Geschatte leestijd: 5 minutenOkay, you want to make your abs visible? To start with a cheerful note: all people in this world are born with abs. You can ask any anatomy student who has opened and examined a human body; they will tell you that every human has abs, whether they have trained them or not.
Table of Contents
- Reducing Body Fat Percentage
- The Anatomy of Abdominal Muscles
- Anatomy of the Abdominal Muscles
- Rectus Abdominis Functions and Exercises
- Obliques Functions and Exercises
- The Intercostal Muscles
- The Serratus Muscles
- Sets and Repetitions for Abdominal Muscles
- Training Abs Every Day or Not
- Adjusting the Tempo
- Training Your Obliques
- A Narrow Waist
So, if we all have abs, why can’t we see them? The reason for this is the wall of body fat that prevents the abs from being visible. This leads to the first rule for getting visible abs.
Reducing Body Fat Percentage
No ‘buts’ apply here. If you have too much body fat, you won’t be able to see your abs. For men, they can see their abs only when they have a body fat percentage of 10% or less. Women begin to see lines around 13%, as women generally store fat in other areas, such as the hips and buttocks.
To reduce body fat, a well-balanced nutrition program of 40% carbohydrates, 40% protein, and 20% fats, combined with cardio training and good weight training that trains the entire body and thus your abs, is necessary to enable long-term fat loss.
The Anatomy of Abdominal Muscles
This rule needs little explanation, leading to the next topic, the anatomy of the abs:
Anatomy of the Abdominal Muscles
There are four major muscle groups that make up the abs:
- the rectus abdominis (the upper and lower abs)
- the obliques
- the intercostals
- the serratus anterior
Rectus Abdominis Functions and Exercises
The muscle running from the top of the hips to the sternum is called the rectus abdominis. This is the main ab muscle, which – when well developed and when the person has a low enough body fat percentage – has the appearance of a six-pack. The function of this muscle is to pull the upper body towards the hips when the body is slightly tensed at the waist. This is why when you do a sit-up, upper body movement beyond the first 30 degrees from the ground does not train the abs, but the hip muscles finish the movement. This means that shortened sit-ups, where the upper body only comes up to 30 degrees, and crunches are our best friends in the battle for fantastic abs.
However, if you want to maximize stimulation of your abs, prevent lower back problems, and get the most out of your efforts, you should also know that the anatomy of the rectus abdominis is such that – if you do not move your upper body backward a degree or 15 to 20 – you will not have these benefits. Since the ground only provides a flat surface, not only will your abs not be maximally stimulated, but they will also not learn how to contract properly and protect your back when your body bends backward (which often happens when bodybuilders do exercises like standing military presses).
The only way to accomplish this is to buy a Swiss Ball (exercise ball). The Swiss Ball is a good small investment because it allows you to do the necessary backward bending that your upper body needs to maximally stimulate your abs. Because of this advantage, I recommend doing your crunches on an exercise ball.
Since the rect
us abdominis also has muscles in the lower regions that help keep your body straight, it is also necessary to do reverse crunches on the Swiss Ball (make sure you hold onto a sturdy fixed object) since with this movement you can go lower than the flat, neutral position.
Another good lower ab exercise is hanging leg raises. The key to maximum stimulation with this exercise is to slightly roll your hips backward at the beginning of the movement.
Obliques Functions and Exercises
The external (visible) obliques or oblique muscles are the muscles on the sides of your waist. The external obliques consist of three layers of muscles: the internal obliques, the transverse obliques, and the external obliques. These muscles work together to move the upper body sideways and diagonally forward. Although a bodybuilder doesn’t want thick obliques because they disrupt symmetry and give the illusion that the waist is thicker than it is, these muscles must be trained to look complete.
A very good exercise for the intercostals is side bends on the Swiss Ball. Another exercise you should do to train trunk rotation is Russian Twists.
The Intercostal Muscles
The intercostals are the muscles that help with breathing. They lie between the ribs and look like small bundles of muscles hanging down the side of the rib cage and the top of the abs. The intercostals help with bending and moving the upper body diagonally forward, so all kinds of twisting crunches on a Swiss Ball get the most out of this muscle group.
The Serratus Muscles
The serratus anterior or saw muscles are the muscles over the rib cage that resemble fingers and run from the front of the abs to the lats (large back muscles). Their job is to stretch the rib cage and help move the upper arms from just above the shoulders to just below the shoulders. A good exercise to stimulate these muscles is one-arm cable crunches with a high pulley.
Sets and Repetitions for Abdominal Muscles
Initially, a ab workout should consist of no more than two or maximum three exercises, with two or three sets per exercise with as many well-executed repetitions as the person can do with his or her body weight. Over time and as the person progresses, more sets can be done and you can manipulate repetitions by adding weight to some exercises.
By adding weight, the fast muscle fibers are targeted and you get a six-pack with deeper grooves between the muscle parts. And no, training your abs with weight really won’t give you a thick waist.
Training Abs Every Day or Not
Although many advanced bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts train their abs daily for a short period to stimulate growth, this will lead to overtraining when done for too long. Therefore, except when training your upper and lower abs separately every other day, it is better not to train your abs for longer than 20 minutes at a time, three times a week every other day (for example, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).
Adjusting the Tempo
A frequently overlooked training variable that is almost never changed is the speed of a repetition. As you become more advanced, you can always make a set more challenging by changing the speed at which you perform the positive part of the movement – contracting the muscle – the duration of the contraction, and the speed of the negative part of the movement. By doing this, you stimulate more muscle fibers in the muscle, resulting in faster results!
Training Your Obliques
Unless you want thick sides and a wide waist, you should not do low repetitions in your obliques training. Do many repetitions, between 25 and 50. In some people, it’s even the case that genetically they are built in such a way that their obliques grow from just a little training. In that case, you shouldn’t train these muscles specifically at all.
A Narrow Waist
The TVA or transversus abdominis muscle is an ab muscle that does not have the function of moving the spine, but rather ensures that the abdomen is neatly pulled in. To train this muscle, all you have to do is pull your belly in. No, that’s not a joke, that’s the function of this muscle. By exhaling all the air from your lungs and pulling your navel as close as possible to your spine, you train the TVA, creating the illusion of a narrower waist.
