Abs Workout Question

[Death]

Hi guys,

I've been doing 5 sets of 40 crunches/situps with the Cap Barbell Crunch Bench (just an declined seat and part to hold your feet) and my abs are really starting to shape up; I'm going for the total six-pack and have the outline so far but no tubes going across yet.

So today I started doing them while holding a 5-pound plate behind my head, I was able to do 5 sets of 25 (I could have done sets of 30 though but took it easy). So my question is: should I get up to sets of 40 then add more weight and start at sets of 25 again or should I stick to sets of 25 and keep adding weight every week or two ?

Also, is that enough to get the six-pack or maybe I should do another exercise ? I do side-bends with dumb bells too but that's about it for the ab area.

I guess that goes for my whole workout as well, I do 5 sets of 15 everything else. Should I add more weight and do sets of 10 instead ? I'm going for definition and not bulk. My weight has been very steady and where I want it, I guess I can put on 5 pounds of pure muscle but I'm not really shooting for that.

Thanks.

[Cort]

Six pack is more from eating healthy than your ab workouts. Getting developed abs in itself isn't the hard part, it is getting the fat off of them so they show.

Defenition is also low bodyfat. The whole concept of defenition is that you have low enough bodyfat that your muscle shows, and lifting heavy with low reps gets you bigger/stronger muscles (than doing light sets of 15...try heavy sets of 4-8,) which in turn adds to larger more defined muscles.

The whole bulking cutting thing is your diet, not really your workout...

[Stafford]

Your abs are like any other muscle group, if you want them to grow you need to add weight.

I would suggest doing perhaps 5 sets of 10-15 reps and adding more weight.

As Cort said though you need to have low enough BF% for them to show through and have good definition, this will usually be around 10%.

Doing high reps no weight will work the abs but heavy weights will allow them to grow and give you better looking abs when you reduce your BF enough for them to show through.