An effective set of exercises for pumping up the upper abs

The abdominal muscles are a complex system and consist of the lateral, lower and upper press. There is no exercise that can train all three at the same time. The upper abs are the most accessible muscle and are worked in almost every basic exercise, and are also involved in daily activity. This means that if you want to pump up your abs, you don’t have to start from scratch. This muscle already has some inclinations to be developed.

Basic exercises

According to experts, you can get good six-pack abs even with home exercises. It is only important that the work on yourself is correct, regular and conscientious. To find out how to pump up your upper abs, we suggest you familiarize yourself with a number of key exercises.

Twisting

Twisting with turns is very effective when influencing the upper abs. It is performed as follows: lie on your back with your knees bent. Feet can be on the floor, lying on a bench at a right angle, or actively participating in the exercise. Hands folded behind head. It is necessary to slowly raise the body and turn it - first to the left, then to the right, trying to ensure that the elbow touches the opposite knee. The lower back is completely pressed to the floor; only the upper back should be involved in the exercise. Lifting is done while exhaling through the mouth, lowering is done while inhaling through the nose. For starters, 8-10 times in 3 approaches is enough. Gradually increase the number of repetitions to 50.

Hip lift

Starting position: lying on your back, arms extended along the body, palms down. The legs are simply straightened out. You can also perform this exercise on a horizontal bench, holding it with your hands behind your head. The idea is to lift your legs up at a right angle as you exhale and lower them to the starting position as you inhale. The correct technique for performing this exercise for the press requires no jerking, movements should be smooth. Slight bending of the legs is allowed. When lifting, the pelvis is completely lifted off the floor.

"Penknife"

Starting position: lying on the floor in an extended position (“string”), arms extended behind the head. As you exhale, you simultaneously lift your body and legs. At the end point you need to linger for 1 second and slowly return to the starting position. Due attention should be paid to coordination. To better work out your abdominal muscles, try not to lower your legs and arms all the way, keeping them at a short distance from the floor.

Leg twists

To perform in this case, you need to sit on the mat, raise your legs perpendicular to the floor, and then lower them: once straight, then to the sides. There is no need to bring your feet to the floor surface; it is advisable to leave a distance of about 15-20 centimeters. Note that leg turns allow you to pump up your upper and lower abs.

How often can you pump up your abs?

To avoid injury, you should know how often you can exercise to pump up your upper abs. With low physical fitness, it is enough to train three times a week, every other day. The duration of the classes is about half an hour.

Gradually, the number of exercises and, accordingly, the duration of training should be increased. The plan described above shows an approximate scheme of classes with a daily but gradual increase in load. In order to correctly calculate your capabilities, you must definitely monitor the sensations while pumping the press. If your health allows it and there is no severe soreness, over time you can switch to 5-day classes with 2 days off per week.

Exercises on simulators

The exercises described above are great for home use. In addition, you can do some more in the gym.

Twisting on a block

You need to stand with your back to the upper block, kneel down, and then grab the handle of the cable. You can hold the handle behind your head, or in front of your chest. When performing exercises for the upper abs, remember that the load increases in proportion to the height of your arms. The essence comes down to bending forward while twisting the body.

Raising the body on an incline bench

You need to sit on the top edge of the bench, fix your legs, and lean back. Starting position – the body is almost parallel to the floor. Raise the body perpendicular to the floor. Return to starting position. In this case, your arms can be clasped behind your head, crossed over your chest, or folded behind your back. At the top point of the exercise, the stomach almost touches the hips, at the bottom point the body is parallel to the floor.

Crunching on a machine

The technique is as follows. Sit on the simulator, fix your legs, grab the handles. Bend towards your knees, twisting your body. Return to starting position. On some simulators, resistance is produced by lifting weights, on others - by pressing the chest against the support. This exercise is effective for the upper abs, obliques and serratus anterior.

Recommendations and tips

Doing exercises to pump up your abs is only half the battle. In order for your efforts to be fruitful and not lead to injury, you need to follow the following recommendations from experts:

• First you need to take care of your nutrition. If you don't burn belly fat, your abs won't be visible. Moreover, building muscle while having fat will give you even more volume to your belly.
• Be sure to correct your posture. Frequent and prolonged sitting positions cause weight to be transferred from the front of the abdomen to the lower segment of the back. As a result, the abdominal muscles become weakened. To improve their condition, you should do light stretching exercises in the morning and evening. Then abdominal training will give faster and more pronounced results.
• When performing basic abdominal exercises, sudden movements and jerks should be avoided. This is especially true for crunches, during which we pump the upper abs especially intensely.
• Practicing proper breathing is a must. In the starting position, inhale, and when the muscles tense, exhale.
• Many repetitions of the exercise in one approach will not give results. It is better to do 15-20 executions in 3 sets at regular intervals - this will increase the effectiveness of the training. You can increase the number of approaches if your level of training allows it.

Exercises for pumping up the upper abs are almost identical in every way for men and women. At least when it comes to home training. It is important to remember to gradually increase the load, and over time you can add new exercises to the training plan. Together with a balanced diet, exercises for the upper abs will help you achieve an almost ideal figure.

How to quickly pump up your upper abs at home.

A little more about classes

Basic exercises should be enough to achieve good results, provided they are performed well, of course. At the same time, there are a number of other, additional exercises that will be useful if you want to pump up your abs:

• try simply lifting your upper body. To do this, lie down on the mat, bend your knees at a right angle and start lifting. During the exercise, the upper abs should be in an extremely tense state. At the same time, you need to pull your hands forward. Having raised your torso to the top point, you need to try to maintain this position (aim for a 10-second hold);
• Alternative option: when performing the exercise, clasp your hands behind your head;
• Another option: the same actions, but arms crossed on the chest;
• Sit on a bench (any other object that allows you to bend) and begin to bend. You should pause halfway through the fold (the longer, the better).

Upper abs training program

In order for exercises for the upper abs to produce noticeable results, it is recommended to engage in a special program. A training plan can only be drawn up if you determine how many days a week you are going to exercise. A sample class schedule might look like this:

Monday

• Classic crunches: 10 times.
• Hip raises – 15 times.
• Penknife: 10 times.
• Leg twists: 10 times in each direction.
• Raising the body to raised legs: 10 times.
• Twisting to bent legs – 10 times.

Tuesday

• Twisting to bent legs – 12 times, 3 sets.
• Classic crunches – 12 times.
• Raises the body to straightened legs - 12 times.
• Hip raises – 15 times.
• Penknife – 10 times.
• Leg rotations – 15 times in each direction.

Wednesday

• Twisting to bent legs – 14 times.
• Raises of the body to straightened legs - 15 times.
• Classic crunches – 16 times.
• Hip raises – 18 times.
• Penknife – 12 times.
• Leg rotations - 18 times in each direction.

Thursday - Closed

Friday

• Twisting to bent legs – 16 times.
• Raising the body to straight legs – 16 times.
• Classic crunches - 18 times.
• Hip raises – 20 times.
• Penknife – 14 times.
• Leg rotations – 20 times in each direction.

Saturday

• Twisting to bent legs – 18 times.
• Raising the body to straight legs – 18 times.
• Classic crunches – 20 times.
• Hip raises – 20 times.
• Penknife – 16 times.
• Turn your legs 20 times in each direction.

Sunday is a day off

For all exercises: break between approaches - 30 seconds, number of approaches - 3

This is an initial training plan with minimal stress on the abdominal muscles and other parts of the body. Weekends can be taken more often during the first month of classes. For example, every 3, not 5 days. In this matter, it is necessary to take into account the individual characteristics of the body and the degree of physical fitness.

About the effectiveness of training

To properly pump your abs, you need to take into account several factors that accompany a high level of exercise effectiveness.

First of all, it is important to consider that the anatomical structure of the body is essential and cannot be changed. Nutrition also has an impact on the effectiveness of training, so it is necessary to balance it correctly. And with all this, you need to understand that you won’t be able to do only the upper press. Many people, as they perform exercises, ask the question: “why don’t the abs appear, but there is still fat?” To effectively solve this problem, you need to perform additional exercises. A great option is regular high-intensity cardio. A minimum of 20 minutes of such loads per workout is recommended.

Features of training for women

The specificity of the female body is such that achieving an ideal flat stomach is sometimes quite difficult, since the abs are surrounded by a layer of fat, the purpose of which is to protect the internal organs, primarily the reproductive system.

To get an impressive result, it is important to approach the organization of the lesson correctly; girls need to remember that even sculpted abs may not appear at all, since they depend not only on efforts and proper nutrition, but also on genetic characteristics.

We can highlight the following features of exercises to shape the press in women:

• Be sure to include cardio exercises in your workout to help you lose fat.
• To pump up the internal muscles, you should use special exercises such as “Vacuum”.
• Don’t forget about exercises for the lower abs; they should be done at least 2-3 times a week.

Duration of training

Achieving perfect upper abs will take time.

Thus, tangible and visible results in 3-4 weeks will be achieved by training every other day for 40-45 minutes, always starting with a warm-up.

At the same time, pumping up the abdominal muscles themselves is not so difficult; a much more difficult task will be to make them visible by getting rid of the fat layer.

In addition, the result also depends on the initial weight: for thin women it will be much easier to achieve visible steel muscles, but if the girl is plump, then it may take 3-4 months of regular training to obtain a beautiful relief.

Contraindications

It is very important to start training only if there are no contraindications.

These include:

• diseases of the spine or recent operations on it;
• high blood pressure;
• displacement of the pelvic organs;
• umbilical or vertebral hernia;
• diseases of the heart and blood vessels;
• bend of the uterus;
• tumors of the pelvic organs.

In addition, pumping up the abs is contraindicated for pregnant women.

Necessary equipment

In order to pump up your upper abs at home, it is not necessary to purchase special equipment, but it is more convenient to train on a special gymnastics mat.

In addition, to increase the effectiveness of the workout, you should use dumbbells weighing 1-1.5 kg.

To perform the "advanced" exercises, you will need an incline bench, but if you don't have one, you can simply use another exercise.

Dietary recommendations

Even the most intense workout will be ineffective if you do not adhere to proper nutrition.

Remember: you can’t go on strict diets, the body must get everything it needs, but you should avoid sweets, fatty and fried foods, and smoked foods.

Fitness instructors advise including the following foods in your diet:

• healthy protein foods (cottage cheese and low-fat cheese, natural yogurt, white boiled meat);
• seafood (fish, mussels, squid);
• dairy products;
• cereals (buckwheat, brown rice);
• vegetables and fruits (except grapes, bananas, watermelons, pumpkins).

You should avoid drinking carbonated drinks, beer, lamb and pork, potatoes and flour products.

You can start exercising no earlier than 1.5 hours after a meal; after training, you can eat only 40 minutes to an hour later.

Drinking at least 1.5 liters of water per day will help prevent dehydration of the body.

About contraindications

Before you start pumping up your upper abs, you need to make sure there are no contraindications. Thus, it is strongly recommended not to start training for those who suffer from high blood pressure or have problems with the vascular system. It will be difficult if you have thoracic osteochondrosis or lumbar lordosis. It is very important to pay attention to all these factors.

With a competent approach to working on the upper abs, taking into account all possible contraindications, as well as accompanying favorable factors, the result will be very impressive, and will also be achieved quite quickly.

Anatomy of the press

We will not go into this issue too much, but there are some points that we need to know.

• The abs are one flat muscle. In bodybuilding, it is conventionally divided into two zones: upper and lower. But when performing any exercise, it is all involved in the work. Of course, you can shift the focus a little to any of the areas. To engage more of the lower part, we will bring the pelvis towards the chest. I already wrote about this in the article “BEST EXERCISES FOR LOWER PRESS“. If you haven't read it, I also advise you to familiarize yourself with it. To work the upper abs, vice versa, the chest towards the pelvic area.

• The abs are the central muscle. It is constantly in sight and occupies a central position in our body. If it looks bad, all the other muscles will also look bad. For example, the pectoral muscles look better when the abs are visible.
• The main fiction of the press is bringing the chest to the pelvis.
  That is, everyone knows the word twisting the body. When performing, we must mentally imagine two points. One in the center just below the pectorals, and the other at the very bottom 10 centimeters below the navel. And our main task will be to bring these two points to each other.

Also, abdominal muscles have a positive effect on our health:

• Reducing intra-abdominal pressure. This has a positive effect on breathing. And everyone knows that proper breathing improves the functioning of the cardiovascular system.
• Developed abdominal muscles will help you increase weight in basic exercises, especially those performed standing or sitting. After all, everyone knows that the muscles of the back and abdomen hold our spine and the stronger they are, the easier it is for us to hold heavy equipment. How does this relate to health, you ask? Yes, very simple. Everyone knows that working with heavy weights carries with it danger and the possibility of injury. And so our chances of earning them will become less.
• And of course, scientists have proven that exercises for the abdominal muscles help in the treatment of many diseases. Such as: gastritis, stomach ulcers, liver problems, etc.

I recommend that you pay a lot of attention to this area.

How to maximize the benefits of your workout

The use of weights will help increase the effectiveness of training; girls only need to take dumbbells weighing 1-1.5 kg.

In this case, you can do fewer repetitions. In addition, intense cardio exercise lasting 20 minutes will help increase the benefits of exercise.

Tips for those who want to pump up their abs at home.

So, we looked at a set of quite simple, but with the right technique, very effective exercises for pumping up abs for men at home. Let's finally say a few words about nutrition, because as we found out, without it, the desired cubes will remain hidden under a layer of subcutaneous fat.

• Eliminate fast carbohydrates from your diet (baked goods, cakes, fast food, etc.).
• Leave long lasting carbohydrates (cereals), but focus on proteins.
• Add white meat (chicken, turkey), legumes, vegetables, and sour fruits to your diet.
• Fats should also be present in the diet (cold pressed oils, for example), but not more than 15-20%.

Read further:

• How to pump up your abs on the horizontal bar? Exercise program
• How to pump up your legs at home: simple and effective exercises

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Typical beginner mistakes

Many abdominal exercises have their own technical nuances that you need to master in order to get the most out of them. Let's look at the most common mistakes, myths and misconceptions:

1. You should not train your abs more than 1-2 times a week. Crunches are a fairly easy exercise, but even after it the body needs time to recover.
2. By performing a large number of repetitions, you will not burn excess fat deposits on your stomach and get the coveted “cubes”. The optimal repetition range for crunches is 12-20; in combination with a diet tailored to your goals, this approach will give maximum results.
3. Do not use too heavy a weight. If you do crunches with a disc or dumbbell, do not chase the weights, it is better to focus on mental concentration and contract the abdominal muscles more isolated, but involving no assistant muscles in the work.

Recipes for healthy eating

Vegetable casserole with broccoli, mushrooms and bell peppers

• 12.9 g Protein
• 9.1 g Fat
• 4.9 g Carbohydrates
• 158.2 kcal

35-45 min.

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Other recipes

Exercises for the upper abdomen

To remove internal fat and tighten the oblique muscles, you need to perform effective breathing exercises to lose weight in the upper abdomen. They affect the visceral physiological processes of the stomach, intestines, and circulatory system. They should be done not only for those who are obese, but also for people who are not overweight. Breathing exercises gently massage the internal organs of the abdominal cavity; exercises should be performed regularly several times a day.

Such exercises to remove belly fat are done on an empty stomach in a ventilated room. There is no need to remove additional types of loads: bodyflex or yoga will help achieve your goal. Exercises tone the muscles, and over time the tummy will become beautiful. It is important not to limit fluid intake, because the body should not become dehydrated.

How to remove fat from the upper belly

The diet in the table is designed for a week, it will help remove fat from the upper abdomen:

Drawing up a training and diet plan

To see the result of working on yourself in the mirror you need to:

• do exercises for all muscle groups;
• perform a complex on the upper abs (twice a week);
• create a calorie deficit (consume fewer calories, burn more). As a result, body weight will decrease and extra centimeters will be removed from the abdomen and waist;
• forget about fatty and high-calorie foods, adhere to a proper nutrition system;
• include aerobic exercise in your training program.

It is important to find the type of training that brings you joy. It is worth diversifying your activities by running outdoors and cycling. You can start with walking and gradually move on to jogging.