How often should you exercise your abdominals a week is a common question. There is a great deal of dispute about this muscle group.
The answer is:
For maximum results and to prevent overtraining, devote two or three sessions a week to your abs.
Some people say that all you need to do to get a toned midsection is diet.
Another camp goes the opposite way, they expect abs to lift fat from that area, so they perform thousands of exercises every time they work out.
There is no point in thinking about extremes. Instead, think of the golden middle path. Neither of the two groups is valid.
A major problem with localized fat loss is that it cannot be achieved by strengthening the abs—it has to be done via diet and cardio to achieve and maintain a calorie deficit.
In addition, it isn’t true that everyone has six-pack abs by default. Genetics is the basis for it, and every person is different. Despite poor genetics, though, you can build an imposing six-pack if you work hard.
What are your abdominal muscles?
Besides giving you a more imposing appearance, training your abs is essential for keeping you healthy as they serve different roles. The abdominal wall plays a vital role in the spine’s health, stabilizes the trunk, and influencing posture.
An abdomen is more than just a mass of muscles; it is divided into several parts:
- The rectus abdominis helps flex the spinal column, allowing the sternum and pelvis to come closer to each other.
- Both the internal and external obliques (oblique abdominal muscles on either side of the trunk) are responsible for rotation and tilting of the spine.
- Intercostal muscles are responsible for bringing the ribs closer together.
How often should you train your abs?
Because it is frequently used in everyday life and primarily consists of type I muscle fibers, one can exercise the rectus abdominis every day (seven days a week).
On the day before an all-out squat or deadlift, do not work your abs. They will be necessary for stabilizing you. In a similar way to how you train your triceps when you lift, you are indirectly working your abs, too.
No matter how experienced you are, abs aren’t worth doing every workout. Muscle fatigue, as always, determines how often you can do abs training. Training with muscle fever is never a good idea.
- You can train your abs if you don’t have muscle fever since your abs have already recovered.
- You shouldn’t exercise your abs if you still have muscle fever, as it hasn’t fully recovered.
It’s that easy, don’t overthink it.
Go ahead and do abs 7 days a week if you’re so tough, you won’t feel any soreness. However, you should also strengthen your antagonist muscles, such as your deep back muscles. However, I have to point out that this is rare if you have decent abs workouts.
It’s a different story with obliques. It’s not worth training them every single day or even every workout since they aren’t used as much. You may also find that they recover more slowly since they aren’t often used as much as the rectus abdominis.
How to train abs?
You don’t need to train your abs with extra weight to make them look imposing. Gravity and your own body weight are usually enough. Sit-ups are done with extra-heavy weight; for example, they may seem hard, but they can quickly enlarge your waistline.
Even if the abdominal muscles are muscles in the same sense as the rest of the body, you need to increase their size by training. However, because of the composition of the abdominal muscles, heavier weights are not necessarily the best way to do it.
There is no need to do abs every day. If you reduce your sessions to once a week, you’ll still improve, just not at the fastest rate. You can even do it at home on your rest day since you don’t need a machine or weights.
High repetitions, low weight, quality peak contractions. Keep these words in mind.
How do we define quality peak contraction? No twitching, just a feeling of your abs fully contracting and then relaxing. Perform the exercises slowly and in a controlled way. For example, don’t do leg lifts using momentum; focus on your abs and stop the movement at the bottom.
An Ab Exercise You can do Every day!
One more thing!
Do the stomach vacuum every day!
The stomach vacuum can be done several times a day and is one of the most underrated exercises with the best visual results.
No matter how much fat is still on your stomach, this exercise is helpful for you. Start today – you don’t have to wait until you’re skinny. After a few weeks, you will see results.
With this exercise, you work your deep abdominal muscles, such as your internal obliques and transverse abdominis.
Interestingly, strengthening these invisible internal muscles does not make your belly bigger. It will increase their ability to contract, which will strengthen and allow the abdominal muscles above them to operate more effectively.
As a result, the abdomen will look flatter, particularly from the side. You will learn not to always walk with a distended abdomen with the abdominal vacuum exercise.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to do it:
- Blow the air out completely.
- Pull your belly in as if you were going to touch your navel to your spine. Imagine walking into cold water touching your belly.
- Hold this position for 10 to 15 seconds, feeling it almost hurt. If you don’t feel anything, you aren’t doing it intensely enough, so it won’t work.
- Relax.
- Repeat the circuit two more times.
If you have trouble concentrating on this exercise, lean forward a little on something to help you pull your stomach in. To remain upright, however, is ideal.
In addition to improving your appearance, the stomach vacuum is also good for your health. The weak muscles of the deep abdominal wall may cause a hernia.
