Understanding Your Abdominal Muscles

If you’re been following along, you know that the abdominals are made up of a series of muscles that all need work. This article will explain, in brief detail, the functionality and the exercises required to train each muscle in the mid-section. In the following articles in our How to Get Abs series, we’ll provide routines to train each muscle, so don’t jump into the exercises just yet.

You don’t need to know anatomy to get 6-pack abs, but a general understanding will do you a lot of good in the long-run (especially when you have to explain to your friends how you got your sexy stomach).

We will not get too technical so we do not bore you, but it is especially important to read about the lower back portion of this article.

Upper Abs

The upper abs are generally the top 2 sets of abs. They are the abs that will start popping out first during your quest for a flat stomach. They make up the top two-thirds of the 6-pack. If you need a more detailed explanation, check out the Rectus adbominis muscle wiki.

The most common, basic ab exercises for the upper abs are crunches, sit-ups, and bicycle crunches. They are all acceptable exercises for training the upper abs.

Lower Abs

Next are the lower abs, which are considered the bottom 2 sets of abs. Basic exercises include reverse crunch, leg lifts, knee raises, and Roman Chair leg lifts. With more and more diet and weight loss, the lower abs will start to “cut out” of the bottom of your belly / pelvic area. Exposing all of the lower abs will you give you the infamous 8-pack, the Holy Grail of Sexiness.

Transverse Abdominis

The transverse abs are located behind the abdominal wall, and it is the muscle that actually pushes your abs out so that they pop out and look more defined.

Very specific training protocols are required to make good use of this often overlooked area of the abdominals. It is arguably impossible to have a “flat” stomach without training the transverse abdominis. While the transverse abs get a tremendous amount of exposure during heavy lifting (while standing), they do need direct work for a 6-pack.

More importantly, this muscle is essential to developing a strong core. A strong core gives you incredible functional strength and reduces your chances of injury during physical activity. Our How to Get Abs series indirectly strengthens your core, so you not only look great but you become much more functional than ever before.

Obliques

The obliques are muscles on either side of your abs, running along your rib cage down to your hips, and then looping around slightly and connecting to the lower back. The obliques are what gives your body the tapered V-shape that make you look like an athlete.

Side crunches, side bends, bicycle sit-ups, etc. are the common exercises used to train the obliques, but we’ll get a little more creative for you in the following exercise articles.

Serratus Muscles

Ever see Arnold doing a most muscular pose, and see those little lines right under his chest over top of his rib cage? That is the serratus muscle.

The serratus muscle is more of a look good muscle than a functional strength muscle, but that is what we are after: looking good.

The serratus muscle gets a good amount of work with most ab and oblique workouts, as well as some chest workouts. There are technically no direct serratus exercises which isolate the muscle, but the workout examples in our How to Get Abs guide will all hit the serratus muscle in some way, shape, or form.

Lower Back

“But the lower back isn’t an ab muscle,” you scream!

You’re right, it’s not; the lower back is an antagonist muscle to the abdominals. Without getting too scientific, an antagonist muscle basically makes its counterpart utilize all the muscle fibers better and stronger when the antagonist is also strong. Examples would include the triceps being the antagonist to the bicep, the hamstrings being an antagonist to the quads, and so on.

Often times we see “jacked” guys at the gym doing thousands of bicep curls while totally neglecting his triceps and wondering why his arms are still small. (Beside the fact the triceps make up 2/3 of your arm muscle, and the bicep is only 1/3, but that’s a whole different article).

Every muscle needs to have a strong antagonist working alongside it to work to its fullest potential and power. The lower back (lumbar) area must NEVER be forgotten!

Besides making your abs, along with your core, strong and balanced, it also makes you look good from the backside. Lower back training needs to be taken seriously, and carefully, so that the muscle does not get overly strained.

99% of people totally neglect the lower back. When you first start working out your lower back, ease into it so you don’t over-train and possibly injure yourself. The lower back, much like the transverse abs, gets a lot of workload out of certain heavy lifts (squats and deadlifts), but it still needs direct work. Exercises include back extensions, good mornings, and “supermans.”

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 4:42 pm and is filed under How to Get Abs and Show off Your Six-Pack Fast!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.