Are you envious of the toned abs of personal trainers and seasoned professionals in commercial gyms like Fit Body Boot Camp? Are your efforts in achieving summer-worthy abs largely failing? You will benefit from the professional tips that have been proven effective in kick-starting abs development.
Use Slow Motions
Again, you have to stop hurrying through the motions if and when you want to gain more toned abs. You should use a slow and strict motion, which will increase the intensity of the contraction and, thus, improve muscular gains. While fast and explosive motions for increased momentum appear impressive, you are actually increasing your risks for injury and decreasing the quality of the movement.
Hold the Contraction
Instead of hurrying though the muscle contraction, you should consciously squeeze and hold the peak contraction of muscles at the top of each rep. You will not only work your abdominal muscles harder but you will be less inclined to hurry with your reps. You will get more gains in this way, too.
Hold Your Breath
But only until you have reached the peak of the contraction. You will find that your contraction takes on a stronger and more intense quality than ever before. This is because exhaling early during a movement will decrease intra-abdominal pressure, which means lesser contraction of the abdominal muscles.
Cupping, Not Interlocking
Every little counts and this is true when it comes to your hands’ positions in crunches. Instead of interlocking your fingers behind your head, you should lightly cup your fingers for support while also making sure not to pull your head. With interlocking fingers, you are more likely to pull on your head possibly resulting in disrupted spinal alignment.
Full Range of Motion a Must
You should work your abdominal muscles through their full range of motion. For example, in a basic crunch, you should bring your shoulder blades off the floor but avoid rising as high as in a sit-up. Otherwise, you are neither contracting nor stimulating your abs, aside from increasing hip flexor engagement.
Rest and Recover
After completing a set, you should ideally rest for a minute or so. This will allow your abs to recover before moving on to the next set, not to mention that you will be more able to reach your target rep.
And speaking of rest, you are well-advised to work your abs for just 2-3 days a week. You are essentially letting your abs recover from the stress and, thus, allowing them to grow well.