The text was published on this blog.
Sculpted abs are a pressing goal for both men and women. Abdominal abs have become an important factor in the attractive figure that everyone strives for.
Let's figure it out: where did this cult come from and how to properly pump up the press?
We were helped by a master of sports and absolute European champion in bodybuilding, a sought-after fitness trainer (more than 200 thousand subscribers on social networks and millions of views on Youtube) Stanislav Lindover .
How did it start?
Sculptures of powerful people with pumped up abs were sculpted even before our era in Ancient Greece, but such a body was not held as a standard. For a very long time, a sculpted physique was considered a sign of simple hard-working people, peasants - while aristocrats paid little attention to their muscles.
Everything changed in the 19th century, when the German bodybuilder Eugene Sandow (real name Friedrich Wilhelm Müller) introduced fashion for a beautiful and pumped up body. He was inspired by ancient sculpture and wanted his body to look the same.
Sandov performed in the circus, promoting his own methods, a healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition. In 1894, he moved to the USA - and thanks to him, sales of weights, dumbbells, barbells and books about bodybuilding there increased significantly.
Sandow later opened the world's first gyms and organized an athletic beauty contest. In Russia, Evgeniy had many followers - for example, the St. Petersburg Athletic Society used his methods, and the legendary wrestler Ivan Poddubny trained using them.
But even in Sandow's time, six-pack abs were not a fetish. Bodybuilders willingly showed off their biceps, but rarely pumped up their abs, and to competitions they wore high shorts that completely covered their stomachs.
The cult of cubes developed already in the 1980s. Just look at the popular actors of those years: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Their heroes popularized a beautiful, pumped up body - including strong abs.
This has led to the fact that sculpted cubes have become perhaps one of the main goals of fitness center clients.
What is abs and where do the cubes come from?
The abdominals are the rectus abdominis muscle. There are no upper and lower abs; they are one large muscle and part of the muscular corset that supports the body. It is divided into 6 parts by tendon bridges. Each such part is one cube.
The rectus abdominis muscle itself is pumped quite quickly. Protruding cubes are essentially a hypertrophy of its individual parts.
Obviously, every person has such a muscle, but it is usually not visible due to fat deposits (even if you have almost no excess weight). The visual appearance of abs is, first of all, the removal of excess fat. Among bodybuilders there is a phrase: “The abs are pumped not in the gym, but in the kitchen.” Very simplified, but with a lot of truth: the main thing here is proper nutrition.
Asymmetrical abs: training errors or genetic feature?
Let's start with a brief excursion into the anatomy of our body. The main abdominal muscle is the rectus abdominis. Its anterior surface is crossed by several longitudinal tendons. As the rectus abdominis muscle develops, it enlarges and begins to protrude above the tendons. Actually, these are precisely the cubes that we can observe on a well-pumped press. Depending on genetics, the tendons may be staggered or misaligned. The better the press is pumped up, the more noticeable this feature of the body structure is.
As you already understand, most often unevenly spaced abs are a consequence of genetic characteristics and are not associated with improper training. By the way, genetics also determines the number of tendons. As a result, your abs may end up with not six, but four or even eight packs. At the same time, this does not affect muscle strength at all. Whatever your genetics, if you want, you can pump up the coveted abs.
Sometimes you can hear the question of whether six-packs can appear on your stomach without training. The answer to this will be negative. However, some people's rectus abdominis muscle is thicker from birth, and with a low percentage of body fat, the abs will look more prominent. If you want to achieve pronounced abs, then you can’t do without training. Also speaking about the fact that asymmetrically located abs are the consequences of improper training or a genetic feature, we note that no exercise can change the situation. The location of the tendons on the abdomen is genetically determined.
Don't ab workouts burn fat?
Actually no - abdominal exercises have nothing to do with fat burning. The rule here is this: if you want to lose weight, pumping up your abs will not help, but if you want to pump up your abs, you need to lose weight. And nothing else.
Most abdominal exercises are not too energy intensive, which means you will lose few calories. Diet, regular strength training and cardio training will help you lose weight. There are no special programs for weight loss: any complex strength training is essentially fat burning.
The main thing is not to gain extra calories from food.
Abs in every workout
Some people, in pursuit of six-pack, include abdominal exercises in every workout. While this is quite normal for experienced athletes, since their abdominal muscles are already trained and can withstand these loads for several years, this strategy is not entirely suitable for beginners. Don't forget that we also use these muscles in many other exercises that are aimed at completely different groups. For example, when working with a barbell, the abdominal muscles also receive load to a certain extent. Therefore, for those who have been working out relatively recently and dream of six packs, it will be effective to perform abdominal exercises about 2-3 times a week.
Photo: pixabay.com
Will the cubes always be smooth and beautiful?
No. And it has nothing to do with you. The fact is that some people have an anatomical feature: the tendon bridges cross the rectus abdominal muscle not quite evenly and symmetrically, but as if in a checkerboard pattern. Because of this, pumped abs will not look like in beautiful pictures - the cubes will be slightly shifted.
Sometimes the cubes are located far from each other (due to the different thickness of the tendons), and in rare cases there may not even be 6, but 8.
It is impossible to find out in advance about the appearance of your cubes - only when you pump up your abs and remove excess fat from your stomach. It cannot be corrected either, but there is nothing terrible either - just genetic characteristics.
How to improve the drawing of cubes?
If you cannot change uneven abs, then you can improve its relief. Thus making the body more beautiful. It is possible that the abs appear uneven because they are still hard to see. But if you work on your abdominal muscles, it is possible that the shape of your abs is not at all what you imagined before.
It is worth noting that absolutely all people have six packs on their stomachs. This is also inherent from birth. The only problem is that they can be hidden under a layer of fat. Therefore, to make your muscles more prominent, you need to burn belly fat. You also need to know that your abs can be pumped up to make them bigger.
To burn fat, you need to eat fewer calories than you burn in a day. Then the body will use fat deposits as energy. To speed up this process, you need to do cardio training. This could be regular running or other activity. However, it is not at all necessary to exercise to reduce the fat on your stomach. It’s much easier to eat less, and then you can see the treasured abs.
If you additionally do special exercises, you can achieve the definition of your abdominal muscles even faster. With the help of training, the abs increase in volume, so they will be visible faster.
Why pump up your abs at all?
Pumped up abs not only look beautiful, but are also good for your health. The rectus abdominis maintains spinal stability, controls intra-abdominal pressure, allows the body to maintain balance and simply adds strength.
Lindover: “Abs exercises, of course, have a beneficial effect on the body. By strengthening your abdominal muscles, you prevent your spine, because a strong abs means a healthy back.
This has been repeatedly noticed by people who have been injured in everyday life. That is, a man was walking down the street and slipped. If the abdominal muscles are weak, the back will sag, balance will be lost and further problems will appear. Abdominal exercises have a positive effect on internal organs and improve blood flow.”
How to fix crooked abs
You can determine the curvature of the press by looking at your ribs. If you see their asymmetry in shape and location, then this is the curvature of the press. Often it depends on the correct execution of exercises and posture. And in 99% of cases, this curvature is due to the uneven formation of the skeleton. So, correcting such a natural specificity will be not only unthinkable, but quite difficult.
Instructions
1. Before everyone, you will need to perform different abdominal exercises, but at the same time maintaining strict symmetry, that is, do the exercises without distortions in any direction. Only in this case can everything come into the desired form. 2. You can exercise both in the gym using exercise equipment and at home. Here is the first exercise that will help train your abs: first, take a lying position, clasp your hands behind your head, and bend your legs at the knees. Begin to lift your upper body so that every time you lift, your elbows touch your knees. At the first stage, do not exceed ten or fifteen exercises. Increase them only little by little (up to 30, then up to 40, and so on). The main thing is that you should not take on an excessive load; on the contrary, in return for straight abs, you will only achieve muscle stretching. In addition, to quickly achieve results, conduct classes daily or every other day. It’s better to do 15 exercises 4 days a week than to do 60 exercises at once. 3. Second exercise: lie on the floor and slowly raise your legs up until you reach a vertical position. After this, smoothly return to the starting position and repeat the exercise. This methodology will strengthen the muscles of the lower abs. However, it is worth noting that it is more difficult to pump it than the upper press. The fact is that in this area in the thesis there are no muscles trained in any way. In one workout you can perform 2 or 3 sets of 8-10 exercises each. 4. Here is a special exercise for the oblique abdominal muscles: lying on your back, bend your knees and bring your feet together. Tilt your legs first to the right, then to the left and vice versa. Always try to press your legs as close to the floor as possible. At the same time, hold your hands behind your head and make sure that each load is applied maximally to the abs and minimally to the neck muscles. Helpful advice: Little by little speed up the pace of your workouts, try to do one approach in one minute.
Is it possible to harm yourself?
Incorrect (or incorrectly done) abdominal exercises can really harm your health.
Too much traditional lifting of the body from a lying position (twisting) can lead to deformation of the intervertebral discs, pinched nerves, back pain and even herniated discs.
The most important thing is not to go overboard with the volume of training and perform the exercises technically. Then there will definitely be no harm.
Lindover: “You can hurt yourself when doing any exercise. If you mindlessly perform movements that are simply unphysiological, non-anatomical.
Raising the body to the fixed legs can lead to arching of the lower back, this happens due to an incorrectly chosen angle or insufficient preparation. Because of this, back problems may arise, which are dangerous due to the appearance of an intervertebral hernia. You need to perform abdominal exercises with your legs secured with your back rounded back, and not with a bend in the lower back.”
Maybe it’s better to buy a belt to pump up your abs?
There are no miracle ways to quickly lose weight or pump up your abs - you always need to work hard and hard. A magic belt with an electromyostimulation effect, which is often advertised on TV, definitely won’t help.
In fact, such belts are not completely useless. They are used to relieve muscle spasms and prevent muscle atrophy in patients during the postoperative period. But that’s all – they won’t pump up your abs, and they won’t remove fat either.
In other words, this is just an advertising campaign that has nothing to do with reality.
