How about walking on the beach with all the girls staring at you admiring your rock hard abs? Learn exactly what you need to build muscle and get real results.
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If your abs look good, your whole body looks good. Having big arms and a big chest is one thing, but having rock hard abs is another.
Everyone knows that nothing turns heads like well-defined abs. And girls love them. There is nothing more to say.
Contrary to popular belief, the abs or rectus abdominis muscle are actually just one muscle. It extends from the top of your pelvis to your ribcage. The “six packs,” as they are called, are just sections of this single muscle.
Dispelling Myths About Abs:
The action of any muscle is simply to contract. And since you can't contract half of your biceps or quadriceps, it makes sense that you can't contract half of your abs either. Therefore, the myths about training "upper abs" and "lower abs" are complete nonsense. I'm not discrediting these training methods, but the fact is that if you can't see your lower abs, it just means you have fat covering them, not that you need to work them more.
Say goodbye to hanging knee raises, straight leg raises, and any other type of leg raises to build your abs. They just don't work. The main 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 or down. Your abs stabilize this action by resisting and essentially preventing your back from breaking. Note that this is the static action of the abdominals. It does not build or reinforce. Leg raise exercises only feel like they're effectively working your abs because of the repeated tension and exhaustion of your muscles, which produces a buildup of catabolic lactic acid. For more information, search for “lactic acid” at http://www.muscle-body.com.
What really works:
What strengthens your abs is what strengthens every other muscle in your body. Contraction ! In this case, it's about reducing the distance between your rib cage and your pelvis.
So we're back to the good old sit-up. But there are a few things to keep in mind.
First of all, forget the full-on sit-ups you see in the movies. Your abs are fully contracted when your shoulders are about 10 to 15 cm from the floor. So don't try to impress or outdo someone by touching your elbows to your knees. It won't do you anything. Crunches, as they are sometimes called, are the best solution.
Second, don't prop your feet under something to help you get up. You don't need to do this if you're doing crunches correctly anyway. Your legs should be 90 degrees to each other and your knees 45 degrees to your waist. If you need to, use something to press your heels against to stabilize yourself. This way you'll be using your hamstrings rather than your hip flexors, allowing you to stay focused on your abs.
Third, keep your hands held lightly against the side of your head or crossed over your chest. Do not tighten them behind your head or neck. If you do this, you'll be tempted to pull with your hands to get the last few reps, putting unnecessary pressure on this fragile part of the spine.
Alternative :
Another good exercise for the abs is kneeling crunches. You will need special equipment to perform this exercise. You get on your knees and contract your abs so that your upper body arches forward or down. You hold a rope attached to a pulley with weights for added resistance. Most gyms have a rope attached 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.
Abdominal workout machines:
In two words: forget them.
You don't need it. Most of them don't do you any good. Building muscle is difficult and hurts. Most of these devices are designed to take the strain off your body and make you believe that the exercise is easy and that you are really targeting your muscles. Don't believe everything that is said. Strength training your abs is hard work, but definitely worth it.
The secret :
The difficulty in getting beautiful abs is not so much developing the muscles. It's about removing enough fat from your body for them to appear. You probably know by now that spot fat reduction doesn't work. To make those abs appear, you need overall fat loss. Visit http://www.muscle-guide.com to find out more.