Those who are trying to achieve a beautiful and toned figure often wonder why it's so hard to develop abdominal muscles. This is especially challenging for women, who naturally have subcutaneous fat in this area. There are several common mistakes to avoid so that abs can finally begin to form beneath the layer of subcutaneous fat in the abdominal area.
Mistake #1: Doing crunches every day. The effectiveness of this type of training is significantly overrated. Even doing the exercise a hundred times a day won't give you defined muscles in just a few weeks.
Whether you do the exercises three times a week or every day, you'll see results at roughly the same time. Therefore, don't overdo it in an attempt to quickly build abs.
- It is enough to perform a set of exercises for the abdominal muscles 3-4 times a week, but do it carefully and wisely.
Mistake #2: Repetitive exercises. If you perform the same exercise over and over again, your muscles become accustomed to it and stop responding properly. Progress is only noticeable initially, but then neither muscle mass increases nor excess fat is lost.
- In this case, you just need to increase the load, for example, speed up or start doing more approaches over time.
- Weights will also help increase the challenge. Bodyweight alone is sufficient at first, but later you can use a dumbbell, kettlebell, or even a barbell.
Mistake #3: Focusing on individual muscle groups. Typically, people do lower abs and upper abs exercises.
- However, it is necessary, firstly, not to forget about the transverse abdominal muscle, which is only pumped up if you do complex exercises that involve several types of muscles.
- It's also important to devote sufficient attention to back training. Without a strong back, your abs won't be developed sufficiently.
- In this case, you should alternate and combine aerobic exercise with strength training.
Only a combination of measures will achieve the desired results. However, stretching alone is not very effective for shaping abs.
Mistake #4: Ignoring proper nutrition. Strength training alone won't build abdominal muscles, and abdominal size depends directly on proper nutrition.
- You should first get rid of any excess fat you already have: start monitoring your diet, aim for a calorie deficit, and avoid fast carbohydrates. In short, you'll need to remove fat from all over your body before it will start to disappear from your belly.
Women have it especially hard: they carry up to 5% of their total body weight in subcutaneous fat. A lack of testosterone, which is responsible for muscle growth, makes it harder for women to lose weight than for men.
Mistake #5: The plank as a panacea for all ills. It's believed that doing the plank every day will tone not only the abdominal muscles but also the entire core. However, in reality, this exercise doesn't produce any visible results: the plank is needed to maintain overall tone, while intense basic exercises are better suited to sculpting a six-pack.
- It is optimal to choose 3-5 exercises and do several approaches with 15-20 repetitions.
So, by avoiding the most common mistakes when training your abdominal muscles, you can achieve results in a few months and notice that your abs have become stronger and more defined.
