you want them to really pop-out, you need to train them like you would any other muscle group in your body!

YES!!! Been looking for another ab routine. I'm getting burned on all the ones I do. And I do a lot of different ones thanx to ur amazing vidz, Scott. Will try this one today!!!

Allen

Scott, I like blocky abs but not blocky obliques. Rob Riches and many others talk about using body weight twisting exercises when targeting obliques to keep them slim, tapered, and more aesthetic.

My question to you is, are all of the obliqe exercises you just showed going to make obliques blocky, or only the weighted side bends? And, if they will all make them blocky, can you give some good examples of body weight exercises to target them?

I love wood choppers, but not at the expense of a wider waist. I think some good oblique exercises for my goals are unweighted russian twists, side bridges, and maybe even standing twists with a bo staff on my shoulders like you mentioned in the video. Any other good ones? Thanks!

You absolutely cannot make your obliques "bulky". This is about genetics. Some people have bulkier abs, some people dont. The only thing that has a potential to increase your waste line (except fat), is doing HEAVY deadlifts and HEAVY squats for years. Your core might get thicker and a little bit bigger. But you can possibly "fix" that by doing stomach vacuums. Vacuums have the potential to trim your waste line a little bit as you learn to control your abs better.

Hey Richard,

To be honest I hate when people relate weighted ab exercises to a bigger waistline. It's just not the case at all.

I have been using EXTREMELY heavy weight my entire life with my abs and obliques exercises and as you can clearly see, my waistline is not huge at all.

I can pretty much stack and weigh rack on any cable machine for sets of 15-20 reps for woodchoppers. That is pretty extreme! The only thing it did for me was help me build my strong core.

Kostas is right, a "thick" waistline is genetics. As long as you stay natural you can build muscle in your core, but don't be under the impression your waist is going to grow 3-5 inches. If anything you will be tighter.

Scott - first, thanks for posting such great videos! They keep my workouts fresh and my form on point.

Maybe I missed it, but for these exercises, would you recommend doing them as straight sets or as a circuit?

Honestly, the only way for your abs to become 'blocky' is to train disproportionately. Bodybuilding or the typical style of resistance training is centered around hypertrophy principles. This essentially means that you are increasing the size and definition of the muscle that you currently have - so the only way to become overly blocky in your physique is to train about A LOT and neglect every other muscle around it (Shoulders, Chest, Back, Legs etc.). If you train well, everything increases in size together and the look is maintained.

Well when I said blocky that is what I was referring to. Getting them to poke out, but not disproportionally!

I would do them as straight sets brotha. But you can superset the exercises too.

Thanks for the kind words man!

Hi Scott!

I have some conserns regarding twisting or obliques exercises. And especially this exercise. I looked at a video recently that said all twisting exercises are horrible for your spine(and also builds those "lovehandles", that's really not a issue) and should be avoided.

I use all your exercises from your video and this article. I've been doing oblique exercises for about 6 months now, and never experienced any pains in my spine, but it's maybe a long term thing?

Do you have some knowledge regarding this?:)

Thanks!

(Btw, love all your videos! You've helped me alot!)