ExRx.net

Hey all.
I'm 5'8, 180 lb, 18, not really fat, though, mainly muscle. I can bench upwards of about 300 lb max, unfortunately I can probably squat less or about the same, the same with deadlifts. I'm pretty top-heavy in terms of muscular development, as many young people are, however, my legs are really coming along once I started to incorporate squats regularly into my workout. Similarly, my abs and lower back seem to be getting strengthened. I'm having problems with my obliques. The only exercise I could find with free weights were side bends, which I do. I'm thinking its a combination of lack of oblique strength along with that area being the first place fat seems to collect on me. I figure I could probably cut about 10 lb of fat for beach season, and although I'm not fat as it is (size 32 waist), I want to get a six pack and lose what look like small love handles.

My left side seems to be more developed than my right side, which also bothers me. I've read that the best way to lose fat without losing muscle mass is to slowly drop my fat %, so rather than doing marathon treadmill sessions, to simply cut back on food slightly, so that I'm expending more calories than I intake, but not by a great deal. I also read that I should continue to lift and incorporate a regular cardiovascular program into my workout, with the goal of dropping at a maximum of 2.5 lb per week. I figure that its still late March and I still have at least a month, probably more, to get into real good shape. My upper body is pretty good, but I want to work on my core. Does anyone know how I can further increase my obliques and even about my abdominal muscles?

See the tread a little down on the list titled HIIT, I don't get it. I asked pretty much those same questions and got some good answers. Cept the part about evening them out.

And good luck, bro!

Are you trying to make your waist as small as possible (the classic V-taper), or do you just want a tight muscular midsection? If you want a tiny waist, use light weight and very high reps for obliques, or don't train them at all. Meanwhile, if you like the Roman statue look, you can go a lot heavier.

PS.) In addition to side bends, any type of twisting situp, crunch or leg raise should work well.

That's a good point. If you happen to want a really small waist, then the squats and deadlifts I reccomended earlier should be short term. It won't take long until you have as much as you want. Then you'll want to do more isolation with lower body. I prefer the more classic or Roman Statue type look myself. It is still a V because of the lats and shoulders but the abs are more prominant. Really though all of that is the sort of thing you worry about when you get a fair ammount of mass and have your fat cut pretty low. Then you decide what you want to be what size in relation to what other muscle.

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