Reg Park Favourite Ab Exercises

Today we will be looking at Reg Park’s favourite Ab exercises. Although silver era pioneers like Reg Park were considered massive for their respective era, Reg always maintained that a well developed set of abdominals really set off a man’s physique.

Reg always ended his workouts with abdominal exercises, and although his program contains 4 exercises, it would make more sense to choose one exercise per day if you are to train abs every day. Back in the Silver and Golden Era, it was common practice to train abs for hundreds or thousands of reps. They actually swore by it. However, nowadays we understand that this is probably a bit of over kill, and to truly show off the abs, diet is important to strip subcutaneous fat make the abdominal musculature visible.

One final note before we look at the program, is that Reg Park encourages trainees to train the entire abdominal section, not just the rectus abdominus. This includes the obliques, TVA and rear muscles like the spinal erectors. Reg admits that at first, he did not train the obliques, and it is rather obvious in these early photographs that he didn’t train obliques, for he had a rather slim waistline. In his opinion, training the obliques did not thicken his waistline as he got more massive, but I beg to differ. He definitely became more herculean looking. Gironda and Reeves were two bb pioneers that were careful about overdeveloping the obliques as they can make the waistline look thicker.

As mentioned, Reg would only train the abs with one exercise, that being the sit up, which like Vince Gironda, found that it trained the rectus abdominus as well as the psoas and iliacus muscles, which are the hip flexors. I personally don’t see anything wrong with that, as long as you also train the posterior chain to prevent a tight hip. There is nothing wrong with having strong hip flexors, plus they add to the midsection musculature when in ripped condition. However, there are much better exercises for the specific development of the abdominals as we will now detail.

Here is Reg Park’s favourite Ab Routine:

1.      Sit up on Abdominal Board 4 sets 10-20 reps

2.      Hanging Leg Raises 3 sets 12 reps

3.      Leg Raises on Bench 4 sets of 10-20 reps

4.      Side Bends 4 sets of 12-20 reps

1.      Sit up on Abdominal Board 4 sets 10-20 reps

For this exercise, one would need an abdominal board, which are still available in some gyms. The angle of the board should not be placed at too steep of an angle. Clasp the hands behind the head and sit up. Reg Park recommends going as far forward so that the elbows touch the groin. What is important is to keep the back rounded and head (the chin actually) down on the chest. You then lower the trunk but only until the body is parallel to the floor, then repeat the exercise. You should hold the bottom parallel position for 3 seconds, then sit up again. Each repetition should be performed slowly and deliberately. Reg states that you should start the exercise with the entire body touching the board with feet hooked under, legs and trunk in line, for the first rep, and after that first rep, you lower only until parallel, and in doing so, maximum and continuous tension is affected on the abdominal musculature. It’s a very difficult exercise I admit, so take it easy in the beginning. For those that wish to only train the rectus abdominus, it is not necessary to bring the elbows to the groin, as a slight crunch will suffice.

2.      Hanging Leg Raises 3 sets 12 reps

Hang from a chin up bar. Raise the legs as high as possible, pointing the toes and keeping the thighs locked at the knees. If you have a training partner, have them stand behind you and prevent you from swinging. When you can do 3 sets of 12 reps, you can begin to use iron boots.

3.      Leg Raises on Bench 4 sets of 10-20 reps

Place the hands above the head and grasp the end of the bench, with the buttocks at the end of the bench with the legs heldout straight, locked at the knees. From here raise the the legs to 45 degree angle and lower, until the legs are parallel to the floor and repeat. When you can perform 4 sets of 20 reps, you can begin using Iron boots.

4.      Side Bends 4 sets of 12-20 reps

Take a dumbbell in hand, place the legs about hip width apart, with the free hand at the hip or behind the head, or you can also let it hang freely. Bending towards the side, allow the dumbbell to pull the body sidewards before contracting the obliques on the opposite side to come back up. Avoid going to forward or back and keep the movement strict moving from side to side.

So these were Reg Park’s favourite ab exercises however he does recommend performing all sorts of functional movements for the abdominals that also integrate the upper and lower body such as twisting, bending and stretching exercises, as well as deep breathing exercises like the Dumbbell pullover.