Popular Myths On The Subject Of Abdominal Fitness
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Abdominal fitness became very popular and that is why there are many myths about it. It is time to dispel them.
Myth: It takes hundreds of crunches to get ab muscles in shape.
Fact: Abdominal muscles are still muscles, and they don’t respond to hundreds of repetitions any better than your biceps or chest muscles would. Just as you wouldn’t do more than 15 repetitions in a set of biceps curls, so you shouldn’t do any more than that for your abs.
When you can easily do 5 repetitions of any abdominal exercise, you need together switch exercises or find some way to make that exercise harder on your muscles. Otherwise, you’re just building endurance in the muscle, not size. And size is what makes a muscle look pumped, whether you’re talking about biceps or abs.
Myth: Sports provide all the abdominal exercise anyone needs.
Fact: Targeted abdominal exercise can improve sports performance. Most sports certainly do place a great demand on your midsection, requiring strength, balance, and the ability to generate tremendous force. Training your ab muscles off the field will make it easier for them to do their job on the field.
Picture Mark McGwire playing first base: He tightens his abdominals while waiting for the pitcher to throw the ball to the plate; this holds his body in a good position to move quickly if the batter hits the ball anywhere near him. Then, after the ball is hit to the shortstop, he might have to stretch his abdominals to catch an off-center throw and still get the runner out at first.
When McGwire steps up to bat, the muscles around his waist have to contract powerfully in a well-coordinated sequence with his legs, hips, shoulders, and arms so he can rotate his body hard enough to send the ball into the next zip code.
By strengthening and stretching these muscles in his workouts, Big Mac ensures that when he needs them they’ll perform at the highest possible level. Remember that even the pros struggle with their middles. Two of the most common athletic injuries are lower-abdominal and lower-back strains.
Myth: Abs need to be trained every day.
Fact: Three times a week is the limit.
It’s true that your abdominals are built more for endurance than for quick bursts of power. Their first job is to maintain your posture, which means they have to be ready to contract for hours at a time.
However, like all muscles, abdominals have a combination of fast and low-twitch fibers. It’s the fast-twitch muscle fibers, the ones that make it possible to generate quick bursts of power, that have the most potential to grow. Those are the fibers you have to target when you do abdominal exercises.
After a workout, fast-twitchers need time to recover so they can come back bigger and stronger for the next work out. You should give them at least a day between exercise sessions.
Want to build flat stomach? Then you have to learn more about abs workout.
Of course, abs workout are not some sort of magic against all problems, but if you take care of abs workout seriously - then it will help you for sure.
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