Traditional exercises do not have a significant impact on abdominal peak force in healthy young adults.

The abdominals are vital to activities of daily living, for the prevention of lumbar pathologies, and during sport performance. The purpose of this study was to determine if training without external resistance was a sufficient overload to improve abdominal strength as defined by peak force. Seventy-one healthy men and women (age 19-40 years) participated in the 11-week study. Subjects were matched on baseline abdominal strength and then randomly assigned to 1 of 3 categories based on the number of days they performed abdominal exercises (0 days, 3 days, or 6 days per week). The results indicated that performing abdominal exercises 3 or 6 times per week did not improve either concentric or eccentric strength. These results suggest that the exercises used during this study were not enough of a stimulus to significantly improve concentric or eccentric strength values in either exercise group.