FITNESS TIP: HOW TO BUILD ABS
“Let’s start with the most important, but a little sad for some thesis: pumping the abdominal muscles is not enough to make the cubes visible. In fact, everyone has abs cubes, it’s just that the degree of their development differs. Just like the thickness of the fatty layer that hides the muscles differs. Therefore, in order for the cubes to be visible, in addition to training, it is necessary to include proper nutrition and cardio loads in the program. All this will help you get rid of fat and see beautiful abdominal muscles, ”explains Elena.
The press cannot be divided into upper and lower. All these are parts of one rectus abdominis muscle. And the frequent question “How to pump up the lower press?” fundamentally wrong! A muscle cannot work partially, it only works as a whole.
According to the trainer, the abdominal muscles have several other features. Firstly, the rectus abdominis muscle is more developed in the upper part, and at the bottom, at the point of attachment to the pelvic bones, it is very small. That is, during training, the upper part takes most of the load on itself by default, and in the matter of the appearance of a relief in the lower part, the main thing is to minimize the amount of fat.
Secondly, it is more difficult for girls to pump up the abs. The female body is more prone to accumulation of fat than the male. In addition, in the fair sex, the press in the lower abdomen responds worse to stress due to the weak connection between the muscles and the brain (this is due to the small number of nerve endings in this zone). This is a kind of nature’s concern for reducing pain in girls during menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth.
Thirdly, when it comes to creating a relief abdomen, remember to work with the external oblique muscles, because they are visible along with the rectus abdominis muscle.
But you should not devote too much time to training, because “cubes” are 80% nutrition. And excessive load can only complicate the process of forming an ideal figure. The effect of a balanced diet will be noticeable much faster.
“So, we need to solve two problems: hypertrophy of the abdominal muscles with strength exercises and a decrease in the amount of fat in the waist area by controlling nutrition and working on fat burning,” summarizes Elena Petushkova. – since the topic of nutrition is very extensive, let’s focus on exercises. The rectus abdominis muscle for twisting the trunk toward the pelvis and for twisting the pelvis toward the body. Therefore, this is the most efficient type of load. And it doesn’t matter the direction of movement – the pelvis to the body or the body to the pelvis. Simply lifting the pelvis and legs is much more difficult and is more suitable for the advanced fitness fanatic.
I suggest starting by doing crunches while lying on the floor. We bend our knees, put our feet on the floor (this is more difficult) or put our feet on a bench (this is easier). We make sure that the lower back touches the floor. We clasp our hands in a lock behind the head, we spread our elbows to the sides and slowly begin to twist to the knees. At the top point, you should linger a little, then slowly descend back. During the approach, do not put the body on the floor and keep the abdominal muscles in constant tension. One lifting and lowering of the body should be done in four counts, without jerks and accelerations. As the technique improves, you can complicate the exercise – add weights or switch to an incline bench for the press. “