To organize a workout and choose a set of abdominal exercises for women, you need to take into account many factors: from hormonal to anatomical.
How to lose weight with abdominal exercises?
Very long and ineffective. Any exercises for the press are power loads, their task is to increase the strength and endurance of the target muscle group. The calorie consumption of such loads is too low for weight loss, but you can check out the article on how many calories you burn when running.
Fitness trainers never tire of telling women that "abs are done in the kitchen"; healthy eating habits will cope with excess weight much faster than lifting the torso from a prone position. A woman's body is designed in such a way as to easily store fat deposits, therefore, on the way to a flat tummy, you cannot do without proper healthy nutrition. No matter how pumped up the abdominal muscles, even a thin layer of subcutaneous fat will completely hide them.
Women will be helped in this difficult matter of cardio load - trainings for a rapid heartbeat, which involve several muscle groups in the work at once. Today, fitness trainers in their video blogs often offer special cardio workouts instead of warm-ups, this allows the body to prepare for the workout and use up additional calories.
Can women pump abdominal muscles?
Women need to train the abs! You should not unconditionally trust women's forums, which are full of horror stories about a missing waist, muscle tears and prolapsed organs. Common sense should suggest that a woman's body is not a bag of groceries, so that something "falls out" from it, but a missing waist and damage to muscle fibers are the result of thoughtless and inadequately-intensive training.
Abs is very important, it belongs to the muscles of the core - it helps maintain balance, stabilizes the spine. With any effort, any load, the abdominal muscles tense and fix the spine. The abs must be both flexible so that bends and turns are possible, and rigid to protect the abdominal organs and support the spine.
If a woman is planning motherhood, then strong abdominal muscles will facilitate the course of pregnancy - the load on the spine will be less, childbirth will be easier, and body recovery after childbirth will be faster.
Features of "volumetric" training for women
If the goal of training is relief cubes on the stomach, then they speak of "volumetric" training; its task is to increase the amount of muscle mass. The rectus abdominis muscle in women has a small volume, and even a well-trained abs will not be covered with a pattern of cubes if you do not add mass to it.
Men, when working "for volume", use large weights (heavy sports equipment) with a low number of repetitions (8-12). For women, this scheme does not work. Due to the peculiarities of muscle fibers and hormonal background, girls need a large number of repetitions (up to 80-100) to add muscle mass.
Another feature of "volumetric" training is a long break between ab workouts - about three days. This is how long it takes for the muscles to recover and gain mass. If a woman trains to increase abdominal strength without increasing volume, then plan 3-4 sessions per week.
Will the waist be lost if you pump the abs?
If the oblique muscles of the abdomen become too "bulky", then the waist may become wider, but this rule does not apply to everyone. There are women whose structure of the abdominal muscles is such that no “pumping” will ruin a narrow waist. But even if the body constitution is inclined to a wide waist, then the solution to the problem is not to use "volumetric" training in exercises on the oblique abdominal muscles, that is, not to do an exorbitant number of repetitions.
Abdominal muscles and the menstrual cycle
Such a delicate feature of a woman's body should definitely be taken into account when organizing training.
- The greatest working capacity falls on the period between menstruation and ovulation, the body responds well to power loads.
- 2-3 days of ovulation, the woman's performance is the lowest in the cycle, the load for this period should be small.
- After ovulation and until menstruation itself, physical capabilities are average, good results are brought by exercise, execution at a high speed.
- Actually, menstruation is the most controversial period of the cycle. If these days turn into torture with pain and a vile mood, then any training should be excluded. If the woman's well-being allows, then cardio loads are allowed, and press workouts during this period have limitations: it is absolutely impossible to swing the lower press and you cannot perform exercises in which the pelvis and / or legs rise above the abdomen.
How to quickly pump up a girl's abs?
No way. It will take at least a month of regular training to achieve visible results. With overweight, the abs will not be visible until the total amount of fat in the woman's body drops to 10-15%.
There are no wonderful exercises that will draw cubes on the press in a week. And unnecessarily intense training will bring not only injuries, but also loss of strength, insomnia and decreased immunity.
The best abs exercises for girls are those that match the physical capabilities. A properly selected workout leaves a feeling of pleasant fatigue, muscle pain is allowed, which disappears after a couple of hours.
A set of exercises for beginners
Beginners shouldn't chase the difficulty or speed of the workout; it's better to start with simple, time-tested exercises. Perform the first three exercises in two sets of 15-20 times, the bar - two sets of one minute each. There should be no more than two minutes break between sets. Do not forget about warm-up and stretching before training, this will make the session effective and reduce injuries.
- Twisting. You will need to lie on your back on a hard surface, bend your legs at the knees. It is better to put your hands on the back of the head, if it is too difficult, it is allowed to cross over the chest. As you exhale, it is necessary to pull the chest to the pelvis, rounding the back, and try to stay in this position for a few seconds, then slowly return to the starting position while inhaling. Do not confuse this exercise with "torso lifts" - the lower back should not come off the floor during twisting. This technique effectively works the rectus abdominis muscle.
- Scissors. Starting position: lying on your back on a firm surface, stretch your arms along the body, hide your palms under the buttocks. It is necessary to raise your legs above the floor by 10-20 cm and cross your legs. The lower back should remain relaxed. With this training, you can work out the rectus muscle and the external oblique muscles of the abdomen.
- Raises the legs. Starting position: lying on your back on a firm surface, arms extended along the body. The legs are raised above the floor over 10-20 cm. It is required to slowly raise the legs, and then return to the starting position just as slowly. The feet do not touch the floor. This is an effective lower press exercise for girls and women, and can be complicated by tying small dumbbells to your feet.
- Plank, this exercise for the press allows girls to increase their stamina, it is allowed to perform during menstruation. Starting position: support lying on the elbows, you need to straighten the body and tighten the abdominal muscles. It is required to freeze in this position for one minute.
It is very important to do the exercises correctly, in this case the press will work, and not other muscle groups. The video will help a girl figure out how to learn how to swing a press from scratch, as an example, the technique of performing twists is understood.
If the workout stops being difficult, 30 reps in each exercise are done effortlessly - it's time to use a more complex workout set.
A set of exercises for women with training experience
Do not be afraid to work with weights, exercises for the press with dumbbells are very effective, they are available both in the gym and at home; for women and girls, working with additional weight helps to complicate classes and does not threaten to increase muscle mass. Exercises with a gymnastic wheel for the press bring excellent results, they are suitable for women who want to work out their abdominal muscles as much as possible, but cannot go to the gym.
This complex offers 6 exercises, they must be performed in three sets of 16-20 times, except for the last one, it must be done 10 times in both directions. The break between sets is 30 seconds, between exercises - no more than two minutes.
- Sitting on an incline bench raises. Fix the feet behind the rollers, the legs are bent at the knees. On exhalation, tilt your back back to a position parallel to the floor, return to the starting position. Such loads allow you to work out the rectus abdominis muscle.
- Hanging leg raises. For this exercise, you need to hang on your hands on the bar. As you exhale, raise your legs to the crossbar, as if folding in half. If the load is too difficult, you can raise your legs to a position parallel to the floor. It is more difficult for women to work out the lower abs than for men, and this exercise is one of the most effective for the lower part of the rectus abdominis muscle.
- Press with a gymnastic roller. Starting position: kneeling, palms gripping the handles of the gymnastic roller. You need to lean on the roller in front of you and slowly roll it forward, tilting the body. Then return to starting position. There are several options for exercises with a roller for the press, for women the most effective bending forward and to the sides from a sitting position.
- Fold. Starting position: lying on your back, legs straight, arms out to the sides. As you exhale, you need to raise your left leg and pull yourself up to it with your right hand. On inhalation, return to the starting position. On the next exhale, pull the left arm and right leg to each other, and on the exhale, return. On the third exhale, pull both elbows and both knees towards each other. Return to starting position. This is an effective load on all abdominal muscles.
- Dumbbell Bends. Stand straight, take a small dumbbell in your hands, place your feet shoulder-width apart. As you exhale, bend to the right, trying to reach down with your right hand. On the next exhale, bend to the left. The difficulty of this exercise in the correct technique - the abdominal muscles should be tense and felt during the training.
- Dumbbell plank. You will need to take the plank position on the right side - the emphasis is on the bent right elbow, the left hand is raised up and holds the dumbbell, the body and legs are straightened. As you exhale, pull your left elbow and left knee towards each other, while inhaling, return to the starting position. After 10 reps, change position to the left side plank, and perform 10 reps with the right elbow and knee.
