Cardio work and lifting! How to complement them together??

Hi I am 17 years of age and have been doing gym work for close to 14 months now, I go to the gym 3 days a week (Mon, Wed and Fri) but I wish to get really good abs and want the sharp edges that you possess. Currently I do training per night at home for my abs and these are as follows:

1. Normal sit ups 10-15 reps

2. I also do an exercise where I lie on the floor and raise my upperbody up and also raise my legs and touch my knees with my elbows (my legs move like I am on a bicycle). 10 reps

3. I lie on the floor with straight legs and raise them to make my body form a 90 degree angle. 10 reps

I do 2 sets of each with about 30 seconds of rest in between. I am not sure what kind of cardio work out I should do to compliment my current training schedule. Oh and I was thinking of purchasing one of those ab work out machines such as the Ab-Swing, is this a good idea? Just wondering because these machines cost $200 and up. By the way I am a pretty lean boy, I have a boxing bag at home and tend to use that every now and again. Can you give me some advice on using the boxing bag to aid my ab sessions and general work out sessions?

I am thinking of changing my work out schedule next year to include my legs, oh and is it a good idea to work every muscle on each day? (Which is what I have been doing since I started) or should I do various body parts on different days? If I should can you recommend me a weekly routine?

Any help you can give would be much appreciated :D
Thanks for your time

well..... if you want ripped abs, you need to have either:
1. the biggest abs in the world
2. little body fat and some muscle

personally, i would chose the latter it sounds like your working your abs pretty well so they should be growing, now all you need to do is trim down on some body fat and you will see those things come through

for football we do tons of abs everyday, and i had little body fat to begin with and they dont really grow all that fast

now, for trimming down on fat. two things you can do: eat better, run more

i'm assuming you are a normal 17 year old and some jogging or jump rope or biking or a combination of those things will cut your fat down pretty quick, you say your a lean boy so i'm thinking ectomorphic and if your like me, doing that for about a month will cut it down for you

good luck with the work out, i'm gonna try to be around more over xmas break

sorry i haven't been around but school and football sucks up all my time

THE MONKEY HAS SPOKEN!

I knew you were alive! School and football both can eat a lot of time. We'll take whatever we can get.

Good advice BTW, I'd go with #2 as well. Cyclops is working the abs just fine. There's a good amount of strength that will come from his routine. By cutting down the body fat to levels such as 6-8%, that is when you really see the ripped nature. Just keep up with the program and work on the nutrition. You can have the best abs in the world, strong, big, whatever and if you can't get a low enough body fat, they won't show.

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Depending on what kind of lifting you are doing, it's okay to work all muscle groups on your workout days, but I don't recommend it. Alternate upper and lower muscle groups. If you work upper torso on monday and legs on wednesday, the upper body should be fully recovered from muscle fatigue on friday. (stretching before and after helps in preventing fatigue, and while having muscle fatigue, your muscles love you if you stretch!) Also when working out your upper or lower body, which ever you may be doing (...) Work biceps for example, then work shoulders, which will allow you to transition to you Delts, after working them for a bit already. It's like warming up the muscle before you actually give it the workout, nice transitions. If you are scheduled for and upper body work out but you are fatigued, don't lift weights, stretch! Fully healed muscle is better than muscle that is already broken down. That's a no brainer!
Being fully healed allows MAXIMUM benefits with your weight training.

I wish you a prospurous future!

Thanks for the replies fellas, how do I measure the my bodyfat %?

how do I measure the my bodyfat %?

Skin caliper is the easiest way. Not the most accurate but private and you can do it whenever.

Infared tests are alright. Those electric hand scales (or stand ones) are inaccurate. I've not found one I like.

Sometimes at a local gym they will do a hydrostat? test where you get measured in water.. displacement.

I've tried a lot of different ones only to come back to the caliper. It's close enough to know if you are making progress. And it costs nothing.

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com