Wow my "Abs" are sore today

Today was the 1st day of the six (6) week Russian Squat Program and at the end of our training my "Abs" were sore and I didn't do one single sit-up, crazy right!!

This is from Mark Rippetoe:


First, by “abs”, I mean the muscles that surround the abdomen. I don’t just mean the rectus abdominis,the group in the front that everybody identifies with the term “six-pack” (that I never use), the most graphic visual evidence of both low bodyfat in most people and our remote connection to phylum anellida through its evident septa that separate the muscle into repeated segments. I refer to abs when everybody else refers to “the core” because I insist on being difficult, contrary, disagreeable and out of step with the infomercial people. This is the way I learned it, and I see no compelling reason to update. So in this article “abs” means the rectus, the internal and external obliques running across the lateral aspect of the abdomen, the transversalis (or transversus abdominis), and the muscles of the floor of the abdominal cavity.

Q: Rip, I have read numerous times in your articles the the primary function of the abs is isometric stabilisation, and I'm wondering - do ab wheel rollouts train this?

A: Ab rollouts with a wheel do train this. Do you not feel like you get enough ab work from heavy squats, presses, and pulls?

For most lifters – and I mean the vast majority who will never squat 600, or even 500 – the stresses normally encountered under the bar provide all the work the abs need. They provide it safely, in the context in which it is used, and have the added advantage of not irritating the facet joints and discs with a lot of loaded flexion and extension. Ab training can provide a little additional strength stimulus for a while, but it just reinforces the work the abs are already receiving from squats, presses, and pulls. If you want to do them, wait until it is appropriate, and then choose an exercise that can be done heavy for a short ROM with strength-range reps and sets. When they plateau, just hit them occasionally. But for those of you with recurring low back problems, see what six situp-free months does to your back problems. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, and just as strong as you were before.

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