2023-05-16 15:30:34
Are you training hard, but not an ounce of abs showing on your midsection?
Let’s take today the example of a classic session and see together what is wrong.
We’re going to help get you straight on your ab workout to get your 6 pack in place this summer.
time is once morest usso it’s all regarding not wasting your efforts and being as efficient as possible!
1. You’re not working the right muscles…
To work the rectus abdominis (the famous 6 pack), there are two main categories of movements:
- the one where we bring the legs to the bust (focus “lower abs”),
- the one where we bring the bust to the legs (focus “top of the abs”).
Each will target a different portion of the rectus, provided you do it right… let’s review the most common exercises.
Raising the legs hanging from the bar
Of all the classic mistakes encountered on abs exercises, the hanging leg raise is undoubtedly the one that is most prone to missteps.
Many practitioners aren’t using the right muscles on this move… pesky is not it ?
The best known error (see opposite) is touse a pendulum motion with the legs to initiate the exercise, which will tend to work the hip flexors more than the abs.
We also regularly see a buttocks that stands out with a curved lower back.
To prevent this from happening to you:
- bring your hips forward by doing a retroversion of the pelvis,
- “curl” (curl) from the hips, forwards and upwards (as if you want to show your an*s to someone standing in front of you)
- let the abs do the work, in a slow and controlled way (no momentum).
If you can’t do this, reduce the lever by bending your knees (see our article: The barbell knee raise is the number one exercise for strengthening and exploding your abs.)
The traditional crunches…
This is the most basic exercise for the abs and also the most worked… which does not prevent it from being massacred.
If you do, try to lock your hips and legs (lift and bend them for example so that the hip flexors do not take over).
Then, go back up by initiating the movement well with an abdominal contraction (be sure to “roll up” and not lift).
Your lower back should always be in contact with the ground so as not to remove the tension from the abdominals.
You must also control your repetitions, both the concentric phase (raising the body) and the eccentric phase (lowering the body).
Adoptez plutôt un crunch simple, faible ROM, bringing the shoulders up off the bench by contracting and releasing the abdominal muscles
… But not only !
But don’t stop theremove on to more advanced variations, like decline bench crunch.
Regarding the reverse crunch, too, many mainly use the hcnahes flexors to lift the legs, using the hands on the ground
There, it’s regarding not just sending your legs up and down, because once more, your hip flexors will be doing all the work.
In place :
- place your lower back firmly on the ground,
- raise your hips off the ground (not your legs) tilting the pelvis upwards,
- Roll your hips towards your shoulders, contracting your abs well.
Do slow, controlled reps, concentrating hard on the rolling.
For an even more advanced variant, add resistance with pulley crunch.
2. You’re breathing badly!
We do bodybuilding, not diving, you cannot exercise in apnea.
Your breathing and your movements must be synchronized, which is impossible if you rush all your repetitions!
Start by engaging your muscles and inhale.
Then exhale as you begin to move, slowly and in a controlled manner, letting your breath set the tempo and keeping your abs engaged throughout the movement.
Exhale completely at the end of the movement, at the moment of the peak of contraction of your abdominals.
3. You don’t know your abs!
The abdominal muscles are part of a larger whole, the “core” (an equivalent of which might be the trunk) of which the 6 pack is the most superficial layer.
The trunk, in addition to being able to provide a slimmer waist if it is well worked, has a capital role: to keep all the muscles and organs in place (like a corset).
Furthermore, he plays a key role in any bodybuilding exercise and in all sports performance in general.
Adding specific core exercises to your training program will strengthen the internal muscles below the abdominals, thereby improving mobility and function.
But even the most elementary exercise of this family is often badly executed… we are of course talking regarding sheathing.
From the point of view of the most common errors, we often see a raised buttocks or a rounded lower back, suggesting, once more, that the correct muscles are not involved (here the glutes and the lower back muscles). back will be actively working).
You must therefore ensure that:
- contract the glutes,
- have a flat back,
- engage both abs and core.
But we explain this to you in more detail here: 5 mistakes that make sheathing an exercise at best ineffective, at worst dangerous.
As for the crunches seen above, do not hesitate to go further in the progression by adding leverage or dynamism for advanced versions of sheathing.
For this, I refer you to our article: 3 sheathing progressions to take your abs to a whole new level and improve the stability of your trunk.
4. You don’t stretch!
All muscles in the body have fascia, a tissue that covers firmly.
There is a theory called “bag expansion” which considers the fascia as a bag that surrounds the muscle.
According to this theory, extending this fascia would create more room for allow the muscles to grow more.
In the past, some bodybuilders also used stretching in their workouts long before this theory.
Then it grew until it was studied further, sometimes showing muscle gains up to + 318% in 28 days!!!
Well ok, it was on animals… but the fact is that more and more studies are appearing on the subject.
On the other hand, incorporating abs stretches into your sessions is not a pain in the ass, provided you do them at the right time.
The best timing would be following exercise, when you have the congestion (created when a large amount of blood is flowing through the muscles).
When the muscle is congested, the fascia is stretched by the mere presence of blood, but we can go even further by adding stretches.
For example, imagine the following circuit:
- 10 weighted crunches,
- 10V situps,
- 10 Jackknives.
Do the 3 exercises without a break, then directly place 20 to 30 seconds of stretching of the rectus abdominis, the cobra stretch example (see below).
Then repeat the circuit for 2-3 rounds.
5. You destroy your efforts in the kitchen
The recovery phase is an integral part of training.
As you know, abs are built in the kitchen, so if you go home and you smash the jar of Nut’, you are likely to jeopardize your efforts.
You’ve already been given a list of very pragmatic tips here to easily lose what you want to reveal your abs: Stop wasting time on your abs workouts: here’s what you should do instead.
One might add that to stick to a healthy diet, you must always be prepared, which includes:
- to cook yourself and have for that 10-15 quick and protein recipes that you can always count on (ask us in comments if you are interested in an article on the subject),
- combine your workouts with regular cardio training to get a calorie burn boost.
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