Many people seem to be under the impression that the squat and deadlift provide sufficient activation of the abs.

This could not be further from the truth. It is true that when your body is under heavy loads in a squat, your abs are activated, sure. However, the extent your abs are being activated is not even close enough to justify completely ignoring movements which will isolate your abs.

By isolating your abs you are allowing your body to push through sticking points in heavy compound lifts and also acquire a thicker and stronger torso.

The Experiment

The following is an example of a real life experiment which was carried out by David Dellanave. This experiment is primarily focused on the anterior core.

David gathered clients which he was training and removed anterior ab training from their programming over the course of 5 weeks. Every single other exercise remained the same, the only variable which changed were anterior abdominal exercises such as hanging leg raises and ab-wheel rollouts. David found that after 2 weeks his clients were already complaining about back pain. Albeit not severer back pain but the consensus was that it was felt by enough people to be claimed as significant. According to David, it was clear that removing abdominal movements had an almost immediate effect on overall core stability. Despite the inclusion of major, heavy compound lifts.

“The complaints seemed to vanish after the isolation movements were continued.”

Still Not Convinced?

The push up activates your rectus abdominus and obliques more than squats and deadlifts at 90% RPE. This is understandable as push ups obviously take a lot of core stabilization but the difference is profound. Most believe squats or deadlifts provide such a heavy load that the abdominal muscles would be contracting near maximum capacity. What seems to be the case is because the movement engages.

I usually post everything, but this post has some images which help understand my points.

If this violates anything, let me know mods.

BLOG POST: http://www.philiphimself.com/compound-exercises-enough-abs/