When it comes to getting a great body, the abdominal muscles are often one of the key places exercise gurus focus on.
These muscles are not only essential to looking great, but they are also vital to keeping your back and core strong.
Despite their importance however, few people know just how many muscle groups we are speaking about when we talk abs.
The abdominal muscles are actually a group of muscles. In total there are six different ab muscles that are situated from the ribs to the pelvis.
These muscles help to support the body and assist in breathing.
The Key Elements of Getting 6 Packs Abs
The abdominal muscles help with posture, and are vital to performing most strength training exercises.
When fitness experts talk about strengthening the core, most are referring to getting at the six muscles that make up the abdominal muscles as a whole.
The most superficial ab group is known as the rectus abdominis. This is the muscle that we can most easily see and is therefore responsible for giving the definition known as a six pack.
The transverse abdominus muscle is another abdominal muscle. This one is actually the deepest of the ab muscles and subsequently one of the harder ones to get at through traditional ab exercises.
This muscle is located around the torso area and is essential to proper back support.
The external obliques are yet another pair of the ab muscles. These are found on both sides of the torso and are worked by doing various side crunches.
These muscles are closer to the surface than the transverse or internal obliques.
The internal obliques are also a pair of abdominal muscles found on each side of the torso. After the transverse, the internal obliques are the least superficial. These are important to the rotation of the body and the spine.
When it comes to working the abdominal muscles therefore simply doing crunches will not suffice.
Hitting the different muscle groups requires a bit more variation than standard ab work often reaches. Finding out how to get each muscle group is key to a great physique.
Some great places to start are doing varying styles of crunches, side raises, stationary poses, reverse crunches and Pilate’s moves.
By mixing up your ab routine you’ll have a much better chance of getting all the essential areas and not overworking just one set of muscles.
Thanks for Reading !
-Nathan McNatty