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Can You Do Legs And Abs On The Same Day? (Solved!)

If you’re wondering whether you can do legs and abs on the same day, then you’ve come to the right place!

In this article, we discuss the pros and cons of training legs and abs together, which one should be trained first, and more.

Topless man doing a hack squat in a gym on leg day

Can You Do Legs And Abs On The Same Day?

Many gym-goers train their legs and abs on the same day.

The two muscle groups work well together as abs are generally considered to be a lower-body muscle group.

While you can train each area of your body separately, it makes more sense for some people to combine muscle groups into a single session.

This can ensure you have enough time in a week to train each area of your body at least once…

…But it can also help work each muscle group harder if they have to work together during some exercises too.

Training your legs and abs on the same day is completely fine and is a common thing to do for many people.

Benefits of Training Legs And Abs on the Same Day

It Saves Time

Perhaps the biggest benefit of training legs and abs on the same day is that you save a whole lot of time over the course of your training week.

For example, if you didn’t train your legs and abs together, you would probably have to find another day to add in an extra workout to target the outstanding muscle groups.

This may be possible for some gym-goers, but finding time to add extra workouts into our week isn’t easy for most of us.

Doing legs and abs together helps ensure you train your whole body effectively, while still having enough time to do the other things in life that need to be done too.

Some Working Muscles Overlap

When you squat, your abs activate as well as your leg muscles.

This is a perfect example of why training legs and abs on the same day can be very beneficial.

Your core plays a big role in many leg exercises so your abs will be getting a decent workout from them anyway.

As they’re already being worked in the session, it makes sense to take advantage of this and give them a proper workout too.

You can actually work your abs much harder by training them with legs than if you trained them alone, simply because your abs are worked hard in many leg exercises

Drawbacks of Training Legs And Abs On The Same Day

Less Time During A Workout For Each Muscle Group

Training more than one muscle group on the same day means you’ll either have to make your workout longer, or you’ll have to train each one for a shorter time.

For example, if you plan on doing a one-hour workout, you’ll have to split that hour into two parts. One for your legs and one for your abs (not always the case but generally speaking this is true).

If you don’t want to sacrifice any leg or ab exercises, you may have to extend your hour-long workout to an hour and a half to fit them all in.

Unless you make your workouts longer, each area of your body will have less time as the focus of your workout. 

Fatigue May Prevent Effective Workouts

Your legs are big muscle groups that need lots of effort and focus placed on them to train them effectively.

If you do a hard leg session, your body could be too tired to properly train your abs on the same day.

On the flip side of this, you might hold back in your leg exercises to ensure you have enough energy and motivation left to train your abs too.

Either way, one of the muscle groups could end up not being worked as hard by trying to train both on the same day.

Should You Do Legs And Abs On The Same Day? 

Technically, you can train any two muscle groups on the same day.

While this might not be the most effective way of working each part of your body, it’s technically acceptable to train whatever muscle groups you like on the same day.

As long as your legs and abs are both healthy and fully recovered from any previous exercise, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t train them on the same day.

Can You Superset Legs And Abs?

Yes, supersetting legs and abs can provide a very effective lower-body workout.

It can help you reduce the amount of time you need to train both muscle groups without sacrificing the number of exercises you actually do.

As long as you have the appropriate levels of fitness and strength, you can superset legs and abs.

(Watch below this awesome legs and abs superset for maximum gains!)

Should You Do Abs Before Or After Legs?

This is a tricky question to answer definitively as there are good arguments for both sides.

Training your abs before your legs could mean that your abs are fully warmed up and ready for the heavy loads that will be placed on them during leg exercises.

This could help you lift more during your leg workout which can help build bigger and stronger leg muscles.

However, it could also be that you fatigue yourself during ab exercises which means you end up actually lifting less in your leg exercises.

(Since you’ve already used some of your energy and effort to train your abs first.)

Ultimately, it’ll likely come down to how your body reacts to training legs and abs on the same day that’ll help you work out which order to train them in.

Should You Train Them In The Same Session or 2 Different Sessions?

Training your legs and abs in the same session is just as acceptable as training them in 2 different sessions.

It will be up to you as to which way is best for moving you towards your fitness goals.

If you want to work each muscle group independently then 2 separate sessions will be best.

However, if you don’t mind how your muscles get worked, as long as they get worked, training them in the same session is fine too.

Conclusion

In summary:

  • You can do abs and legs on the same day with minimal problems.
  • Legs and abs make a great lower-body superset workout.
  • It doesn’t matter too much whether you train your legs or abs first.

That’s all for this article, but can you do shoulders and triceps on the same day? Or can you train back and triceps together?

Hope this helped!

Sources

Squats For Abs