Bodybuilding Articles
This page has links to several bodybuilding articles that are exclusive to Make Muscle. They cover several areas of bodybuilding, fitness and health. Articles are updated and added regularly and may be commented on either directly via the contact tab on the right of the screen or through the Make muscle forum. Note that the workout tips section of this site also contains lots of useful bodybuilding tips and advise.
Bodybuilding Article One
Abs - They're not like other muscles.
Now a lot of people when they initialy get into bodybuilding have two goals in mind (well three if you include impressing woman) and they are:
1. to get big arms
2. to grow a six pack
I'm sure in the near future we will cover the subjest of bulking up the arms, but for now lets work on those abs.
Facts about the abs
The abdominals consist of several muscles. These are illustrated below and are the Rectus Abdominus, Transverse Abdominus and the External and Internal Obliques. These muscles are situated on the sides and front of the lower portion of the torso, attaching along the pelvis and the rib cage.
How to excercise them
Different methods are required to excercise the abs - situps are realy not enough! This is due to the fact that the muscles move in slightly different ways and they consist of a mixture of both slow and fast twitch muscle fibres.
The Oblique muscles for example require side dips to get the best results. An excercise that is performed by holding a dumbell in one hand and leaning slowly to the side, then quickly returning your torso to the vertical position.
The muscles to the front of the abdomen however require a mixture of exercises to get the fabled 6 pack. This is due to the fact that the several muscle heads that are associated with this area require specific moulding for best results. So you might wish to try my method, which is to perform one heavy set of abdominal crunches, one heavy set of leg raises (a weight can be anchored to the feet for this if needed) and one final light (but high rep) set of cruches.
How often to excercise them?
A lot of people believe that exercising any muscle group more than two or three times a week is counter-productive to muscle gain. This is due to the sound fact that muscle grows between workouts and if not given enough rest will fail to do so. This is generally true, however certain muscles - such as the abs must be treated slightly diferently.
Unlike most of the upper body skeletal muscles, the abdominals are in almost constant use whilst we are awake. They have to be in order for us to maintain our posture and balance whilst walking or even just standing upright. Therefore they are resiliant and recover at a quicker rate than do some other muscle groups. This means that it is a good idea to work them a little more frequently. I for example perform four sets of ab excercises three times a week (two abdominal crunches, one leg raise and one side dip).
So in conclusion. If you want to get a six pack, then you need to work your abs hard and often!
Author
MarkSD
makemuscle.net