Downloading the press from scratch table

What you need

• Ab roller
• Horizontal bar
• Pancakes from the barbell

Abdominal training is an integral part of any sports discipline. It is difficult to imagine an experienced athlete who would not pay attention to this muscle group. To get ripped abs, you don’t have to exhaust yourself with intense daily workouts in the gym. It’s quite possible to create beautiful abs on your stomach at home. To do this, all you need is your desire and minimal equipment such as a horizontal bar and dumbbells. Plus a competent abdominal training program at home.

But remember that pumping up your abdominal muscles is only half the battle. To give your abs definition, you need a low-calorie diet to get rid of excess subcutaneous fat. If you have excess fat on your stomach and waist, you won't get any six-pack, even if you train your abs five times a day. Visually, the abdominal muscles become prominent when the percentage of body fat drops below 10-12%. If there is more fat in the body, the abdominal muscles will become stronger, but you will not be able to achieve a visually athletic and aesthetic torso.

In this article we will tell you how to train the abs for men and women at home and what exercises are best for this.

Tips for doing ab workouts at home

The abs are the stabilizer in all basic movements, and if they are your weak link, then serious weights in squats or deadlifts will never subdue you.

Ab exercises:

• improve the functioning of internal organs;
• normalize digestive processes;
• have a positive effect on the functioning of the reproductive system.

The external aspect is no less important: a sculpted belly is a universal indicator of your attitude towards your own body. In addition, it increases attractiveness in the eyes of the opposite sex.

Focusing on the abdominal muscles in your training program is quite simple. It is enough just to perform sets of 2-4 exercises a couple of times a week at the end of training other parts of the body. If you eat right and exercise, progress will follow immediately. If this does not happen, there are two reasons: slow burning of subcutaneous fat tissue (or its absence) and insufficient load volume (or an incorrectly structured training process as a whole).

Frequency and volume of training

The most frequently asked question fitness trainers hear is: how often should I train my abs? The answer is simple. The press is the same muscle group as any other. How many times a week do you train, for example, legs? If you train too often, the muscles do not have time to recover, which reduces the result to zero.

Almost always, after a good workout, the abdominal muscles hurt so much that it is impossible to even get out of bed. This is an indicator of proper training. If your abdominal muscles don't hurt the next day, it means you trained something else, but definitely not your abs. The optimal frequency of training is no more than twice a week; for beginners, once will be enough .

The next important point: training volume. Many people do thousands of crunches, naively believing that this will make their abdominal muscles more prominent and burn belly fat. This is a common misconception. There is no local fat burning . For this reason, the abs need to be trained in the classic strength style - 2-4 exercises of 10-15 repetitions. It is advisable to add static elements like a bar or a vacuum, this will make your abs stronger and your waist narrower.

Load distribution

When creating a home workout program for the abs, it is important to correctly distribute the load throughout the entire training week. You should not train your abs the day before training your back or legs. You won’t have time to recover, and squatting or doing deadlifts with a “dead” press is a bad idea. Too much stress will be placed on the spinal extensors, and when working with heavy weights this can lead to injury.

Bodyweight work is good, but to make the most progress you will need additional equipment. These can include kettlebells and dumbbells to make classic exercises like crunches a little harder.

A good option is an abdominal roller, with its help you can fully load the rectus abdominis, latissimus, pectoral and anterior deltoids. It is sold in any sports hypermarket and is inexpensive. If you have a medicine ball lying around at home, that’s great, and if there’s a horizontal bar hanging in your room or in the yard, that’s even better. The more exercises you have in your arsenal, the more varied and productive the training process will be.

Distribute the load evenly - train both the upper and lower abs. The oblique abdominal muscles should not be ignored either.

Many people find their lower abs to be particularly challenging and perform countless hanging leg raises. This is another misconception. The relief of the two lower cubes depends 90% on the amount of fat in the lower abdomen. If your subcutaneous fat layer is large, no amount of ultra-volume training will help.

Training intensity

Train intensely. The press is a small muscle group, so you shouldn’t spend a lot of time training it. If you work really productively, then by training your abs at home, you can easily do it in 20-30 minutes.

Girls should be careful when training their oblique abdominal muscles. If they are hypertrophied, this will visually make the waist wider. It’s unlikely that any of the girls want this. The oblique muscles are small in size and do not require much work. Perform one exercise for them in 3-4 approaches once a week. This will be quite enough to maintain muscle tone, but not increase in volume.

It is not necessary to do a separate workout for the abs - it is compatible with almost any muscle group. This is true for both home workouts and gym workouts. Abdominal exercises are an excellent warm-up and cool-down option. You can also perform them in between approaches to other muscle groups.

The only subtlety in this moment is that you should not pump up your abs after training your legs. Firstly, you have already spent all your energy, and the workout is unlikely to be productive. Secondly, leg exercises increase intra-abdominal pressure. Abdominal exercises aggravate this condition. Possible cramps in the rectus abdominis muscle, weakness and a feeling of nausea. In the long term, the risk of an umbilical hernia increases.

Abs in two weeks

We can talk about the effectiveness of the exercises if the scheme for pumping up the male abs is carefully followed. The first two weeks are important to achieve the desired result. This period requires the following from a guy:

• overcoming pain;
• regularity of training, which becomes a habit;
• an integrated approach to classes.

There are various schemes for pumping up beautiful abs, most of them last a month. But the first results can already be seen after 14 days. The activity table looks like this:

It is important to note that the pumping schedule is conditional. It all depends on the man’s capabilities and his physical fitness. You can change the number of exercises performed. But be sure to use 3 press sets throughout the day. Some schemes provide for a rest day, but if you want to quickly bring your body back to normal, then it is better to do the workouts daily, but in a gentle manner.

For beginners, you need to start small - the first lessons are no more than 10 minutes. But the exercises must be performed correctly, paying attention to breathing and the correct position of the arms and legs. It is better to do fewer exercises, but use three approaches throughout the day. It is better to start in the morning, observing the interval after meals. It is important to monitor your progress. To do this, you can take a photo before training, and then every week. This will give a man self-confidence. It’s not difficult to pump up your abs at home if you want.

Homeschool program for girls

In pursuit of a flat stomach, girls often exhaust themselves with constant abdominal training, not realizing that this muscle needs time to recover, and fat burning does not depend on exercise at all.

Below is a weekly abdominal training program for girls, which is suitable for all ladies who are actively involved in sports:

Another good option for studying at home without any additional equipment:

© artinspiring — stock.adobe.com
Here exercises 1-5 are performed in the 3x10-15 mode.

Training at home

A training program for beautiful abs will be effective only if the following conditions are met:

1. A warm-up is required; it will warm up the muscles and minimize the risk of injury.
2. Monitor your breathing while performing approaches, do not hold it. On exhalation - rise, on inhalation - descent.

Men often make a mistake in the second point, so the muscles do not receive the required amount of oxygen. You can start with any exercise, but experts advise doing abdominal exercises for the upper muscles first, then the lower ones.

An adult man often has to perform weight loss workouts along with abdominal exercises. But for a boy it’s enough to pump up his developing muscles. Moreover, this is done periodically. An older guy uses various weights, for example, dumbbells, weights, and sports bands. It is better to pump up your abs at home, focusing on video lessons from professional athletes. This will allow males to avoid mistakes when performing exercises.