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Sculpted abs are a pressing goal for both men and women. Abdominal abs have become an important factor in the attractive figure that everyone strives for.
Let's figure it out: where did this cult come from and how to properly pump up the press?
We were helped by a master of sports and absolute European champion in bodybuilding, a sought-after fitness trainer (more than 200 thousand subscribers on social networks and millions of views on Youtube) Stanislav Lindover .
How did it start?
Sculptures of powerful people with pumped up abs were sculpted even before our era in Ancient Greece, but such a body was not held as a standard. For a very long time, a sculpted physique was considered a sign of simple hard-working people, peasants - while aristocrats paid little attention to their muscles.
Everything changed in the 19th century, when the German bodybuilder Eugene Sandow (real name Friedrich Wilhelm Müller) introduced fashion for a beautiful and pumped up body. He was inspired by ancient sculpture and wanted his body to look the same.
Sandov performed in the circus, promoting his own methods, a healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition. In 1894, he moved to the USA - and thanks to him, sales of weights, dumbbells, barbells and books about bodybuilding there increased significantly.
Sandow later opened the world's first gyms and organized an athletic beauty contest. In Russia, Evgeniy had many followers - for example, the St. Petersburg Athletic Society used his methods, and the legendary wrestler Ivan Poddubny trained using them.
But even in Sandow's time, six-pack abs were not a fetish. Bodybuilders willingly showed off their biceps, but rarely pumped up their abs, and to competitions they wore high shorts that completely covered their stomachs.
The cult of cubes developed already in the 1980s. Just look at the popular actors of those years: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Their heroes popularized a beautiful, pumped up body - including strong abs.
This has led to the fact that sculpted cubes have become perhaps one of the main goals of fitness center clients.
Time for business - time for fun
This saying fits perfectly with the question of why you can’t pump up your abs. Its formation is influenced by 3 factors: physical exercise, healthy eating, rest. With the right ratio, success will not take long to arrive.
When the human body gets tired from training, you should not strain it even more and do things that require physical, mental, and psychological stress. In this way, you can only injure a tired body, which will lead to errors in its work, hormonal imbalance, and moral overload.
When you are very tired, it is more important than ever to give yourself time to rest and relax. Otherwise, not only will your motivation to continue playing sports and keeping your body in good shape decrease. It is also important to relax not only by watching a movie or reading light literature, you need to maintain a sleep schedule, which plays an important role in metabolism.
With short, short and intermittent sleep, the level of the hormone responsible for the feeling of fullness, leptin, begins to fall. When its level is low, the feeling of hunger will persist, even after eating, which will lead to excess weight gain. The level of ghrelin increases, from an excess of which excessive appetite develops. Therefore, the myth about the effectiveness of training to the point of exhaustion is erroneous; it leads to the opposite result. To achieve the desired effect of a six-pack on your stomach, you need to give your body time to rest, relax, and sleep.
What is abs and where do the cubes come from?
The abdominals are the rectus abdominis muscle. There are no upper and lower abs; they are one large muscle and part of the muscular corset that supports the body. It is divided into 6 parts by tendon bridges. Each such part is one cube.
The rectus abdominis muscle itself is pumped quite quickly. Protruding cubes are essentially a hypertrophy of its individual parts.
Obviously, every person has such a muscle, but it is usually not visible due to fat deposits (even if you have almost no excess weight). The visual appearance of abs is, first of all, the removal of excess fat. Among bodybuilders there is a phrase: “The abs are pumped not in the gym, but in the kitchen.” Very simplified, but with a lot of truth: the main thing here is proper nutrition.
Natural frames
Anatomically, the press does not have a top or bottom, however, the everyday term “lower press” is well-known and understandable to everyone. Almost all girls complain about his condition. Alas, a woman’s lower abdomen will almost never be as dense and muscular as a man’s, and here’s why.
– The rectus muscle is strong and wide only at the top. It is thinner at the bottom, and therefore cannot become as noticeable as at the top.
– In women, the number of nerve receptors in the lower abdomen is reduced, so this area responds reluctantly to exercise. This is how nature intended it to protect against pain during menstruation and childbirth.
– In the lower part of the abdomen of mammals there is the so-called greater omentum. This is not just a fat deposit, but a special intraperitoneal fat, which is considered an internal organ. Women have a larger omentum than men to protect the uterus during pregnancy. That is why a woman’s tummy below is almost always smooth (without cubes) and slightly convex.
Don't ab workouts burn fat?
Actually no - abdominal exercises have nothing to do with fat burning. The rule here is this: if you want to lose weight, pumping up your abs will not help, but if you want to pump up your abs, you need to lose weight. And nothing else.
Most abdominal exercises are not too energy intensive, which means you will lose few calories. Diet, regular strength training and cardio training will help you lose weight. There are no special programs for weight loss: any complex strength training is essentially fat burning.
The main thing is not to gain extra calories from food.
You train half-heartedly
Lately there has been a strange belief that the abdominal muscles need to be trained with an absurdly high number of repetitions. Some people go too far and do more than 500 crunches in one workout. Of course, if you are training your abdominal muscles for super-endurance, which is needed in some highly specialized sports, then go ahead. But if you want to make your muscles grow, you need to stimulate them like any other muscle group in your body. Would you do 500 barbell curls in one workout to generate maximum growth? I think no.
Start training your abdominal muscles using weights so they can develop similarly to other muscle groups, and vary the rep range throughout your training sessions. For example, in one workout, do bodyweight exercises with a number of repetitions from 15 to 30. In the next training session, reduce the number of repetitions to 8-12 and add weights - while crunching on the floor, pick up a disc or perform crunches on a block. And add weight as you progress.
Will the cubes always be smooth and beautiful?
No. And it has nothing to do with you. The fact is that some people have an anatomical feature: the tendon bridges cross the rectus abdominal muscle not quite evenly and symmetrically, but as if in a checkerboard pattern. Because of this, pumped abs will not look like in beautiful pictures - the cubes will be slightly shifted.
Sometimes the cubes are located far from each other (due to the different thickness of the tendons), and in rare cases there may not even be 6, but 8.
It is impossible to find out in advance about the appearance of your cubes - only when you pump up your abs and remove excess fat from your stomach. It cannot be corrected either, but there is nothing terrible either - just genetic characteristics.
Critical moment
Is it possible to pump up your abs during menstruation ? The usual recommendation is that it depends on how you feel. But gynecologists advise performing only those exercises in which the pelvis is not higher than the navel, in order to avoid backflow of blood. In other words, crunches while lying on the floor are acceptable, but lifting your legs while lying on the same floor is not worth it. But you can lift them on an inclined bench, with your feet down.
Perfect abs are not a dream, but a reality! Exercise according to our tips, and your tummy will become flat and beautiful!
Why pump up your abs at all?
Pumped up abs not only look beautiful, but are also good for your health. The rectus abdominis maintains spinal stability, controls intra-abdominal pressure, allows the body to maintain balance and simply adds strength.
Lindover: “Abs exercises, of course, have a beneficial effect on the body. By strengthening your abdominal muscles, you prevent your spine, because a strong abs means a healthy back.
This has been repeatedly noticed by people who have been injured in everyday life. That is, a man was walking down the street and slipped. If the abdominal muscles are weak, the back will sag, balance will be lost and further problems will appear. Abdominal exercises have a positive effect on internal organs and improve blood flow.”
Magic workout
Many people who want to get perfect abs hope for quick results and magical exercises that can make their lower body flat and toned. However, they forget that the formation of relief is a long and difficult process that requires a lot of physical strength and psychological readiness for work. Someone is trying to find an exercise aimed at quick, effective, universal training of the abdominal muscles. Someone stops eating, believing that any food affects weight gain. Some work hard, forgetting about sleep and rest. There are many options that can interfere with achieving a flat and firm tummy.
However, if such exercises existed, then fitness trainers would recommend them to their students, and in most cases. advertising would appear in the media. Unfortunately, nothing is known about him yet and those who are trying to find him are following the wrong path. Famous trainers and athletes say that it is important to work on all muscle groups and follow the rules of a healthy lifestyle. Focusing only on the stomach, there will be no visible result.
Therefore, out of the large number of training plans aimed at the abs, there is no single one. To work these muscles you need to choose complex exercises. At the same time, do not forget about the rules that contribute to the effective formation of six-pack abdominal muscles:
- Healthy sleep, at least 7-8 hours.
- Proper nutrition.
- Complex exercises that do not target one muscle group.
Is it possible to harm yourself?
Incorrect (or incorrectly done) abdominal exercises can really harm your health.
Too much traditional lifting of the body from a lying position (twisting) can lead to deformation of the intervertebral discs, pinched nerves, back pain and even herniated discs.
The most important thing is not to go overboard with the volume of training and perform the exercises technically. Then there will definitely be no harm.
Lindover: “You can hurt yourself when doing any exercise. If you mindlessly perform movements that are simply unphysiological, non-anatomical.
Raising the body to the fixed legs can lead to arching of the lower back, this happens due to an incorrectly chosen angle or insufficient preparation. Because of this, back problems may arise, which are dangerous due to the appearance of an intervertebral hernia. You need to perform abdominal exercises with your legs secured with your back rounded back, and not with a bend in the lower back.”
No, the reason is not that you don't exercise enough.
Still from the film “Run, Fat Man, Run”
One of the main reasons why many guys start going to the gym is the coveted six-pack abs. Oh, yes... However, you have chosen a cool program, you stick to it conscientiously, you have already worked six sweats (or even more), and there is zero result...
Why? Let's look at the main reasons why this can happen.
Maybe it’s better to buy a belt to pump up your abs?
There are no miracle ways to quickly lose weight or pump up your abs - you always need to work hard and hard. A magic belt with an electromyostimulation effect, which is often advertised on TV, definitely won’t help.
In fact, such belts are not completely useless. They are used to relieve muscle spasms and prevent muscle atrophy in patients during the postoperative period. But that’s all – they won’t pump up your abs, and they won’t remove fat either.
In other words, this is just an advertising campaign that has nothing to do with reality.
You don't get enough sleep
Do you stay late at work and try to catch up on sleep on the weekend? If you dream of six packs, then you will have to reconsider this strategy. Lack of sleep causes an increased release of cortisol into your body, and this powerful “stress hormone” actually stimulates the accumulation of fat in the belly area.
The solution is obvious - go to bed early. Not only will this have a positive effect on your abs, but you'll also be more productive throughout the day, so you can break the vicious cycle and get things done faster.
How to pump up abs for a girl
The technique for pumping up a girl’s abs is not much different from the practices described above. Note that sports training for women, as a rule, does not involve gaining more muscle mass. We are usually talking about maintaining a slim figure.
- This is why we are not talking about creating six-pack abs and pumping up the abs.
- Most often, girls want to get an elastic and flat tummy without those excesses that are typical for women involved in bodybuilding.
- None of this means you shouldn't give it your all in the gym.
- On the contrary, the more intense the loads, the faster the desired effect will be achieved.
- Of course, all exercises for the abdominal muscles in girls should be universal.
Thus, every person, regardless of gender, age and initial level of training, before starting to search for an answer to the question of how to quickly pump up the abs, must learn the basic exercises in this direction.
How to do the exercises correctly
- It is important to perform even the simplest and safest exercises with the correct technique, otherwise the risk of spinal injury increases.
- The number of exercises is selected individually, usually 15-30 repetitions of 3 sets.
- By the end of the approach, it is important to feel a burning sensation in the muscles.
It is not necessary to perform all the exercises at once; 2-3 options for the rectus and oblique abdominal muscles, as well as for the transverse - deep abdominal muscle, are enough.
And also read: All abdominal exercises → Exercises without axial load on the spine → 10 most dangerous exercises in the gym → 10 useless exercises in the gym →
You need more carbs
Are you one of those who believe that eliminating carbohydrates from your diet is the fastest way to lose weight? Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Low-carb diets can be beneficial for fat loss, but if you stick with them for a long time, it will cause nothing but problems.
Eating too few carbohydrates will slow down your metabolism. And when this happens, you end up burning so few calories throughout the day that fat loss becomes nearly impossible.
Eat a high-carbohydrate meal once a week to keep your metabolism in balance, or better yet, consult with a specialist about your chosen diet. Your abs will thank you.
