A Personal Trainer Reveals How Often You Should Train Your Abs for Muscle vs. Strength

Training frequency is a huge factor in how effective a workout routine will be. Most guys know that hitting each muscle group a minimum of twice per week is ideal for supporting muscle and strength gains. But it's also true that certain muscles can handle—and often require—more volume to grow. Especially if you're a seasoned lifter. This begs the question: How often should you train your abs for the best results?

The answer depends on a few factors—your current fitness level, your goals, and how important ab muscle development is to you. Let's break it down.

Related: 20 Best Weighted Ab Workouts to Hit Your Core From Every Angle

How Often You Should Train Abs for Muscle Growth

When it comes to muscle growth, science is pretty clear that the typical body-part split of training a specific muscle group once a week (think chest day, arm day, back day) is not the way to go if you're a natural lifter. But what's even worse is the common tendency to slap on ab work at the end of these body-part split sessions.

Make no mistake: rest days are still crucial. "The truth is that your abdominals are just like any other muscle in your body—they need some rest in between exercise bouts as well," says Jeremey DuVall, an exercise physiologist with a master's in Human Performance. 

Doing crunches or planks at the end of every workout leaves your midsection constantly overworked. And, unfortunately, since you're leaving your abs until last, you won't have much gas left to perform very effective sets, meaning your hard work will most likely be junk volume.

DuVall says to get results and prevent overtraining, you should focus on hitting your core at least two to three times a week. If you're more advanced or want to prioritize abdominal growth, go for 3 to 6 ab training sessions per week, depending on how well you recover. The more sessions you do, the more cautious you should be when choosing other exercises that will call on your abs for stability, like squats and deadlifts.

Ab Exercise Selection for Growth

Choose 1 to 3 exercises per session and 2 to 5 different exercises per week. "During those workouts, aim to include a variety of core exercises—not just crunches," Duvall says. 

• Weighted ab exercises: cable crunches and Pallof press
• Bodyweight ab exercises: bicycle crunches and abdominal rollouts
• Oblique exercises: Russian twists, cable woodchops and landmine anti-rotation
• V-lines exercises: reverse crunches and hanging leg raises 
• Lower abs exercises: body saw, pikes, flutter kicks, and leg raises

Not sure how many reps and sets to do? You can train your abs in a mix of heavy (5 to 10 reps), moderate (10 to 20 reps), and light (20-30 reps) ranges, depending on how your body responds and what type of exercise you're doing. Like any other muscle group, be sure to incorporate progressive overload (adding weight or reps) so you keep seeing results.

Related: 7 Best Oblique Exercises to Put the Finishing Touches on Your Six-Pack

How Often to Train Your Abs for Strength

Training your abs for strength should be part of more rounded core strengthening. Core strength is crucial for accomplishing the heavy lifts that make up the backbone of strength building programs. Direct ab work, if you do it at all, can be added as an accessory lift 2 to 3 times per week, especially if you have stability weaknesses that you can address by doing anti-rotation movements like the Pallof press, wood chop, and bird dog.

Ab Exercise Selection for Strength

If your ultimate goal is to build core strength, DuVall says to structure the bulk of your program around compound exercises involving your core like front squats, deadlifts, and standing shoulder presses. 

"When choosing sets and reps, also be sure to mimic your current training program—if the rest of your training is geared toward increasing maximal strength and power, then your core moves should focus on that as well—shifting to medicine ball throws versus woodchops for instance," Duvall says. As with other muscle groups, vary the exercises and intensity to constantly see results and avoid overtraining.

Support Your Ab Training Goals With Solid Nutrition

When focused on definition, don’t forget about nutrition. Your diet will support your training by providing fuel and amino acids for muscle growth, and when you eat in a deficit, the resulting fat loss will reveal all of your hard work. "Hit your abs with a variety of exercises a few times a week, and use the rest of the time to improve your nutrition," says DuVall.

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