The abdominal part is one of the most difficult parts to develop during a strength training programme. This difficulty is surely due to the morphology and location of this muscle. It is for this reason that the abdominal muscles require very specific programs.
What do you need to know beforehand to better develop the abdominal muscles? What exercises should be performed to optimise results? Focus on the subject!
Understanding how the abdominal muscles work
The abdominal muscles are located on the pubis and are inserted into the rib cage. The muscular tissues that make up the abdominal muscles feel the tension that is transmitted to them, as if both ends of a rope were being pulled. The abdominals do not attach to the thighs or the femur.
Therefore, strengthening the lower limbs is not enough to develop them. Even if you do several sets of leg lifts, your efforts will only be felt in your thighs and you will not be able to develop your abdominal muscles. Abdominal muscles require a lot of stretching and contraction to develop.
It is these actions that will work the muscle fibres and increase the contraction of the muscles, hardening the stomach.
How to effectively develop your abs?
You have been working on your abs for months, even years, and the result remains static. This is because you have not understood how these muscles work. This understanding allows you to determine the effective exercises to make them work better.
To work the abdominal muscles, you need to perform movements that can cause strong muscle contractions. It is the repetitive muscle contractions that allow the muscles to be worked, destroyed and then rebuilt.
The aim being to bring the rib cage closer to the pelvis to produce contractions, the best exercise to do is the simple crunch. This is a very simple but very effective exercise for building abdominal muscles. If you work with body weight, it also helps to slim and firm the waist.
If you use a heavier weight, you can work your abdominal muscles intensely by using the rectus abdominis, the famous chocolate bar and all the oblique muscles of the side.
To perform the crunch, the starting position is lying on the floor or on the bench. Place your hands at your temples or on your chest. With your knees bent, roll your torso forward, contracting your abdominal muscles.
The more your legs are stretched, the more intense the tension you feel in your abdominal muscles. The return to the starting position should be smooth. Try to maintain the tension in the muscles. The movements must be slow and constant so that each part of the abdomen can do the work of contraction.
It is important to mention that it is not very helpful to overdevelop the abdominal muscles as this will cause back problems. Try to maintain a balanced abdominal belt in order to keep a good functionality of the chest.
