Fitness trainers generally teach that the abdominals help to support and stabilize your spine, and thus, they should never be fatigued prior to performing non ab exercises such as squats, pressing or rowing exercises. Based on the abs role as a stabilizer, the whole fitness world insists that you must ALWAYS perform your abdominal training at the end of your workout.
I see their point to a degree but their philosophy is in stark contrast with "The Priority Principle". The Priority Principle simply says that what gets trained first (while in the freshest state) will get the best training effect. The fitness experts agree that this is a powerful principle with every single muscle group...except the abs. Why would this principle be true for every other muscle group in the human body except the abs?
What if your abs are your weakest body part? What if getting six pack abs happens to be your number one priority?
Under these circumstances, you should prioritize your training and work them at the beginning of your workout.
So I suggest this alteration to your workout: if abs are your priority, work them out first! This simple adjustment in training sequence will make a huge difference in your results. You will have much greater focus when working your abs, and be able to put forth a significantly better effort while training them, since you will be totally fresh.
If you are used to just cranking out a few sets of crunches at the end of your workouts, you will literally double your rate of progress towards carving out ripped abs by using this technique.
In addition to the benefits mentioned above, priority abdominal training will also provide you with a great warm up for the rest of your workout. The only exception to this rule is when you are truly training with maximal weights. Doing anything that could have any residual fatigue prior to a maximal weight workout would be undesirable.
Try this exercise sequencing technique and get great ab development in half the time! As Stephen Covey says, "Put First Things First".
