Six-pack abs is the cherished dream of many. But achieving such relief is not so easy. It is important not only to choose the right diet, but also to choose the appropriate exercises. Blogger Igor Voitenko
shared an effective workout that will help you build a six-pack in a month.
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The lesson consists of 18 exercises – each one takes 30 seconds – and lasts nine minutes. To perform, you only need a gymnastic mat and a little free space.
Exercise 4: Knee Raise
Initial position:
lying on your back, arms along your body.
Raise your legs at a right angle and bend your knees at the same right angle. Slowly raise your knees and lift your lower back off the floor - as in the “birch tree” exercise, but without straightening your legs. Try not to rest your hands on the floor: this will remove inertia and increase the load on the abdominal muscles.
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Exercises to burn belly fat
Cardio is an important part of exercising to burn belly fat. For men, leg raises and squats are considered effective. Women are recommended to devote 15 minutes of continuous walking every day.
Burn a lot of calories:
- walking;
- run;
- jumping;
- cycling.
People with a lot of excess weight need to exercise a lot. Walking for an hour burns 400 kcal. You should train three times a week at a low pace.
600 kcal per hour disappears thanks to running. However, such activities are not suitable for overweight people. You need to exercise 3 times a week for 30 minutes. If it is difficult to run without stopping, you can alternate running with walking.
Jumping rope is considered an effective exercise. This is the most difficult type of activity. 10 minutes of exercise is enough to lose 200 kcal.
A bike ride burns 600 kcal in an hour. The load on the knees is low, so this type of exercise is suitable for overweight people. For training, it is enough to allocate 3 days a week for 30–45 minutes.
Experts recommend performing 3 simple exercises one after another:
- You need to lie on the floor with your back down. The legs are straightened and slowly raised to an angle of 30 degrees. Stay in this position for 20 seconds. Slowly descending. Do 10 repetitions.
- Raise the body, leave the legs on the floor. They don't help themselves with their hands. They try to keep their back straight.
- Raise the lower limbs and body at the same time. They keep their balance and tense up. The difficulty in performing this lies in maintaining balance.
If the final exercise does not cause any difficulty in performing, the muscles can be considered sufficiently trained. They try not to overexert themselves. Pulse is constantly measured. The exercises described above plus cardio training will help deprive the body of fat deposits and speed up metabolism.
Exercise 5: Centaur
Initial position:
lying on your back, head and shoulders off the floor.
Photo: istockphoto.com
Lift your arms and legs off the floor by about 10-20 cm. Bend one leg at the knee and pull it to your chest, briefly fix your body in this position, feel the tension in your abs. Straighten your leg while bending the other. During the exercise, the stomach should be pulled in - this way you will remove the deflection in the lower back and achieve a better effect.
Exercise 7: Crunch + Rotation
Initial position:
lying down, feet on the floor and bent at the knees, hands clasped behind the head.
Photo: istockphoto.com
Round your back. Inhale, as you exhale, lift your torso up, as in a classic twist, and then turn your body to the left, reaching your right elbow towards your left knee. As you inhale, return to the starting position, but do not lower your shoulders to the floor. Repeat on the other side.
Exercise 8: Side Knee Crunch
Initial position:
lying on your side, legs bent at the knees, one arm extended on the floor, the other bent at the elbow and placed behind the head.
Turn the knee of your “top” leg perpendicular to the floor. Raise your leg, trying to touch your knee to your elbow. Perform the exercise for 30 seconds on one side, then change legs and repeat on the other.
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Exercise 9: Circles
Initial position:
lying down, arms along the body, shoulders off the floor.
Photo: istockphoto.com
Raise your straight legs about 10-20 cm from the floor. Make circular movements to the left. Keep your abs tense throughout the exercise. The back is straight, the stomach is pulled in, the lower back is pressed to the floor. Perform the exercise for 30 seconds in one direction, then repeat it in the other direction.
Recommendations
To become the owner of beautiful abs and a sculpted torso, listen to our recommendations. Remember that muscle strengthening is achievable for beginners only if you train regularly and do it with pleasure.
To create an “iron” press, use these tips:
1. Switch to a diet that will dry out your body. This will minimize belly fat. This layer varies from person to person, for some it is 7%, for others it is 15% and has a beautiful torso. The program for losing weight and creating a beautiful figure depends on this. To eliminate belly fat, some people need a week of cutting diet.
2. Straighten your posture. Due to a sedentary lifestyle, people experience changes in posture, which causes their abdominal muscles to weaken. As a result, you may notice stretched abs, pain in the cervical region, lower back and spine. Once you have corrected your posture, begin doing abdominal exercises to tighten and strengthen your muscles.
3. Strengthen your core. Beginners assume that the abs are one rectus muscle on the abdomen. But in addition to it, there are oblique muscles, for pumping which turns, bends with weights are suitable.
4. Pump up your abdominal muscles correctly. In order to develop the rectus muscles, hypertrophy training should be performed. It is enough to do 10-12 repetitions.
It is important to develop the connection between the brain and the abdominal muscles. In order to become the owner of an iron torso, you should learn to control all the muscles, distributing the load during exercise on them. If you learn to keep your abs tense during training, this will significantly increase the effectiveness of your exercises.
Exercise 10: Slow Bike
Initial position:
lying on your back, head and shoulders off the floor, hands clasped behind your head.
Lift your legs off the floor by about 10-20 cm. Bend one leg at the knee and pull it to your chest, trying to touch the elbow of the opposite arm. Briefly fix your body in this position, feel the tension in your abs. Repeat on the other side. During execution, the stomach should be pulled in and the lower back should be pressed tightly to the floor.
You can watch how to do the rest of the exercises correctly in the video on the blogger’s YouTube channel.
You can do this workout both in the gym and at home. Exercise regularly, and the results will not take long to arrive!
Schedule and set of abdominal exercises at home
First, a little about the structure of the abdominal muscles. The abdominal cavity includes: the outer layer - the rectus and oblique external abdominal muscles; deep layer - transverse and oblique internal abdominal muscles.
For the harmonious development of the abs, it is important to train each muscle group. And depending on how much you want to develop your abs, your training schedule will be structured differently. Below we will consider options for various purposes and degrees of load intensity.
Scheme of performing abdominal exercises for beginners
The next complex is suitable for those who are starting classes from scratch. The abdominal training schedule is based on the following scheme: 3 times a week, with 1-2 days rest between workouts. For example: Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
Day #1
| Full crunches . The exercise is performed lying on your back. For convenience, you can fix your feet and keep your hands on your chest. The athlete’s task is to lift the torso off the floor with a round back, bringing the stomach closer to the hips, and slowly lower to the floor. |
| Lying leg raises . The athlete lies on the floor, placing his hands under his pelvis for stability, and keeping his legs vertical. As you inhale, lower your legs, aiming your heels towards the floor, and as you exhale, return to the starting position. It is important not to lift your lower back off the floor. |
| Bicycle crunches . To perform crunches, you need to place your hands behind your head, lift your shoulder blades off, and hold your legs above the floor at a 45-degree angle. With an exhalation, the athlete twists the torso diagonally, while bringing the knee to the opposite elbow. As you inhale, the athlete changes position and exhales to twist in the other direction. And so the movement is repeated without pauses, without touching the floor with your shoulder blades and feet throughout the entire approach. |
Each exercise is performed for 15-25 repetitions of 2-3 approaches. Those who find the complex easy can perform the exercises one after another without rest. At the end of the cycle, you can rest for 2 minutes, then perform the complex 1-2 more times.
Day #2
| Plank in statics . The exercise tones the deep transverse muscle, without the development of which it is impossible to get strong and strong abs. The plank can be performed both on straight arms and on the forearms. The main thing is to keep the body in an ideal position, in which the back and hips remain in a straight line. The press in this position should always be tense. |
| Side plank . In this version, the athlete turns diagonally from the plank and rests on one hand and both feet, keeping the body line straight. The same is done on the other side. |
| Extension steps in plank . Standing in a plank position, the athlete takes steps with one foot to the side, placing the second one against it, and also takes a reverse step, alternately rearranging the feet. At the same time, the spine remains straight. |
All exercises are performed for 30-60 seconds without changing technique, 2-3 approaches each. You can rest for 30-60 seconds between planks.
Day #3
| Short crunches . These twists are performed at half amplitude: hands are placed behind the head, feet rest on the floor. As you exhale, the athlete lifts his shoulder blades off the floor and reaches his chin toward the ceiling, and as he exhales, he lowers himself to the floor. |
| Raising the pelvis from the floor . Lying on the floor, the athlete raises his legs vertically and places his arms along his body. With an exhalation, a short and sharp movement pushes the pelvis up using the lower part of the abs and lifts the lower back off the floor. As you exhale, slowly lower your pelvis to the floor. |
| Oblique twists . To perform lateral twists, the athlete, lying on his back, places one arm behind his head, bends the opposite leg at the knee and rests the ankle on the thigh of the supporting leg, bent at the knee. He extends his other hand to the side. With an exhalation, a diagonal twist is performed, while the elbow, when lifting the shoulder blade off the floor, tends to the opposite knee. As you inhale, the torso returns to the floor. The same is done on the other side. |
All exercises are performed for 15-25 repetitions of 2-3 approaches.
Scheme for abs for 30 days: chart in table
This program is performed one approach at a time every day. If you only have a few minutes at your disposal, this program will be the best option. On a certain day, except for the rest day, regular crunches are performed lying on the floor for the specified number of repetitions.
| Day | Number of repetitions |
| 1 | 15 |
| 2 | Day of rest |
| 3 | 20 |
| 4 | Day of rest |
| 5 | 25 |
| 6 | Day of rest |
| 7 | 30 |
| 8 | Day of rest |
| 9 | 25 |
| 10 | Day of rest |
| 11 | 35 |
| 12 | Day of rest |
| 13 | 30 |
| 14 | Day of rest |
| 15 | 40 |
| 16 | Day of rest |
| 17 | 35 |
| 18 | Day of rest |
| 19 | 45 |
| 20 | Day of rest |
| 21 | 40 |
| 22 | Day of rest |
| 23 | 50 |
| 24 | Day of rest |
| 25 | 45 |
| 26 | Day of rest |
| 27 | 55 |
| 28 | Day of rest |
| 29 | 60 |
| 30 | Day of rest |
Abs for beginners: plank fulfillment table for a month
The plank is a universal exercise not only for developing the abs, but also the whole body. The exercise allows you to work the deepest stabilizer muscles, improve posture, lose weight, and tighten the muscles of the whole body.
| Day | Holding time, sec. |
| 1 | 20 |
| 2 | 20 |
| 3 | 30 |
| 4 | 30 |
| 5 | 40 |
| 6 | 40 |
| 7 | Day of rest |
| 8 | 50 |
| 9 | 50 |
| 10 | 60 |
| 11 | 60 |
| 12 | 90 |
| 13 | 90 |
| 14 | Day of rest |
| 15 | 120 |
| 16 | 120 |
| 17 | 150 |
| 18 | 150 |
| 19 | 180 |
| 20 | 180 |
| 21 | Day of rest |
| 22 | 210 |
| 23 | 210 |
| 24 | 240 |
| 25 | 240 |
| 26 | 270 |
| 27 | 270 |
| 28 | Day of rest |
| 29 | 300 |
| 30 | 300 |
Abs program at home for advanced people
The following program is aimed at strengthening the abdominal muscles. To increase the load, use additional equipment in the form of dumbbells, weighted disks, rubber bands, etc. The complex is performed three times a week. Do not perform the workout several days in a row, as the muscles can easily become overworked.
- Fold.
- Leg lift.
- Oblique twists.
- Short crunches.
- Plank running (Climber).
Each exercise is performed for 30 seconds one after another without a pause.
At the end of the cycle, a two-minute rest is performed and another 2-3 cycles are repeated. At the end of the program, do not forget to stretch your abdominal muscles. To do this, lie on your stomach, push your hands off the floor, straightening them at the elbows, and lift your stomach off the floor, stretching your abdominal muscles. And another program for effectively pumping up the press from Igor Voitenko:
PRESS PUMPING. Wild Burning in 6 MINUTES.
