How do you make your abdominal muscles visible?
A tight and muscular stomach is an important fitness goal for many. It is often even high on the list of good intentions. Although everyone has abs, they are not visible on everyone. Sometimes they are hidden under a layer of fat. Do you dream of visible abs, but are you unable to achieve the desired result or do you simply not know how? In this blog we will tell you everything about making your abdominal muscles visible.
Abdominal muscles and fat percentage
Unfortunately, visible abs are not for everyone. Whether you can get visible abs depends on both your body fat percentage and your genes.
Fat percentage
One of the most important factors in developing a washboard is the amount of body fat around your midsection. If you want to make your abdominal muscles visible, you need to lower your fat percentage. The fat percentage needed to get a visible six-pack depends on your gender and age. For men, the body fat percentage is one athletic body on average around 16%. For women this percentage is slightly higher, namely around 19%. This can be achieved through a combination of regular exercise and a healthy diet.
Genes
Genetics plays a role in your body type and the way you exercise muscles are built and attached to your body. This has a significant impact on how well your abs are visible and how they look. Moreover, genetics also largely determines which one places In your body you mainly store fat. If you are genetically predisposed to storing fat around your midsection, developing visible abs may be more challenging than if you store more fat around your hips. It is important to note that your heredity cannot change.
The role of nutrition
As mentioned earlier, a low fat percentage is crucial to get a tight and muscular stomach. The most effective method to reduce your body fat percentage is to create a negative energy balance, which means you eat fewer calories than you burn. This negative energy balance, also called a calorie deficit, ensures that your body uses the stored fat as energy, which reduces your fat percentage.
You can create a calorie deficit by reducing your calorie intake. It is important that your calorie deficit is not too great. If you have too high a calorie deficit, you will lose weight too quickly and also lose your muscle mass, which is necessary for a muscular and toned stomach. Losing muscle mass mainly occurs during a calorie deficit with a deficiency protein. To minimize muscle loss, it is therefore important to consume sufficient protein.
The role of cardio
Also cardio can help reduce fat percentage by supporting you in creating or increasing a calorie deficit. This happens because you burn more calories than you consume.
With cardio training you burn considerably more calories than with other sporting activities.
This training is usually aimed at increasing your heart rate and improving your endurance, so you use more energy. Performing cardio exercises is therefore one of the most effective ways to reduce your fat percentage.
Exercises for the abdominal muscles
The extent to which your abdominal muscles are defined also depends on how trained your 'abs' are.
Regularly performing strength exercises that target the rectus abdominal muscles, obliques and transverse abdominal muscles can help make them more visible. Be inspired by the abdominal exercises below to create your ideal abs workout.
Please note: it is not possible to burn local fat and make your abdominal muscles visible in this way. These exercises help you strengthen your abdominal muscles, which contributes to making your abdominal muscles visible.
Ab wheel rollout
Out research The 'ab wheel rollout' turns out to be the most effective exercise to train your rectus abdominis muscles. You perform this as follows:
- Sit with your knees on the floor and the ab wheel straight in front of you.
- Grasp the handles of the ab wheel.
- Tighten your abdominal muscles and keep your torso stable as you slowly roll the ab wheel forward. Keep your arms straight.
- Keep going until you feel your abdominal muscles fully stretched and you can't go any further without lowering your body.
- Pause at the very end of the movement and maintain the tension in your abdominal muscles.
- Then slowly roll back to the starting position by tightening your abdominal muscles and using your arms to pull the ab wheel toward you again.
Hanging leg raises
The 'hanging leg raises' also appear to be the most effective exercise for you obliques (obliques) and lower abdominal muscles. Since you need a pull-up bar for this exercise, you will mainly do it in the gym. You perform this exercise as follows:
- Grasp the pull-up bar with a wide, overhand grip, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
- Tighten your abdominal muscles and raise your knees toward your chest.
- Hold this position for two seconds while keeping your abdominal muscles contracted.
- Slowly lower your legs to the starting position.
Russian twist
The 'Russian twist' is a challenging abdominal exercise that trains your entire core and specifically your obliques. This exercise requires your abdomen to work continuously to maintain your balance. This exercise is easy to perform at home.
- Sit on the floor with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor.
- Lift your feet off the ground so that only your buttocks are in contact with the floor. Please note: your back must be straight. This is your starting position.
- Hold a weight in front of you at your chest, with your arms slightly bent.
- Tighten your abdominal muscles and slowly rotate your torso to the left while moving the weight.
- Pause briefly at the very end of the movement and feel the tension in your obliques.
- Now slowly rotate your torso to the right while moving the weight along with you.
- This back and forth movement of your torso from left to right and back is considered one repetition.
Side plank
The 'side plank' is an effective exercise for training your oblique abdominal muscles. You perform the exercise as follows:
- Lie on your side and place your elbow under your shoulder.
- Raise your hip so that your body forms a straight line.
- Hold this position for as long as possible while tightening your abdominal muscles.
- Switch sides and repeat the exercise.
How long does it take before you see abs?
According to fitness coach Jon-Erik Kawamoto, depending on how hard and often you train, your abs will shrink 6 to 8 weeks should become more visible. However, this also depends on your fat percentage and muscle mass at the start of the training program. If you have just started, you have to persevere for a while!
Lower your fat percentage with the help of supplements
Supplements can support weight loss by increasing metabolism, reducing appetite or promoting fat loss. However, it is important to remember that supplements are not a magical solution for making abs visible, but only an addition to a healthy diet and sufficient exercise.
We have a wide range of supplements formulated that have been tested and are safe when used correctly. This is how our ketopillen, fitness supplements with green tea extract in Garcinia Cambogia support you in lowering your fat percentage.