Best Abdominal Exercises According To FullMusculocom Science

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Very good team, welcome to FullMuscle.

I am David Serrano and I have been helping people achieve their physical and mental well-being for over 12 years. I am a graduate of CAFYD, with a postgraduate degree in Sports Coaching and I try to contribute value content at @entrenacondavidserrano.

How many times have you heard "this is the best exercise for abdominals"? I'm sure many, but what no one tells you is why that exercise is so good.

But... is there really a star exercise?

Or if we do free weight training you don't need to work on the abdominals anymore?

I have a lot of information to give you in this article so watch out and take notes!

Understanding the abdominals
The main mission of the abdominals is to protect the spine, stabilizing the torso in any movement.

That is, they are better adapted to resist movement than to generate it.

That's why I want you to forget all the exercises you have in mind for now, because I want you to know more in depth the function of the abs (nothing would help us have a Ferrari if we don't know what they serve their buttons and levers).

By the way!

80% of the visibility of your abdominals depends on your diet (this means having a low level of body fat), not what you do at the gym (but if you need to have some muscle).

What are the abdominals?
The abdominal muscles, colloquially known as the chocolate tablet, or the six-pack, are muscles from the previous, side and deep part of the torso.

These are:

Abbey rectum
It is a long muscle that extends along the entire anterior wall of the abdomen and its previous surface is interrupted by 3 fibrous bands.

I want to break a myth about the "superior" and "inferior" abdominals.

The abdominal rectum is a single muscle so it is not divided into 2. But if it's true that we can focus the job more on one of the areas, but without failing to work the other.

External oblique
It is the most shallow muscle and extends inward and downward.

Internal oblique
It is the most flattened muscle and extends forming straight angles with the external oblique.

Transverse of the abdomen
It's the deepest muscle in relation to the back.

What functions do you have?
Abdominal muscles are spine flexors, that is to say they throw the trunk forward, or lift the trunk from a lying position.

They are column rotators, that is to say they turn the trunk to the sides, lateral benders, bend the column to the sides.

Finally, they are breathers, that is to say, they help drive air out of the lungs.

The abdominal muscles as well as other spinal muscles such as extenders (bone inserts) and lateral flexors (Lumbar square) work in synergy with the hip muscles that originate in vertebrae or pelvis.

♪ Abbey: flex the spine, especially its lumbar region and compresses the abdomen (for example, in forced inspiration, urination or childbirth)
♪ External and internal oblique: acting together (bilaterally), compress the abdomen and flex the spine; acting alone (unilaterally), flex the spine (especially in its lumbar region and rotate it)

♪ Transverse of the abdomen its function is to compress the abdomen, stabilizing the spine and increasing intraabdominal pressure.
♪ Lumbar Square: acting together, they help in forced expiration and helps to extend the lumbar portion of the spine; acting alone, they flex it laterally (especially the lumbar region)

Do we have to work every day?
Abdominals have a high % of type I fibers, which allows them to support a lot of training volume.

They are also designed to activate continuously (e.g. every time we walk, we don't bend, we jump... they are stabilizing our body).

Remember that we also talked about a set of muscles, not just one, so overloading them will be difficult task.

But it's not about you doing abs now every day at all times!

It is better to think about progressing in intensity and not in time or repetitions, we do not seek to do cardio in the abdominals.

Importance of exercises (from generic to specific)
In 2013 a study was performed (1) showing what type of exercise caused the increased activation of the abdominals. It measured the superficial muscle activity of 6 abdominal muscles through:

♪ Specific insulation exercises, such as the typical "crunch"
* Integration, such as the "flat" or the "mountain climber"

The results showed that the activation of abdominal and lumbar muscles was greater during integration exercises (where the activation of the muscles of deltoids and glutes was required)

Integration exercises that required the activation of the trunk's distal musculature would be the most optimal to maximize strength, improve resistance, improve stability and reduce injuries.

In the following points I will tell you about the abdominal muscles and their involvement from the most general work to the most specific and concrete:

Breathing
Abdominals are located in the front of the torso and are very related to breathing.

How is this?

Right above, forming the floor of the chest cavity (and separating it from the abdomen), the diaphragm is found. It actively participates, together with intercostal muscles, in inspiration and espiration at rest.

However, during deep and forced expiration, external and internal obliques, the transverse of the abdomen, the abdominal rectum are also used.

Therefore, the control of breathing in exercises is very important. Moreover, we have to learn to breathe with the diaphragm and not lifting the lungs, so we will get to increase the tension on the abdominal wall.

The term for the normal pattern of ventilation is eupnea (from eu- = well, easy, normal; pneir = breathing) and this can be a superficial, deep or combined breathing.

Coastal respiration is a type of superficial (toraic) breathing. In it, the thorax moves up and out by the contraction of external intercostal muscles

The so-called diaphragmatic breathing is a type of deep (abdominal) breathing, which is characterized by the movement out of the abdomen due to the contraction and descent of the diaphragm.

Exercises
Hypopressive abdominals are postureal techniques that seek to reduce intra-abdominal pressure.

Its main objective is to activate the abdominal strip, as well as the involuntary muscle fibers of the pelvic floor muscles (2).

These techniques were created by Dr. Marcel Caufriez during the 80s of the 20th century.

They developed at first as a postpartum method of work.

When doing a hypopressive exercise the breathing is divided into three phases: to begin a diaphragmatic inspiration is performed, followed by a slow and complete expiration and finally a breathable apnea in which a diaphragmatic aspiration with rib elevation and opening is performed.

During this last phase of diaphragmatic aspiration, there is a decrease in intra-abdominal pressure that will generate the activation of abdominal musculature and pelvic soil involuntary form (3).

The hypopressive abdominal technique is therefore presented as an exercise suitable for the work of the pelvic floor musculature, as well as the musculature dedicated to posture, as the transverse of the abdomen (4).

The advantage of the hypopressives is that you can do them at any time, just as you drive or watch TV.

Bracing
The stability of the core is essential for a proper load balance within the spine and pelvis.

The so-called chore can be described as a muscle box with the abdominals in the front, the paraespinals and the glutes in the back, the diaphragm as the ceiling and the pelvic floor as the bottom, surrounding the spine and the abdominal viscera (providing stability)(5).

It has been shown that the stability of the core and its motor control are essential for the initiation of functional movements of the extremities.

When the system works as it should, the result is a proper force distribution. When you loved this post and you would like to receive much more information about jbhnews.com generously visit our own page. This means that strength generation can be maximum and minimum compression (6).

The abdominal muscles, along with the diaphragm, cause increased intraabdominal pressure and thus manage to sustain the spine and avoid its bending during the lifting of weights (7).

Think of when you cough or sneeze!

Unconsciously, your entire core muscle is contracted to protect your organs and avoid overloads in the cervical spine.

Now let's talk about the bracing!

This term refers to the isometric, conscious and voluntary contraction of the chore. It is the same as the strength you generate in the core in a sneeze but applied to a weight-lift exercise.

With this you manage to increase stability in the trunk, therefore safety in training.

Exercises
Some exercises where we actively work the abdominal muscles are those of free weight, such as in the slats or in the dead weight.

In the case of a seat, it is recommended that you contain breathing in the descent (excentric phase) and exhales in a forced manner in the concentric, making the air passage minimal and not lose intraabdominal pressure.

In the dead weight, you would have to apply exactly the same, as so you would get to keep a good alignment on your back and protect the lumbar area.

In the following video you can watch as just before starting each repetition in the squats, inspires forced to activate the abdominal muscles to the maximum and apply the bracing.

Even in the dead weight it looks like it keeps breathing to keep the same tension:

Anti-movement work
As I said at first, abdominal muscles are better suited to resist movement than to generate it. Therefore it makes sense to work isometrically or to perform a work focused on the eccentric phase.

The word isometry literally refers to "equal measure", or what is the same, to maintain the muscles with the same elongation.

When I talk about training the eccentric phase, I mean when we move from having a muscle contracted to stretch it (such as it happens in a biceps curl, where the muscle moves from up and down and stretched). The eccentric part has the important function of controlling and "fighting" the movement.

To do this type of work with our abs it is very interesting to do so in relation to the different anatomical axis:

♪

Imagine a line that crosses you from your head to your feet. The work would be of rotation, in our case of anti-rotation.

Here the line would cross us from one side to the other side of the torso. What we would do would be to resist a bending or extension.

Finally, you have to imagine a line that crosses the navel from front to back. Here the work to perform would be resisting an abduction or an aduction.

Exercises
We have 4 ways to train the abs in relation to the resistance of the movement and I want to give you examples for each of them:

The star exercise here would be the Plot or the Table...

To all known and to few loved ones!

The most important thing is to follow a good progression and increase the difficulty as long as your hip does not yield below the head and hip line.

Tip: Press the glutes tightly.

In this exercise you have to look to maintain a static position for some time. The main thing is to keep your back aligned with your head and hip. From here (depending on the variant), the alignment is maintained to the knees or even to the feet.

Here I leave you a video of mine where I explain 2 variants:

Another exercise that I like a lot and also forces you to work the lumbar area is the V-Sit and would be (saving distances) the reverse exercise to the plate.

It would be advisable for you to exercise near a mirror or for someone to take a look at you, as the back has to bend without you realizing it.

Take note: At more distance between the feet and the head, the harder the exercise will be.

You have here my video you can see how it is done:

My recommendation here would be to make the Press Paloff, exercise in which you only need a rubber and keep the position standing.

In the initial position hold the rubber with both hands touching the chest. From here you stretch your arms completely, forming a straight angle with your body. Try to keep this position, with arms stretched, without allowing your torso to be sprayed (you have to prevent the torso and arms from moving in the direction where you have the rubber anchored)

This exercise will make you work the entire abdominal and lumbar area, emphasizing especially in the oblique.

It's important not to include the body as you'd be overloading one side, besides cheating!

I'll leave you the YouTube video where I'll tell you 2 variants of the Press Paloff:

Here I could also talk to you about the Abdominal Sheet, as it is an exercise in which you have to try to maintain the posture without extending the body, which is the same, without allowing your hip to fall to the ground.

The V-Sit could also enter here as the idea of exercise is that you do not cease your posture and maintain that bending/extension.

But I want to talk to you about another different exercise, for me one of the hardest ones that exist, the one known as Dragonflag.

In this case you have to try to maintain the posture (like for example in the abdominal plate), from the position of tomb up on a surface that makes you comfortable as for example the floor or a gym bench.

From there you grab a point with your hands that allows you to maintain stability, raise your legs and slow down, holding and resisting the movement with the strength of the abdomen.

A simpler variant to begin to perform it would be to keep the legs flexed and thus the center of gravity would come closer.

As seen in the image, try to resist gravity and it is very important that you keep your back straight, do not allow your column to curve.

In order to train the abdominals in relation to the anteroposterior axis, the simplest thing is to carry more weight on one side than on the other.

A clear example would be the exercise #2 of the following photo, the Farmer's Walk to 1 hand, where we will take a mancuerna or a kettlebell with one hand while we walk.

It is important that you do not include the body to the opposite side of the weight so that you can carry your body as vertically as possible. And so don't cheat on exercise!

Concentric / Eccentric work
We refer to concentric work when the muscle is shortened and eccentric work when the muscle length increases.

They are the most accomplished exercises in all the muscles of the body since they allow us to move objects or even move ourselves.

Exercises
I want to explain to you the tip of our "pyramid" of exercises regarding the functions of the abdominals.

The typical exercise would be the Crunch, where we have to try to elevate the head next to the shoulders by making a bend of column and bringing the muscle fibers of our abs.

It is an exercise where you can feel the feeling of work from the first moment but it is also true that you have to be careful with the cervical spine, since between vertebra and vertebrae we have pads called intervertebral discs. These discs are overloaded in the most previous part each time we perform a repetition of the crunch.

If you are a healthy person and without pains, you should not have any problems in performing, but it is true that I do not advise you to abuse him.

In the following video you will see how it is executed correctly:

I want to give you one more example and talk to you about one of the most complete exercises in terms of the whole chore is meant. It is the abdominal wheel and is so complete that even muscles of the back, shoulders and arms intervene to maintain overall stability.

It is very important that you take care of and protect the area of your lumbar, because it can suffer a lot with this exercise if you do it wrong. Remember to keep the glutes active, the core and a lot of control on your shoulders.

I recommend you to watch the following video where you explain perfectly how to perform the abdominal wheel:

All right, team, I want to ask you a question about the best exercise:

You still think there's only one better exercise to work on the abdominals?

I hope you realized that there is no single exercise better than the others, if not a set of them as your abdominals do not have a single function if not several to perform.

Bibliographical references
1. Gottschall JS, Mills J, Hastings B. Integration core exercises elicit greater muscle activation than isolation exercises. J Strength Cond Res. 2013; 27 (3): .
2. Caufriez M. Gymnastique abdominale hypopressive. M.V. Editions. Brussels, 1997.
3. Caufriez M. Rééducation Myostatique hypopressive. I:N:K. Brussels; 1999.
4. Navarro-Brazález B, Torres-Lacomba M, Arranz-Martín B, Sánchez-Mémdez O. Muscle response during a hypopressive exercise after pelvic floor physiotherapy: Assessment with transabdominal ultrasound. Physiotherapy. 2017; 39 (5): .
5. Richardson, C., G. Jull, P. Hodges and J. Hides. Therapeutic exercise for spinal segmental stabilization in lumbar pain: scientific basis and clinical approach. Edinburgh, New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1999.
6. Fredericson, M. and T. Moore. Muscle balance, core stability and injury prevention for mid- and long-distance corridors. Phys. Medicine. Clin rehabilitation. N. A. 16: , 2005.
7. McGill, S. Low back disorders: evidence-based prevention and rehabilitation. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2002.