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Posts Tagged ‘Ribcage’

If your abs look good, your whole body looks good. Having Big arms and chest is one thing but having rock hard defined abs is so another.

Everyone knows that nothing turns heads like a defined full set of abs. And hey, chicks love em. What more needs to be said.

Contrary to popular belief, the abs or Rectus Abdominis is really only one muscle. It stretches from the top of your pelvis up to your ribcage. The “six-pack” as it is called is merely sections of this one muscle.

Dispelling the Ab Myths:

The action of any muscle is simply to contract. And as you can’t contract half your bicep or quad, it makes sense that you cannot contract half your abs as well. Therefore the myths about “upper ab” and “lower ab” training are total nonsense. I’m not discounting those training methods but the simple fact is that if you can’t see your lower abs, it just means you’ve got fat covering them, not that you need to work them harder.

Say goodbye to hanging knee-raises, straight-leg raises, and any other type of leg raises for building your abs. They simply don’t work. The primary role of your abs is to stabilize your body. When you raise your leg for example, your hip flexors pull on your spine and arch it forward/downward. Your abs stabilize this action by resisting and essentially keeping your back from breaking. Take note that this is the static action of the abs. It doesn’t build or strengthen. Leg raising exercises only feel like they are effectively working your abs because of the repeated strain and exhaustion of your muscle producing catabolic, lactic acid build up. Search for “lactic acid” at http://www.muscle-body.com for more information.

What Really Works:

What does strengthen your abs is what strengthens any other muscle in your body. Contraction! In this case – Decreasing the distance between your rib cage and your pelvis.

So we come back to the good old sit-up. But there are a few things to keep in mind.

Firstly, forget about the cool all-the-way-up sit-ups you see in the movies. Your abs are fully contracted when your shoulders are about 5 to 6 inches off the ground. So don’t bother trying to impress or outperform someone by touching your elbows to your knees. It does nothing for you. Crunches as they are sometimes called are the way to go.

Secondly, don’t wedge your feet under something to help you get up. You don’t need to do this if you are doing crunches properly anyway. Your legs should be at 90 degrees to each other and your knees at 45 degrees to your waist. If you need to, use something to press your heels back against to stabilize yourself. This way you will use your hamstrings instead of your hip flexors which will keep the focus on your abs.

Thirdly, keep your hands lightly held against the side of your head or crossed on your chest. Don’t clasp them together behind your head or neck. If you do you will be tempted to pull with your hands to get the last few reps out, which will put unnecessary strain on this fragile part of the spine.

Alternative:

Another good exercise for abs is kneeling crunches. You will need special equipment to perform this exercise. This is where you kneel and contract your abs so that your upper body arches forward/downward. You hold a rope attached to a pulley with weights for extra resistance. Most gyms will have a rope attachment to the triceps pull down to perform this exercise. The idea is to lock your arms against your upper body so that you pull down only with your abs and not your arms.

Ab Training Devices:

In 2 words – Forget it.

You don’t need them. Most of them do nothing for you. Building muscle is hard and it hurts. Most of these devices are designed to take the pressure off your body making the exercise seem easy and con you into thinking you are really targeting your muscles. Don’t believe the hype. Ab training is definitely hard work but definitely worth it’s reward.

The Secret:

The difficulty in obtaining great abs is not so much building the muscle. It’s cutting enough fat from your body for them to show. You probably know by now that spot-reduction of fat simply doesn’t work here. In order to show those abs you need overall fat loss. Check out http://www.muscle-guide.com for more info.

Becoming familiar with the muscles that make up your body has more benefits than simply allowing you to talk shop with your training partners. The more familiar you are with the muscles you’re working, the better you’ll be able to judge what’s needed to make improvements. In this article we’ll get to know the muscles that make up the mid-section.

The core muscles of the mid-section do much to stabilize and support the torso so it’s well worth spending time to train this area properly. The main muscles of the mid-section are as follows:

1. Rectus abdominis – this is a large flat muscle wall that covers most of the front mid-section from the lower chest to the pubic bone. Above the navel it consists of three pairs of rectangular sections stacked on top of each other and is better known as the six pack.

2. Obliquus abdominis – this muscle runs diagonally along the side of the mid-section from the lower ribcage to the pubic area. There are two muscles on each side, with internal obliques lying underneath the external obliques. The obliques help your torso to flex to the side, twist at the waist and help in bending the torso forwards.

3. Transversus abdominis – this is the deepest of the abdominal muscles and consists of a thin strip that runs horizontally across the abdomen. This muscle helps keep the internal organs in place, forces out the breath and stabilizes the spine.

4. Erector spinae – this large muscle group runs along the side of the lower spine. Consisting of a pair, the erector spinae keeps the spine erect and helps twisting at the waist.

The abdomen contains the muscles that most beginners struggle with because they take a long time to develop and need a low level of body fat to be seen. The abdominal muscle group consists of three main muscles:

1. Rectus abdominis – commonly known as the abs, this is a large flat muscle wall that runs from the lower chest to the pubic bone.

2. Obliquus abdominis – commonly known as the obliques, this muscle runs diagonally along the side of the mid-section from the lower ribcage to the pubic area. The internal obliques lie underneath the external obliques.

3. Transversus abdominis – this is a thin strip of muscle that runs horizontally across the abdomen.

You can target these muscles effectively by performing the following exercises:

1. Crunches – 3 sets of 15-20 reps. This exercise will work the upper abs.

2. Pelvic tilts – 3 sets of 15-20 reps.This exercise will target the lower portion of the abdomen below the navel.

3. Side bends – 3 sets of 15-20 reps. This exercise will work the obliques.

As with all exercises you need to take care in scheduling specific body parts. To begin with you should incorporate your abdominal exercises into a program similar to the one suggested below:

Day 1: Biceps, Back, Abs

Day 2: Hamstrings, Shoulders, Abs

Day 3: Quads, Forearms, Calves

Day 4: Triceps, Chest, Abs

For the first couple of weeks complete one set but then add one set each week to a maximum of three. At the end of three months you will be ready to move on to more intensive intermediate level exercises.

Yoga Ball Exercises

Yoga is definitely an work out form which is based on holding contractions for any specified level of time. These are generally called “isometric” contractions. Performing yoga can assist raise your versatility, reduce your anxiety amounts and also tighten some of your respective muscles. A tool that may be often employed in yoga is really a yoga ball, also often known as an exercising ball, stability basketball or Swiss golf ball. These include inflated and accustomed to perform numerous parts of the system. 1 of individuals areas is the obliques, which can be found for the sides of the ribcage.
Facet Crunches

Position the yoga golf ball in regards to the length of your respective legs apart at a wall. Location your feet in the staggered posture against the wall, your hips on leading from the golf ball plus your hands within the sides of this head. Slowly reduced oneself laterally more than best in the basketball, then lift yourself back again up by engaging your oblique muscles. Do 10 to 12 reps and switch sides.
Alternating Leg Raises

Spot the golf ball about an arm’s accomplish apart from a beam or stationary object. Lie within the basketball together with your lower returning contacting it. Attain your arms throughout your head and grab the beam for help. Elevate each of one’s legs simultaneously at an angle towards still left. More affordable them back again down until they’re parallel towards floor, then elevate them up at an angle for the appropriate. Reduce them returning to parallel and keep on to alternate back and forth Ten to 12 periods.
Side Planks

Stand in front from the golf ball together with your feet in a wide posture. Can come straight down towards golf ball and position your suitable forearm across it and perpendicular for your body. Your feet ought to be from a staggered stance and your shoulders needs to be in line along with your hips. Spot your remaining hand on your quit hip, keep for 30 to 45 seconds, and switch sides.
Aspect to Sides

Lie on your own back jointly with your arms decrease at your sides as well as the basketball pinched among your legs lower by your ankles. Elevate the ball up within the air so the bottom of your respective feet are parallel for the ceiling. Lower it from one particular side towards other from a slow and managed fashion. Do 10 to 12 reps total.
Facet Pull-ins

Can come right into a plank situation jointly with your hands on the ground as well as your toes on leading from the ball. Pull the basketball in toward your physical structure, and draw your knees for the still left. Extend the golf ball again out and pull it in toward your appropriate. Alternate back and forth 10 to 12 periods.