Abdominal Tools: the Top 5
The abdominal muscles, often (and unfortunately!) Known only for their aesthetic function, are actually very important postural muscles which play a key role in stabilization area of vertebral column and in maintaining its correct balance, both in static and dynamic conditions.
Several times in the gym (particularly in view of the summer) we witness grueling training sessions for the abdominal muscles carried out without criteria and cognition.
In this article we will see what the 5 best tools (available in almost all gyms) to better train the abdominal muscles even in view of the summer cutting.
Follow Giulia's workout routine:
#1 Abdominal Crunch Machine
It is one of the most popular tools in the gym, it allows you to perform the classic "crunches" in a sitting position and is particularly suitable as alternative to bench crunches (or on a mat) in the case of pathologies affecting the neck or lumbar area; the development of the rectus abdominis is an excellent exercise (but not the only one to be performed!) and should be performed in slow mode and with a workload that makes it possible check the trajectory during the entire duration of the movement; during the execution it is important to concentrate the work only on the abdominal muscles thus avoiding lifting the load with the help of the arms or bending over forward.
#2 Wheel for Abdominals
A tool economic and not bulky, to be used both at home and in the gym; consisting of a rubberized roller and two grip knobs, for a correct exercise the body must always form one straight line from the shoulders to the pelvis, the latter must absolutely not yield in the end in the movement, another important suggestion is to do not use of the arms to return to the starting position, by doing so you will only involve the abdominals to raise the body again.
Both the "descent" and "ascent" phases must be performed slowly and maintaining continuously in tension abdominal muscles, legs and arms.
This is obviously one more exercise complex of the classic crunches therefore can be performed to exhaustion for 3-4 series, without therefore setting a minimum or maximum number of repetitions.
#3 Pull-up bar
Often mistakenly associated with training the lats and biceps alone, the pull-up bar actually plays a key role in training the body. rectus abdominis and oblique muscles; the exercises that can be performed are many and almost all require the athlete to be "hung" from the bar with one medium grip (same width as the shoulders) or long (wider than the shoulders); a very valid exercise is the "hanging leg raises” or "hanging legs elevation" which consists in lifting the legs with bent knees (90 degrees) and bringing them towards the chest with a slow and controlled movement throughout the execution of the exercise.
#4 Bench for abdominals
The bench is among the classic tools used in the gym during the training of the rectus abdominis and obliques, among the most common and valid exercises that can be performed we find the classic crunches on bench flat o declined, however, often performed "in bursts" and with completely wrong movements; some should be avoided during the execution of the exercise errors as the "rebound"With your shoulders to be able to go up quickly (your shoulders should rest totally on the surface of the bench for a few moments before going back up again), moreover, it is important not to exercise any kind of thrust on the neck or on the head during the ski.
#5 Abdominal to the cables
Although little used for this purpose, the cables represent aexcellent variant (or addition) to the tools described above; It is possible to perform the classic crunches using an overload that makes the exercise much more intense (usually a weight should be chosen that does not allow you to overcome the 10 repetitions); in order to work properly, it is important that during the contraction phase you try to approach as much as possible i opposite leaders of the rectum of the abdomen.
In conclusion
The abdominals are considered to be muscles to "train" first and foremost at the table through the massive carbohydrate reduction and with the integration of a thermogenic, able to burn the fat reserves in the body (abdomen included).
Much more often, however, it happens to see people train them only during the phase of definition or with the approach of summer, as mentioned before, however, leaving out the poor effectiveness of these "workouts" carried out in extremis, they perform a function of postural stabilization before aesthetic and must therefore be trained constantly and continuously over time just like all other muscles, thus guaranteeing a recovery time suitable and on the one hand avoiding completely unnecessary exercises e counterproductive (as well as harmful) and on the other the repetitiveness of the same routine of exercises for periods too long or for whole years.
