Why do so many people do a lot of ab exercises but still need help getting the desired results? Simply because you devote time and effort to a specific body part—more planks and crunches, anyone? It does not guarantee that your body will react as you desire. While genetics will always play a role in how you look, your main issue isn’t your genes; it’s your activities and how you stimulate your muscles while doing them.
Unlike other exercises, where it might be challenging to know if you’re doing it correctly, most core motions are straightforward to “feel.” And it’s simple to believe that what you’re doing is effective. You don’t realize that how you perform the workouts you choose—regardless of how much they burn—significantly impacts the results you notice. Consider the following guidelines for efficient ab workouts. If you follow them, your exercises will help prevent ailments like lower back discomfort and bring out the best in your body.
Rule #1: Make something.
Abs Constraint
When most people think of bracing their abs, they think of the rectus abdominous, sometimes known as the “6-pack” muscle, which runs along the front of your body; this is wonderful if you’re about to get hit in the gut. Still, it usually involves bending the spine (think of rounding your back) and less use of other muscles that support the spine.
Building the most vital core possible necessitates using all your muscles, not just those that come to mind when you look in the mirror. While standing up and holding much weight during a deadlift, you need more than your six-pack to support your spine and prevent injury.
How to Increase Ab Tension
Sit up straight wherever you are and place your hands on your lower back, one on each side of the spine and flat on the muscles beside it. Feel what your abs feel like under your hands by flexing them. If you didn’t feel anything, you probably only stretched your spine and did not engage everything around it. Experiment with flexing again, but include every muscle around your waist this time. Here’s what you want to see and do:
Feel your ribs draw into your core. Pull your shoulders back a little bit. The tricky part is now. Inhale and exhale without letting go of the tension. (This is also known as bracing.) experience a contraction in your lower back under your hands, all while feeling immensely strong and powerful; this is the sensation you want to strive to imitate with your activities.
It’s difficult because bracing very hard will restrict your breathing. Still, you’ll likely perform poorly in longer-term exercises without breathing. Not to mention, passing out in the gym is something you should avoid unless you want to be the next famous YouTube video.
Making Bracing Easy
The farmer’s walk teaches you to brace and maintain tension while breathing. Take two dumbbells or kettlebells, stand tall, grab the handles tightly, and walk them as far as your grip allows. That’s all there is to it but practice your bracing and breathing.
Basic Rule #2: Make Your
Core Exercises and Glutes
Flex your glutes when performing core workouts if you want a burn like no other. While using a muscle group on the other side of your body may seem illogical, your glutes have specialized activities that directly impact the action of your abs. Your glutes induce hip extension and a “posterior tilt” of your pelvis, which is similar to rolling your hips so that your tailbone is closer to your knees. Its posterior tilt necessitates extensive ab activation.
How to Get Your Glutes to Work
Do a plank while squeezing your glutes as hard as possible, and watch what happens to your abs. Squeeze your armpits by pressing your forearms into the floor if you want even more tension and crazy amounts of misery (and benefits).
Improve is the third core tip.
Your Flexibility
While holding a static stretch for a few seconds or perhaps a minute or more may feel good, it is unlikely to improve your mobility. Before you respond, “Who cares about your mobility?” the answer is your abs. Greater mobility equals more stability. More muscular activation results from improved stability. Increased muscular activation is essential for stronger abs, increased strength, and fewer injuries. One excellent way is to do exercises for core stability in short bursts of maximum effort. A plank, side plank, or half-kneeling hold is an example of a core stability exercise.
Here’s an illustration of how the procedure works.
This notion can be efficiently used in a workout warm-up or between complex sets of more traditional weight training routines. As an example, consider the following:
Version for practice
Do three “reps” of a ten-second hold of each of the following:
Typical plank
The side plank (3 reps on each side)
12 kneeling has each side, with elastic pushing you to the side
Glute bridge and maximum contractions
Repeat for a total of two sets.
Version with in-between sets
Exercise A. (any movement in your workout)
Three rounds of 10 seconds in front plank
Before resting, complete this series as a superset.
B. Exercise
Eight reps on either side of a rotational plank
Before sleeping, complete this series as a superset.
C. Exercise
Eight glute bridge leg swings
(Complete this series as a superset before rest)
Tip #4: Increase Speed to Fundamental Movements
Speed doesn’t just mean trying to beat the record for how fast you can finish a complete set of an exercise. This is also about how long it takes to do a single rep while keeping your muscles tight.
When training for speed, the idea is to move as quickly as possible, then recover sufficiently to allow for a similar or faster pace. Consider this an intensity scale: you want to push yourself to achieve maximal intensity on each set and rep. Examine the distinction between a sitting military press (a slower pace movement) and an Olympic weightlifter performing a jerk press. The trend is identical regarding upper-body involvement, but the jerk press is faster in execution and takes a lot more time and technique to execute effectively.
Ways to Increase Speed
Try a simple workout like a bird dog. You may perform a “neuro pulse,” in which you try to move your arms and legs as quickly as possible and recover to your starting position without falling over. You can do the same with a stomping motion to increase driving speed through your hips, knees, and ankles; this is a great way to prepare for squats, deadlifts, Olympic lifting, or sprinting.
5th Essential Tip: Master Your Exhalation
Breathing should differ substantially during a max-weight squat, sprint, sparring, or yoga class. And understanding how to customize your breathing for specific tasks will not only improve your performance. Still, it will also have a surprising core and abdominal effect. These are a few things to think about, depending on the activity.
How to Breathe Properly During Max Lifts
A way for you to lift heavier weight is to inhale before starting the rep and then hold your breath. Squeeze your breath as tight as possible to help build spinal stability and core pressure and avoid losing weight control.
How to Breathe Well When Sprinting
If sprinting is more your speed, breathing in a pulsed way when your foot strikes the ground will give you an instant surge of stability and core activity to help drive you down. This is preferable to slow, extended breathing or holding your breath; this is comparable to sparring, where timing your exhales to your blows allows you to generate greater force and last longer before tiring.
Yoga Breathing Techniques
Longer and deeper inhales and exhales are great for mobility or hobbies like yoga. It can be challenging to grasp, so let’s break it down.
Do this:
Sit up straight.
Place your hands on your stomach.
Take a long, deep breath, trying to fill your tummy.
If done correctly, your stomach should press out into your hands.
Exhale softly and notice how your abdominal muscles feel. They’re soft and pliable.
Try to inhale deeply, then close your mouth and tighten your abs tightly, as if you were squeezing a balloon without letting the air out. Then, take a deep breath and flex your abs as hard as possible. Your abs will most likely feel solid and as though you’re not moving.
Finally we state, while maintaining your hands on your tummy, take a quick, strong whiff through your nose. Feel what your abs did, then exhale sharply, quickly, and forcefully, as if you were a martial artist throwing a jab or strike.
Your abs most likely underwent a twitch contraction in which they saw a major shapeshift, got rock hard for an instant, and then returned to their resting state. A rapid on-off cycle is one of the keys to athleticism and speed development.
These quick and easy suggestions will help you see and feel the difference in better-defined and firmer abs and will help you move weights, run, and be more athletic.