Wolfheart wrote:
Here's Layne Norton, professional natural bodybuilder.
Here's Mark Rippetoe when he was young, I can really spot the definition in his abdominal area.
That's Anatoly Pisarenko, a super heavyweight Olympic lifter, pretty much the best one ever. He competed in super heavyweight and looked more or less like a bodybuilder. He actually didn't gain weight with lots of fat like most super heavies. As far as him having abs, when you lift heavy like that, you breathe deep and fill your abdomen full of air to brace yourself, so thus, belly during the lift. You gotta admit, for a super heavy, he's not bad looking.
That's Mark Rippetoe in the 80s, not gonna refute your point about Mark Rippetoe and abs, but hey.
Here's some OL lifters with abs, though, generally in the sub 200lb classes.
Maybe they do crunches, maybe they don't, some coaches recommend them and some don't. As far as obliques, though, they definitely got them doing heavy lifts. Most bodybuilders don't want a figure like that, as it messes with "v-taper" but I personally would rather look more "square" like that. The only bad thing I can say about compounds for ab development is, because you fill your gut with air to do the lifts (ie, breathe in heavily) and you're always bracing your abs forward, you can develop an weightlifter gut, basically, sorta like a milder version of Ronnie Coleman's HGH gut. I'll have to see how I turn out once/if I get down to 10%ish BF, but that can happen. A way to remedy that is do chest vacuums, but...meh.