Direct abdominal exercises are often done inbetween, for example between two large compound exercises and even between sets of a compound exercise. Or at any time during a workout. However, usually it is better to only work on your abs at the end of a training session.

THE ROLE OF THE CORE

The abdominal muscles – or somewhat broader: the core muscles – are indirectly involved in many exercises, especially the large, compound ones. A strong core thus promotes your training performance. But training your abdomen while you still have heavy compound exercises ahead of you, has the opposite effect.

Exercising initially breaks down muscles, making them fatigued. It’s no different for the abs. Exercising with tired abs can undermine your performance, even if you may not feel it right away. For an optimal squat session, for example, all your muscles must be fresh: not only the target muscles (legs and buttocks), but also the auxiliary muscles, including the abs.

WHAT ABOUT METABOLIC TECHNIQUES?

Okay, some people consciously apply pre-fatigue, but then you have to pre-fatigue the target muscles, not the auxiliary ones. Still others like to do supersets, but there is no logic whatsoever in supersetting exercises for, for example, chest or back with abdominal exercises.

If you’re looking to give your abs a metabolic boost (you know, to feel them ‘burn’), superset different types of abs exercises. For example, alternate exercises for abs and obliques, or alternate dynamic exercises (for example, crunches) with static exercises (for example, planks, preferably RKC planks).

Incidentally, the question is still how effective metabolic training techniques are. The fastest and primary route to muscle growth is and remains traditional strength training, with mechanical tension as the main training mechanism. This aside.

ADVICE

The conclusion is that it is best to do your abdominal muscles only towards or at the end of your training. In any case, only after the compound exercises.

Do you want to prioritize your abs and thus be able to train fresh, without pre-fatigue from compounds? Then train them in a separate session. Or in a session in which you only do isolation work.

Do not do more than twelve sets in such an abs session (the maxium session volume), so stay with three to four exercises.