We all fantasize to have abs like wolverine, Superman, Batman, He-man and many other action heroes! Well it adds more aesthetics to a person for sure along with other muscles! In a bodybuilding competition, the most noticed muscle along with the leg muscles is Abs. In most of the videos, which represent an advertisement of clothing or anything related to high appeal, a person with abs is always on screen!
So far, we have been watching people with abs and we always wonder, can we too have abs like them? Oh no, I wouldn't ever have them because I have a big ponch (abdominal fat). I can'tever be like that. Those people take steroids for that to get those chiseled abs. Is it true? No...maybe to some extent it is but to get rock-solid abs you don't really need to poke some injections into your body but also there are no magic pills which can give you abs in an instant! Please don't get confused or think that I am contradicting my own words here. Let me help you to get a clear idea about the muscle called as abdominus rectus(abs) and internal and external obliques (oblique muscle).
Rectus abdominus is a muscle located at your abdomen. A person having 4, 6 or 8 abs depends on the Linea Alba structure of the person's abdominus muscle. Linea Alba is a parallel muscles which makes it look like it divided the abs into 4,6 or 8. A person who is born with a genetic structure for 6 abs with that pattern of Linea Alba can't ever make 8 abs by any sort of training or diet. It's not possible practically. Enough of all this science stuff now, can you simply let us know how do we build them? Hold on… hold on… I am coming to that next!
Basically, we all heard the quote or a joke that I have abs but they are protected by a layer of fat! Well that's indeed a true thing! Surprised? Let me debunk this as well! We all have muscles since we are born and it is covered with a layer of fat. As the fat percentageis decreased, the muscles become more visible to the naked eyes. The visibility depends on two factors: 1) fat percentage (visceral fat and subceutenous fat) and 2) how much the muscle ishypertrophied (size of the muscle).
Now you might be thinking - So you mean to say if I focus on these two factors, the abs will be visible? Hell yes!
Now how do I do it? Here is the answer!
To decrease overall fat percentage of the body we need to do compound exercises that are followed by a good amount of cardio too! Compound exercises help you burn more fat in a day because you are using large muscle groups of the body like quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, pectoralis, latissimus dorsii. In cardio, a steady state cardio can help because fat is broken down oxidatively. It means it requires lot of oxygen to mobilize. So doing crunches is a waste of time? Is it? Well, if your bodyfat percentage is not in a good range, doesn't matter how many crunches you do it's not going to help you! So, the first and most important thing is to try and decrease your body fat percentage as low as possible.
Usually even if you reach below 15% body fat, abs can be quite visible. Once you achieve this, try and include abs exercises like crunches, planks, weighted planks, leg raises etc to get your abs hypertrophied. Just workout won't help so make sure you follow diet properly which is low in carbohydrates and high on fat and moderate in protein. You can check my other articles to get an idea about nutrition for rock solid abs! I hope this information helped you and you get your abdominus rectus. Well, sorry for scientific term again. I mean abs by that. I hope you get abs as good as a Greek God! OrHrithik maybe or whoever your role model is!
About The Author
Anthony Cardoz is a certified Personal Trainer from K11 Academy of Fitness Sciences. He has experience of 3 years in the fitness industry. He is a fitness freelancer writer at b..
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