BODYBUILDING SERIES: Building Up Your Abs
April 7, 2009 by Tisha Tolar
Filed under Bodybuilding
Ripped abdominal muscles or ripped abs are one of the focal points of any bodybuilder. Even those who are not pursing competitive abs would love to develop their own set of washboard abs because it is a visula center of every human body.
To develop our mid-section to the max, you need to develop each muscle group in proportion to the other muscle
groups, notably the legs, back and pectoral muscles. The muscles of the mid-section include the rectus abdominus, intercostals and the external obliques. The muscles can be developed into the kind of body you are looking for through a variety of high-intensity exercises. If you are developing your abs specifically for competition, every striation, contour, and angle must be enhanced and brought out.
ABDOMINAL MUSCLES
To create well-defined, fully developed abdominal muscles, you can follow the following tips:
- Set consistent workouts and stick with it.
- Focus on each individual set.
- Start with basic movements including crunches, reverse crunches, and sit ups.
- To sculpt the abdominal areas, perform 10-15 minutes of Roman Chair exercises.
INTERCOSTALS/SERRATUS ANTERIOR MUSCLES
To exercise the intercostal and serratus anterior muscles, you can follow the following tips:
- Crunching workouts will work these muscle groups and help develop the areas. Try twisting crunches and add twists to the other crunching exercises you perform.
OBLIQUES
To develop your oblique muscles, use the following tips:
- Use twisting exercises, including side bends, seated twists, and twisting crunches.
- Be sure you are tensing the entire oblique region completely during the contraction part of the ecercise.
- To build bigger obliques, use resistence but keep in mind that most bodybuilders do not want to develop obliques too big and perfer to maintain a v-shaped torso.
Recommended Ab Exercises
Roman Chair
Hang from a chin up bar or use the leg raise bench. Raise your knees as high as you can, curling your pelvis forward. Hold the position at the top and then lower your legs down towards the ground. Make sure you are using your ab muscles to pull your legs up and not just momentum. For more advanced exercise, raise up legs in a straight position.
Crunches
Lie down on the floor and lift your feet from the ground, so your calves form a 90 degree angle with the floor. Place your hands behind your neck (or cross them in front of you) and slowly raise your head and your torso up toward your knees, leaving your legs as stationary as possible. Focus completely on both the concentric and eccentric portions of the movement for the most effective workout. Perform as many crunches as you can until the burn is too much to complete a full controlled rep.
Twisting Crunches
With feet raised, make your calves form a 90 degree angle with the floor. Crunch forward but instead of going straight forward, twist to one side then down, then to the other side then down. Take your elbows behind your head and crunch touching your elbow to the opposite knee on each progressive rep, switching sides each time.
Reverse Crunches
This exercise is good for the lower abs which are usually the most under-developed part of the abs. Lie on a flat bench. With your back on the bench and your hands gripping the top of the bench by your head, lift your bent legs up to your elbows, slowly and then lower them back so that your feet lie flat on the bench.
Leg Exercises
There is a variety of leg exercises that can be used to develop the abdominal muscles. Some of these exercises include leg raises, flat bench leg raises, bent-knee flat bench leg raises, hanging leg raises, twisting hanging leg raises, side leg raises, bench kickbacks and rear leg scissors.
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