Dem Off-Season Abs: How to Never Neglect Your Core

Dallas McCarver's Routine

Ab Training— Not Just a Pre-contest Thing

It’s very common for bodybuilders to avoid ab training entirely in the off-season, only grudgingly working them in the final 10-12 weeks before a contest. Ab training ranks up there with cardio as one of those boring necessary evils. Dallas has never slacked like the rest of us, though. “I always do abs at least twice a week, and for the North American I was doing them every day,” he tells us. “They are the centerpiece of your physique, and people do often look there first to see if you’re in shape or not, so they need to be developed.” Recently McCarver has found that twice a week seems to be just about optimal for training frequency when it comes to the midsection. “If you train them properly, that’s plenty— mine get sore and stay sore for a good two days anyway.” So what does a Dallas McCarver ab routine look like?

 1) Floor Crunches

 4 sets of 15-20 reps

Every ab workout starts with some type of crunch, the most basic of all abdominal movements and one that requires absolutely no equipment. Even though the rep range is listed as 15-20 for the sake of simplicity, his reps typically start off higher and diminish slightly as the sets proceed. “It usually goes something like 25-30 reps, 20-25, 15-20 and 15-20,” he says. These are not ballistic reps. “I see people doing crunches and sit-ups fast and they are totally missing out on the real benefits,” he notes. “I come to a full stop at the top of every rep as I’m blowing out the air, flexing the abs hard. That’s how you really engage the abdominals.”

2) Rope Crunches

 4 sets of 15-20 reps

Rope crunches are a very common ab movement, but most people face the weight stack. Dallas prefers facing away and positioning his body a bit further away to allow for a full stretch of the abs at the top. “Any muscle should be worked through a full range of motion that includes a good stretch as well as a good contraction, even the abs,” he explains. As for the reps, some bodybuilders do like to sink the pin pretty far down the stack and do sets of 8-10 with heavier weights. Dallas doesn’t. “To me the abs are kind of like the calves— until I get to at least 15 reps I don’t feel any kind of pump and burn at all.”

3) Reverse Hyperextensions

 3 sets of 15-20 reps

Ever since Dallas started bodybuilding (which admittedly wasn’t so long ago), he’s done this exercise for his abs. “I actually got these from seeing Ronnie Coleman do them in a video,” he shares. With his hands behind his head, Dallas lowers his torso until he’s able to see behind him, which stretches the core completely, before coming up and crunching his abs together as he looks down at his feet.

4) Hanging Leg Raises

 3-4 sets of 15 reps

 Few abdominal exercises are as tough as the hanging leg raise, particularly if like Dallas, you have some serious meat on your legs to weigh them down. He will do these either hanging as shown, or on the bottomless elevated chair I’ve often heard called a “captain’s chair,” on which you support your bodyweight on your elbows and forearms. In either version, he raises his legs straight up until his feet are roughly at the level of his top row of abs. “I raise my legs up until my abs are fully contracted, and I’m not really thinking about where my feet are,” he adds.

5) Leg and Hip Raises Off Bench

 3-4 sets of 15 reps

 If Dallas doesn’t do hanging leg raises, he opts for something that’s actually even tougher. The way Dallas performs the leg raise off a bench has to more accurately be called a leg and hip raise. As you can see, while holding on to the bench behind his head, McCarver brings his legs and hips up and back toward his head. This takes a good deal of core strength. If you don’t believe that, give these a try sometime and you’ll see just how difficult they are.

Training Split

                                 a.m.                                    p.m.

 Day 1                     Abs and calves                  Chest

 Day 2                     Hamstring                           Back

 Day 3                     OFF

 Day 4                     Delts                                   Arms

 Day 5                     Quads or hams                  Quads or hams

Eight-week Cardio Progression

 Weeks 1-2                           20 minutes 3-4x week

Weeks 3-4                           30 minutes every day

Weeks 5-6                           45 minutes every day

Weeks 7-8                           45 minutes a.m., 20 minutes p.m.

*All supplements by BSN Sports

+Dallas has 1/2 cup Cream of Rice on days he trains with weights, 1/4 cup on other days

Dallas’ Complete Contest History

2011 NPC Hub City Fitness Quest              Junior Heavyweight and Overall Champion

2011 NPC Battle at the River                        Super Heavyweight and Overall Champion

2012 IFBB North American                          Super Heavyweight and Overall Champion

Ron Harris got his start in the bodybuilding industry during the eight years he worked in Los Angeles as Associate Producer for ESPN’s “American Muscle Magazine” show in the 1990s. Since 1992 he has published nearly 3,000 articles in bodybuilding and fitness magazines, making him the most prolific bodybuilding writer ever. Ron has been training since the age of 14 and competing as a bodybuilder since 1989, and maintains the popular website www.ronharrismuscle.com, most notable for its blog “The Daily Pump.” He lives with his wife and two children in the Boston area.

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