There is nothing as prestigious as the sight and feel of a beautifully carved midsection. In my opinion, the shape of your midsection can predict your fitness more accurately than a fortune teller. It’s possible to read someone’s eating habits, the health of their joints, and the overall strength of the body from the shape and use of their abdominal muscles.
Sixpack ontwikkelen
To develop a six-pack, a few key elements of fitness must come together. A very good nutrition pattern and effective abdominal exercises are the keys to your success. To see a six-pack, you must: have a body fat percentage of 12% or less, be able to squat your own body weight, and have knowledge of the correct way to train. If you don’t fully meet these criteria or if you’ve been discouraged in the past, don’t worry because new research and adjusting your normal abdominal training will get you back on track.
Most people fail to develop their abdominal muscles because they lack sufficient knowledge of anatomy and functionality. Let’s address that with a refresher course.
Binnenste buikspieren
The abdominal muscles consist of internal (inner) and external (outer) muscles. The muscles on the outside are the rectus abdominis (the muscle that forms the six-pack) and the external obliques. When lying on your back, the rectus brings the spine thirty degrees forward. Any additional movement beyond that thirty degrees is caused by the muscles moving your hips. The external obliques primarily rotate your rib cage.
The muscles on the inside are the transversus abdominis and the lumbar multifidus. These internal muscles lie beneath the rectus abdominis and the external obliques, and they are responsible for breathing, your posture, and your overall body strength. When these muscles contract, they increase tension in the chest and back area and enhance internal abdominal muscle tension. This provides more stability and strength in the back.
Benefits of strengthening the internal muscles include decreased back pain, increased strength, and tightening of your midsection. It’s even not uncommon to make your waist three or more centimeters narrower in three weeks through training! In personal training, strengthening the internal abdominal muscles is a kind of ‘magic pill,’ and it’s the only way of training where local reduction of your waist is not only possible but even a logical consequence of the training.
Trek Je Buik In!
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. About fifteen years ago, doctors working with athletes discovered that athletes who trained while wearing a weightlifting belt were more likely to suffer from lower back injuries. This was because many of these athletes didn’t do abdominal training. Trainers began to emphasize intensive training of the internal abdominal muscles so that athletes relied less on their belts.
The weightlifting belt hinders the deep abdominal breathing necessary for developing strength and doesn’t allow the internal muscles to do their work. In your midsection, your weakest link is probably the internal group of muscles. It’s almost as if the external muscles of most athletes could sue the internal muscles for lack of support!
Research with body scanners shows that during normal movements, the internal abdominal muscles must engage slightly before the external muscles. What does this mean? It means that if you train the ‘more important’ external muscles without also training the internal ‘supporting’ muscles, you’re wasting your time, and it can disrupt the timing between the internal and external muscles. This can result in a structural balance disturbance, which often leads to a back injury.
If you’re prone to tightness in your lower back or spasms in your back after exercising, you should work on your internal muscle group. This also explains why a large and strong bodybuilder can injure his back while tying his shoes.
Vacuümoefeningen
The bodybuilders from Arnold’s time knew the importance of the internal group of abdominal muscles. They even had a pose they did known as the vacuum pose (see the photo). This pose demonstrates very well how to train the inner abdominal muscles. You simply pull your stomach inwards and hold it until it burns. Because the internal abdominal muscles attach from the bottom of your pelvis to your lower back, you’ll feel a burning sensation from front to back.
However, innovative rehabilitation specialists like Paul Gagne and Yves Ethier have found a better way to teach yourself how to train your internal abdominal muscles. All you need is something as simple as a blood pressure cuff. Just lie on your back, with your legs straight, and place the cuff under your third lumbar vertebra (okay, right under your navel…). Now, pump the cuff up to a pressure of 40 mm (as indicated on the gauge) and close the valve. Now, exhale while pulling your belly in (thus contracting your internal abdominal muscles) and hold this for about 10 to 20 seconds.
While contracting, the pressure on the blood pressure cuff should rise precisely from 40 mm to 60 mm. If you go above 60 mm, you’re moving your hips oppositely and involving your rectus abdominis. That’s not the goal because it takes tension off your internal muscles. You should also exhale from your belly and not from your lungs. Most adults initially have trouble with this because they’ve learned to breathe shallowly and in reverse order. If you inhale while pulling your belly in, you’re a reverse breather. Another tip is to breathe quickly and briefly while tensing your muscles. By doing this more often, you’ll easily learn to breathe and still maintain tension in your muscles.
These muscles respond best to isometric contraction for a longer period (one to two minutes) and two to three sets per exercise. The internal muscles are slow-twitch postural muscles and can be trained daily without overtraining them. An example training progression is as follows:
Week 1:
Exercise: lying vacuum contraction (as described above)
3 sets, 1 repetition, 30 seconds per repetition
(Using the blood pressure cuff during the first week is optional. I recommend using it until you can feel the isolated burning of your internal muscles without moving your hips)
Week 2:
Exercise: vacuum contraction (horse stance)
3 sets, 1 repetition, 30 to 90 seconds per repetition
(The horse stance is performed on the ground. The hands and knees support your body weight. The hands should be placed directly under the shoulders, and the knees directly under the buttocks at shoulder width. Arch your lower back and pull your shoulders down)
Week 3:
Exercise: vacuum contraction (standing)
3 sets, 1 repetition, 2 minutes per repetition
Once you’ve completed this three-week rehabilitation program, you can start training your external abdominal muscles again. Just make sure to engage your internal muscles, as described above, before engaging your back during traditional abdominal exercises.
With this abdominal adjustment program, you can have it all: function, support, and the washboard abs. Just add some tibialis training and you’re all set!
