[big_swede]

1) What are your favorite exercises for building abs thickness?

Everything that lets u use a heavy weight and a free rom (no ab machines please!)

2) Do you have any favorite abs workouts, yours or a workout by another athlete?

I like doing Cable crunches to near failure (10-15 reps) and directly afterwards some bw exercise to failure for 3-5 sets, short rested.
3 sets of very high incline situps, almost vertical with a slow negative and explosive contraction, 10-15 reps.

3) What do you feel are the biggest myths about abs, having great abs, developing abs, whatever...???

*That doing 300 bw crunches a day will get you a six pack. I havent tried it but its no different from other muscles - it reacts to progressive overload much better than to repeated motion in terms of growth.

4) Do you have any abs-related training or dieting tips, tricks, etc.?

I work my abs mostly to get a good posture and to get abpressure up and stabilize my lower back while squatting and deadlifting, thats the purpose and its a core stabilizing muscle. Squatting, deadlifting, OHP, powercleans etc etc will target your abs in a way or another. Lots of compound movement will and i have experienced ab soreness without doing any direct ab work several times.

With this said, i belive that incorporating direct abwork into your heavy routine is a good thing, but it should not be focused upon. If your dieting and lifting heavy, and losing bf while, adding 10-15 mins of weighted abwork a couple of times a week, that will be enough imo.