ABS LAST

Regardless of how big you want your arms, or how strong you want your bench press, you still want a ripped set of abs.
I don’t think that I’ve ever met a man or woman who wouldn’t prefer to have an impressive six pack. Despite that fact, ab training and cardio are the most likely things to get skipped when time is running short. That is not the best way to get a ripped set of abs.
There are many trainers out there who recommend training abs and cardio first for those who tend to skip them.
Yet while this may be good for those who have a problem with their time management skills, it is not good for those who what to build muscle size and strength.
You NEVER want to do cardio first when you work out.
Yes, doing 5-10 minutes of light cardio makes a good warm-up, but doing a full cardio workout before you lift weights will zap your energy levels and your muscle strength. So be sure to wait to do cardio till after the weight workout. Not only is this best for muscle strength and size gains, but research shows that it can also enhance fat burning.
There are numerous reasons why you NEVER want to train abs first when you work out.

The first is strength… or lack there of.
Core strength is critical on most exercises you do, but is especially critical on exercises like squats, shoulder presses, bent-over rows, and even curls and the bench press. Greater core strength translates into greater strength on these exercises. If you train abs before you train the major muscle groups, then you will fatigue your core muscles, which will reduce your core strength, and reduce your strength on most other exercises. And this is not just hyperbole.
A study that I did with the Weider Research Group supports this.
We had trained bodybuilders do three sets of squats using their 6-rep max weight. In one workout, they did a typical warm-up and then did the 3 sets of squats. In another workout they first trained abs by doing 3 sets of the dumbbell woodchoppers, 3 sets of hanging leg raises, and 3 sets of crunches before doing the 3 sets of squats. When they did the ab workout before squats they completed fewer reps on ALL 3 sets of squats than when they did squats without doing abs first. They performed one less rep on sets one and two and 2 less reps on set three. In other words, the guys were weaker on squats after training abs. Likely the reason that they were weaker on squats was because their core muscles were fatigued.
A second reason to never train abs first when you workout is to prevent injuries, particularly to your spine or spinal discs.
Since the core supports your spine, training abs before you train legs or other muscle groups could also leave you more prone to injuries. That’s because a fatigued core will offer your spine less support. And when you have to support heavy weight, this can increase your risk of back injury, as well as other injuries.


You also can risk injuring your spinal discs by training abs first if you workout first thing in the morning or have a long commute to the gym.
When you sleep, loading on the discs is reduced, which allows them to absorb more fluid. So when you wake up the pressure inside the discs is much higher than before going to bed, which increases bending stresses at the discs. Flexing the spine, such as when you do crunches, at this time can increase the risk of injuring a disk. But if you first train other muscle groups first in the morning, the discs become more elastic and flexible in bending as the workout goes. Then when you train abs later in the workout, there is less risk of injury.
Sitting in your car for long periods allows the disks in your spine to gain height, which decreases your spines range of motion and that can increase your risk of injury when flexing the spine, such as during crunches. Again, by waiting till the end of your workout to train abs, the spinal disks will lose height and you’ll have an increased range of motion in the spine and less risk of injury.

Consider also reading my article to Crunch or Not To Crunch, which also covers these last two points about crunches:
http://www.jimstoppani.com/home/articles/to-crunch-or-not-to-crunch-that-is-the
The bottom line is to be sure to keep your ab training and cardio at the end of your workouts or do them as completely different workouts.
This way your strength and muscle growth will not be limited and neither will your ability to get lean and build an impressive six pack. For those of you who are often pressed for time and end up frequently skipping abs, I suggest that you consider supersetting abs with other small muscle groups, such as forearms or calves. Or you can even do an abs, calves and forearms triset workout. Again, do this at the end of the workout or as a separate workout on its own. This will help to limit the time it takes to train these oft-neglected muscle groups.