Originally posted by Ford Prefect
Heavy deadlifts and squats work your abs a great deal. It's nothing unique to one person. A Zercher/Spider lift which is basically a deadlift motion with the barbell tucked into the crook of your elbows appears to be a lower back movement, but it is actually an abdominal movement. Once you start dl'ing a respectable weight, you don't really need to do direct ab work unless you are trying to maximize your strength gains or look good for the ladies. I doubt IF will say anything different.
That's pretty much what I would have said. But let me try to answer fa_jing's question anyway.
fa_jing said:
I'm still curious how Ironfist managed to work his abs doing deadlifts and squats.
Think of it like this. It doesn't work your abs in the way that crunches work your abs. It works your abs in the sense that your abs must be very tight in order to stabilize your body for the squat or deadlift. It also allows you to generate more tension and therefore lift more, but that's not the main reason you tighten your abs.
Plus, since we all know that when you statically contract one muscle, its antagonist muscle contracts as well, that means that when you tense your abs for squatting or dl'ing, your lower back muscles also contract as well. This gives you added support, tension, and other benefits.
So when I squat, I go like this:
Unrack bar, take step back, tense abs as hard as I can, squat, release ab tension.
Same thing for deadlift and bench. When I'm deadlifting, my abs are very tense before I ever start pulling up on the bar, and they stay that way until the top of the movement.
IronFist
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