September 28, 2012
We offer a series of exercises for the rectus, oblique and transverse abdominal muscles, as well as for the muscles of the lower back.
Modern people use their abdominal muscles infrequently, especially if they lead a sedentary lifestyle. However, a toned stomach is still considered a sign of sexuality and an indicator of good physical shape. We offer seven simple exercises for training the rectus, oblique and transverse abdominal muscles, as well as the muscles of the lower back, which are responsible for shaping the waistline. Don't forget that these exercises - like any other - are powerless against fat deposits around the waist, but they will help strengthen your muscles and make you look slimmer
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How to do it right
Decided to do fitness at home? Find out how to pump up your abs correctly.
Exercise one
Place a stability ball under your lower back. Join your hands behind your head, spread your elbows to the sides. Place your feet on the floor with your knees bent at right angles. Try to lean forward towards your knees while maintaining balance on the exercise ball. Then return to the starting position.
What are the dangers of overtraining?
Any load must be dosed. During training, microtraumas occur in muscle fibers, which take time to heal. It is during the recovery process that muscle volume increases. If you do not give your muscles the necessary time to overcome the consequences of microtrauma, then there is a high risk of overtraining. This condition occurs when cells do not have time to adapt to stress, biochemical processes are disrupted, immunity is reduced and the central nervous system is overstrained.
Overtraining leads to a decrease in the effectiveness of training, a slowdown in progress, or even a rollback from the achieved results. Continuing to train in this state is not only useless, but also dangerous to health, since fatigue accumulates in the body against the background of chronic under-recovery.
Photo: istockphoto.com
Exercise three
Kneel in front of the fitball and place the palms of your hands parallel to each other on it. Without lifting your feet off the floor, roll the fitball from your hands to your elbows. Try to keep your back straight - do not arch or strain it. Return to the starting position.
What results can be achieved in two weeks?
To summarize, I repeat that it is impossible to pump up your abs in two weeks from scratch. Most likely, it will not be the result you expect. This is too short a time frame for any muscle, and the amount of training is too small to make a significant difference in muscle shape.
Be patient, in 2-3 months you can see the abs of your dreams. But after two weeks you will notice that your stomach has become flatter, the muscles have tightened, and you can feel the relief under the skin. And provided that the nutrition is balanced and there is little subcutaneous fat in the body, you will be able to see this relief, but the muscles will not have a fundamental difference from the original version.
And also read: How to pump up your abs → 7 exercises for abs on a chair → How long does it take to pump up your abs? 8 of the most difficult abdominal exercises →
Exercise five
Lie on your back and lift your legs vertically up.
Place your hands behind your head and clasp them under the back of your head. Raise your shoulder blades off the floor, trying to reach your chin towards your knees. Return to the starting position. Don't believe the myths!
Are there any diets to reduce belly fat? How effective are squats and abdominal exercises against such deposits? We talk about myths and facts.
Is it possible to pump up your abs to six-pack size?
Abdominal muscles are a relative term. We don't have them in our body. There are only abdominal muscles, which are worked with during training. And the same abs that people usually boast about are nothing more than the rectus muscle. It also forms the coveted cubes, so, strictly speaking, everyone has them, they’re just not noticeable in everyone.
To make them clearly distinguishable, you need:
- reduce the fat layer that covers the abdominal muscles;
- pump up and build muscle tissue, achieving greater definition from it.
But you won’t be able to reduce belly fat alone. Our body does not know how to get rid of fatty tissue in a specific area. You can only lose weight in general, and for this you need to change your diet, replace buns and soda with meat, vegetables and unsweetened tea. Increase physical activity - start running, swimming, or at least walking more and doing exercises in the morning. And at the same time perform a set of exercises for the abs, then the result will not be long in coming.
It is impossible to pump up your abdominal muscles in a week. Muscle tissue is such that it grows slowly. This requires regular exercise and proper protein-rich nutrition (meat, fish, dairy products, protein shakes). You will notice the first result in the form of a tightened tummy already in the first days of training, but the long-awaited six-pack will appear no earlier than in a month.
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Exercise seven
Lie on your back, bend your knees at right angles, and place your heels on the floor. Place your hands behind your head and clasp them together. Raise your shoulder blades without changing the position of your legs. Hold your body in this position for about ten seconds, slightly lifting your buttocks off the floor. Return to the starting position. Photo: AlexGroundwater
Tags:
- Back
- Stomach
- Exercises
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Is it possible to pump up your abs every day for 14 days?
“Why not practice every day to speed up the process?” - you ask. As already mentioned, muscles need recovery; by overloading the fibers every day, you only lead them to an inflammatory process , which will turn into chronic fatigue. Neither in two weeks, nor in two months, such a regime will give results, since the founders of progress are loads plus rest.
“What if you train without equipment, so as not to injure your muscles?” Even when training without weights, untrained muscles, out of habit, will also suffer from inflammation, because no one is immune from sore throat.
Even if your muscles are capable of performing a high number of repetitions, this does not mean that your abs will be pumped up. In this way, you will only train muscle endurance, and this will in no way be connected with the growth of the same cubes. As we have already figured out, muscle building is facilitated by weights (weighted discs, dumbbells, cuffs, block exercise machines) and a small number of repetitions: 8-12.
A greater number of repetitions requires more energy expenditure, so the body will draw a calorie deficit from its own reserves; this regime is no longer suitable for muscle growth.
The other side of the coin is that a high-repetition regime will help reduce the layer of subcutaneous tissue, and if there was no relief on the stomach before, then fat burning will help make the stomach more athletic, but provided that the muscles have been trained before. But in any case, daily training will not affect the appearance of cubes.
Nutrition
In fact, nutrition is a complex topic that has many subtleties. It all depends on your gender, body type, metabolism, age and health status, so let’s look at this topic in a more abstract way.
The first thing to do is take a closer look at limiting carbohydrates. Baked goods, sweet water, other sweets, pasta, even fruits are all high-carbohydrate foods. Roughly speaking, carbohydrates are easily accessible energy. When you exercise, you get tired and it uses up everything you recently ate to keep your body functioning. At the same time, fat is also energy. Therefore, in order to lose weight, you need to ensure that fats are spent on recovery.
You can eat various cereals in small quantities, but the main thing is meat, cottage cheese, eggs and vegetables.
Eating according to the dietary window method
There is another interesting technique, which, however, will be difficult to implement - a dietary window. For example, you woke up, had lunch at 12 o'clock, then had a snack at 16:00 and had a normal dinner at 19:00. If you repeat the same thing the next day, then from your last meal to the next you will have 17 hours. This means that training before lunch will be much more effective. Usually they practice 16 hours of fasting.
If you decide to try it, you can't start with such a large window right away.
Women are generally not recommended to cross the 12 o'clock mark. The main thing to remember is that you can pump up your abs for a month, but you always need to eat right.
And also read, drying nutrition for girls and men. All abdominal exercises →
Daily workouts: success or waste of time?
Beginner athletes, wanting to achieve noticeable results, try to exercise as much and as often as possible. However, for some reason the expected results never materialize. And this is where many begin to ask themselves the question of whether they need to pump up their abs every day. A number of studies have been conducted on this subject, taking into account the opinions of professional athletes and qualified medical specialists. And their conclusions can be summarized as follows:
- The abdominal muscles are no different from the muscles of the back or arms, therefore the rules for them are the same. If you exercise in the same way every day, then the muscles at the cellular level adapt to the loads , and their growth will slow down. Every day the effectiveness of the exercises will decrease and decrease.
- It is also worth knowing that if there is an impressive layer of fat on the stomach, then even active pumping of it may not give any results. That is, muscles can pump up and gain definition, but under a layer of fat they simply will not be visible. Therefore, if you are overweight, you need to pump up your abs along with drying - we get rid of fat and at the same time increase the relief.
- If you pump your abs every day, you can significantly increase the risk of chronic diseases associated with the bone skeleton. Due to too frequent twisting, spinal discs may become displaced or posture may become deformed.
Thus, too active training does not make sense and may even pose health risks. Yes, you can pump your abs every day, but if you pump them every day in 3-4 approaches, and do the same approaches 2-3 times a week, the result will be the same. So wouldn’t it be better to devote this time to working on other muscles to get comprehensive results?
How are the abdominal muscles structured?
The structure of the abdominal press is designed in such a way as to protect the internal organs from damage. If the spinal column cannot withstand the load, then it is distributed to the abdominal muscles, which ensure the mobility of the entire body.
The term abs refers to the plates of muscle that taper into tendons in the midline area. In the abdominal cavity, the tendons join together to form the line alba on the abdomen.
According to their anatomical structure, the following abdominal muscles are distinguished:
- Straight - a sheet of muscle tissue that forms the wall of the peritoneum in front. It originates at the bottom and expands towards the top. It is divided by bundles of tendons, which is why when working out the abs, cubes appear;
- The external oblique lies close to the surface and is the most extensive area of the press. The fiber begins at the top and descends obliquely to the bottom;
- Internal oblique - the underlying layer of the peritoneum, located behind the oblique muscle, and its fibers extend obliquely from bottom to top;
- The transverse muscle is located under all the muscles presented and belongs to the third muscle layer. It tightens the waist, starts from behind and moves to the anterior part of the peritoneum.
The presented muscle tissues make up the corset, which holds the body when walking and is responsible for actions with the body. Regular exercise helps strengthen muscle fibers, so your figure will become slimmer and your overall health will improve.
Abdominal pumping exercise at home
Pumping the upper press.
1. Standard crunches.
A universal exercise that is always included in a set of exercises for men who want to pump up their abs. And its versatility lies in the fact that you can perform crunches both at home and in the gym. You can perform the exercise on the floor, on a special bench for the press, or even on a fitball.
As for the number of approaches, do not strive to immediately perform 100,500 repetitions. You will achieve nothing but overworked muscles and a long recovery. Adequately assess your initial physical fitness by performing 30 crunches using the correct technique. If the abdominal muscles begin to ache already from the middle, then start small - 20 repetitions for 3 sets. If you already have preparation - 30-50 repetitions for 3 approaches. Increase the number of repetitions gradually (for example, once a week).
Let's look at the correct technique for performing crunches on the floor:
- Lie on the floor, bend your knees, hands on the back of your head.
- Slowly lift your upper body, keeping your back rounded (do not straighten all the way).
- Hold for 1-2 seconds in the raised position and just as slowly lower back to the starting position.
If you use an incline bench for crunches, the technique will be as follows:
- Secure your knees on the bench bolsters, press your buttocks into the bench, hands behind your head.
- As you exhale, rise up on the bench (do not straighten all the way).
- Stay in this position for 1-2 seconds and slowly lower yourself back onto the bench.
From the point of view of the effectiveness of performing crunches, it is better to use an incline bench. In this case, the load on the upper abdominal muscles is higher: you are not rising from a straight position, and the trajectory of movement is longer. By the way, if you decide to use a bench to pump up your abs at home, we suggest choosing one from our catalog:
Choose an ab bench
2. Exercise “bicycle”.
To effectively pump up the abdominal muscles for both men and women, the “bicycle” exercise is suitable. It is performed lying on a flat surface, hands behind the head. Start pulling your knees towards your chest (alternately). You can add twists - each time you pull your knee up, try to touch it with the elbow of your opposite hand. For example, pull up your right knee and reach towards it with the elbow of your left hand and vice versa. This complex not only pumps up the abs, but also effectively tightens the oblique abdominal muscles.
3. Static exercises.
In order to get beautiful abs, you can perform both a standard plank and, for example, a static leg raise at an angle, lying on your back. In the first case, you will, without exaggeration, pump up all muscle groups, in the second, you will place the main emphasis on increasing the strength and endurance of the muscles of the upper and lower abs. How to do the exercise:
- Lie down on the floor and rest your elbows on the floor.
- Raise your legs off the floor at a slight angle (up to 30-45 degrees) and stay in this position for 30-40 seconds. It is important to feel the tension in your abdominal muscles at this moment.
- Slowly lower your feet to the floor.
- Rest for 60 seconds and repeat the exercise twice more.
Increase the duration of the lift gradually: as soon as you feel a burning sensation in your abdominal muscles, count 10 seconds and lower your legs. Over time, you will be able to keep your legs in this position for more than one minute and beautiful abs will not keep you waiting.
We pump up the lower press.
1. Raising the legs from a lying position.
A basic exercise for pumping up lower abs for men, especially if a beer belly has already begun to appear. Correct execution technique:
- Lie on the floor, arms along your body, legs together.
- Slowly raise your slightly bent legs so that your hips and body form a 90-degree angle.
- Almost without pausing, slowly lower your legs down, but not all the way.
- Begin the next leg lift without touching the floor.
In this case (when the legs do not touch the floor during the exercise), the abdominal muscles remain tense until the end and are pumped as quickly and efficiently as possible. Perform 20-30 reps in 3 sets (resting 60 seconds between sets).
2. Raising legs while hanging on the horizontal bar.
If you have a horizontal bar at home (if not, you can purchase it in our store ), then an effective exercise for the abs (both upper and lower) is hanging leg raises. During this exercise, all abdominal muscles receive load. How to do the exercise:
- Hang from the horizontal bar.
- Raise your legs straight to a 90-degree angle (with your body).
- Stay in this position for 3-4 seconds.
- Slowly lower your legs.
Perform 3 sets of 10-15 leg raises. Next, as you pump up your abdominal muscles, you can use leg weights.
We work the oblique abdominal muscles.
We all understand that beautiful six-pack abs don’t look beautiful without toned obliques. There are also a lot of exercises for working them out, and we have already named one of them - this is a “bicycle” with twists (we touch the knee with the elbow). However, if you have a horizontal bar at home, you can do crunches while hanging on it. What is needed for this:
- secure yourself on the horizontal bar;
- hang and straighten;
- raise your straight legs to an angle of 90 degrees;
- make a rise to the right and left.
The higher your legs are raised, the greater the load placed on the abs. For a good result, 10-15 repetitions are enough.
