Everyone wants to have great abs and to have them, one of the requirements is to do a good abdominal routine.. Some abdominal routines that personal trainers give us are not well adapted to our needs, being either too strong or too weak.
There is a lot of ignorance in gyms about abdominal routines, since there are many myths about this particular muscle, which leads people who practice bodybuilding to do real nonsense, such as doing sets of 2000 abdominals, that the only thing what it serves is to injure your muscle.
Besides, they are also often neglected quite a lot, because as with lowering body fat you get to be seen, many people do not do them as they should be and do not arrive in a good aesthetic state in the summer. On the other hand, there are those who do not diet or train and only base their weight routine on abdominal exercises, since many female sectors overvalue them a lot.
If you do an abdominal routine correctly, you will be able to mark your abs sooner than if you do not do it well. Another advantage of doing abdominal exercises is that you will achieve greater stability in the trunk area of your body. And you will increase your strength in exercises that depend indirectly on them, such as the squat and pull-ups.
The routine that I have prepared for today is based on a very simple but at the same time quite hard routine that I did for abdominals. However, it is adapted to the goals you want to achieve and the level you have, with differences between novice, intermediate and expert.
For this reason, from this sports section, you should pay close attention from now on, since this abdominal routine can change your life.
What do you need to do an abdominal routine?
- to mat
- One tracksuit.
- A gym roller.
Instructions to do an abdominal routine
- Abdominal anatomy:
Before starting with the abdominal routine, I would like to explain some concepts related to it, since there is a lot of myth in relation to it, causing a lot of misinformation in this field and my task is to inform, not misinform. The abdomen is a muscle that is located in the central part of the body and is part of the core and core of the body. The abdomen is responsible for balancing the body and making the union between the torso and legs. The abdomen is divided into four parts, the lower abs (the bottom two squares), the middle abs (the center four squares), the upper abs (the top two) and the oblique’s (the ones on the sides). A good abdomen is completely defined and for this we must always be with less than 15% body fat, otherwise the abdomen will not be there no matter how much you train. The abdomen is one more muscle, therefore, it also needs to rest and not kill it to train. The proper rep ranges to work without injury are between 10 and 30 reps. - Explanation of the routine:
Now we are going to offer an overview of this routine, so that you know a little what you are going to face. The routine is quite hard and quite extensive, being divided by the 4 areas of the abdomen and being reinforced by plank exercises for isometric abs. The parts that you will see below are done in a row without a break, with only breaks between parts. This routine can be implemented on abdominal day in your standard weight training routine, does it and you will see how you progress. The number of repetitions and the rest varies according to the level of difficulty, being something like that.- Easy level:10 repetitions, 30 seconds of rest.
- Medium level:20 repetitions, 20 seconds of rest.
- Difficult level:30 repetitions, 10 seconds of rest.
- Expert level, 30 repetitions, 5 seconds or less rest.
- First part: Central zone:
We are going to start with three exercises, three exercises for the central zone of the abdomen. We are going to start with three simple exercises that you will know how to do and that you have surely done before.- Abdominal Crunch: This is the abdominal exercise par excellence and the one that has been done all our lives, we are going to lie on our back with our knees bent and looking at a fixed point on the ceiling, we are going to climb upwards, all without using our neck, rising in a controlled manner and noticing tension in the abdominal area.
- Abdominal crunch with raised knees: This exercise is the same as the abdominal crunch, however, it has the difference that we will raise the knees up, and making them has an angle of 90 degrees with the body.
- Towards the legs: Now we are going to raise the legs up and keep them there, now we are going to go towards them with the hands, using the abdominals to go up towards the balls of the feet (the hands do not move, but they advance because you advance your). With this we have finished the upper part
- Second part: Lower area:
Now we are going to train perhaps the hardest part of the entire abdominal area, that is, the lower abdominal area. We are going to do a couple of exercises that are quite hard and that will leave your area sore.- Leg lifts: We are going to lie on our back with our legs together and now we are going to raise our legs up, until we reach our head, which should continue straight and form a kind of arch. The hands remain on the ground and we do not propel ourselves with them.
- Leg crossing: It is similar to the previous one, but this time instead of going with our legs up we are going to cross our legs stretched out, that is, to move them in opposite directions. Hands on the ground again.
- Third part: Oblique zone:
The oblique zone of the abdominals is quite neglected by many of you, but since you have trained hard the lower part, I will make it simple for you, there will only be one oblique abdominal exercise, but it must be done for both sides (right and left).- Standard oblique’s: We will lie on our back and with our knees bent, now place one foot on the opposite knee, making the leg take the shape of an arch. Now put your hands on your head and move forward with the opposite elbow to the stretched leg (left elbow, right leg). When you finish, do the same but with the other elbow and the other leg. Again, you should not move your neck and the technique should be correct.
- Fourth part: Upper zone:
Now it is the turn of the upper part, which also only has one exercise, but it is one of the hardest. This is the abdominal wheel, which is a beastly exercise for the entire abdomen, but especially for the upper area of it.- Abdominal wheel: Rest your knees on something soft and take the wheel in front of you, now you must use the strength of the abdominals to lower yourself to the ground and come back up, all without arching your lower back, without using your arms and without notice tension other than in the abdominal area.
- Fifth part: Irons:
Finally we are going to do the famous irons, which are a perfect complement to this abdominal routine and are a perfect example of isometric abdominals.- Front plates: The front plates are performed by resting the forearms on the floor face down and keeping ourselves up by supporting them only on the forearms. The trick is that to keep the abdomen up, we have to use it. Do not arch your lower back; otherwise you will pull it and not your abdomen.
- Side Planks: Now support yourself on one side with one forearm and hold with your abdomen up, this is good for the oblique. Perform the exercise on both the left and right sides.
Tips for doing an abdominal routine
- Summary of the routine: Here is a summary of the routine, so you can print it and remember it.
- Part 1: Normal crunch, elevated crunch, towards the legs
- Part 2: Leg raises, leg crossing.
- Part 3: Oblique’s.
- Part 4: abdominal wheel.
- Part 5: Front plank, side plank.
- How often do I rest: There is a lot of controversy on this topic, since some say that you can do sit-ups every day and others that you have to rest them? The truth is that the abdominals are a muscle, and the muscle needs rest to develop, although it is true that it needs less rest than other muscles due to the type of fiber, I do recommend letting them rest for at least 48 hours before training them again.
- The diet: I repeat that doing sit-ups is not enough, since you have to have less than 15% body fat for them to be seen, if you have more than that percentage of fat, you will not have marked abs, therefore, also follow a correct diet, correct training and be patient, because if you do everything right, they will end up marking sooner or later. Also do weight training (don’t just go on a diet), as weights speed up your metabolism, so you’ll be able to lose more weight without having to do anything.