Abdominals are the focal point of a well-developed physique. A lean, muscular waistline is indicative of the active lifestyle.
Here are the main keys to exceptional abdominal development:
- Keep repetitions between 10 and 30
- Eliminate exercises that tend to emphasize the development of the hip flexors
- Work out from large to small (lower abdomen, than right, left outer abdomen and than upper abdomen)
- Maintain constant tension on the muscles
- Emphasize quality of movement not quantity of movement
- Attack the abdominals from variety of angles using a variety of movements
- Train your abdominals 3 to 4 times a week
- Reduce caloric intake and increase energy expenditure to reduce body fat levels.
Other important facts about abdominal muscles:
Abdominal exercises do not “spot reduce” fat from the waist.
By eating wisely and exercising properly, it is possible to increase your lean muscle mass while decreasing your body fat %.
The abdomen is comprised of four muscles:
- internal obliques
- external obliques
- transversus abdominis
- rectus abdominis
The abdominals can be divided into four major chambers:
- the lower
- the right outer
- the left outer
- the upper
The rectus abdominis is the largest of the muscle groups that comprise the abdomen, so train the rectus abdomens first, more specifically, the lower chamber of the rectus abdominis.
As you train these lower chamber, both side chambers and the upper chamber are also receiving some work.
If you were to train the upper chamber first, your lower abdomen would not become completely exhausted because the smaller upper chamber would fatigue before the larger chamber.
You should train your abdominals:
- lower chamber first
- the right/left outer chambers second
- upper chamber third
Naturally, the upper chamber won’t require much extra work because these chamber receives a great deal of work during the other abdominal movements.