Beebleblog

 This is a common problem among gym goers who train their abs. That feeling that the neck starts to ache way before you are able to get any reaction from your abdominal muscles.

What is the cause?

As we spend the majority of our days upright - whether it is seated or standing - our neck creates the perfect support for our heads using as little muscle as possible. Quite literally the whole spine is supporting the head. However it is very rare for our bodies to be in a horizontal position without head support. Therefore the spine is no longer able to support the head and that is now left to our relatively weak neck muscles. These neck muscles tire very quickly as they are not trained to hold the head up in the sit up or crunch position.

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Ah the sit up, is it a good exercise or is it bad? Does it work the abdominals properly? Does it make your stomach stick out? These are all questions that surround this exercise which I feel makes the whole thing very confusing and might result in people not doing the exercise. This would be a shame as it is a very good exercise for the abs when it is completed with good technique.

What is it for?

You can guess this one! Yes, it’s for the stomach muscles: mainly focusing on the upper portion of the Rectus Abdominus (the 6 pack – Beeble) and also the Transverse Abdominals (the belt like stomach muscle that sits underneath all other stomach muscles and creates core strength high-lighted in red – Beeble). It also works on your Hip Flexor muscles, (positioned on the front upper thigh and are used to raise your thigh up – Beeble) you can’t see them in the diagram but I have marked out their position.

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A few days ago I was asked the question: can sit ups make your stomach bigger? It took me back to my school days when there was a belief that too many sit ups would have the opposite effect of the desired flat tummy and actually give you a big stomach. So I have taken it upon myself to settle this myth once and for all.

Is it possible?

It is true that if you exercise a muscle it will grow in size and therefore surely exercise on your stomach will increase the muscle size and therefore make it stick out? Strictly speaking this is true, however the muscle will develop in all directions and not just outwards. It would also take an immense amount of exercise to achieve a large gut and you would be spending way too much time on your stomach. However that said there are people though that will find their stomach sticks out more once they have started their exercise routine that includes an ab workout.

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Your "core" is a word that is used a lot these days without really any understanding of the muscles involved and how to use them. Today I want to explain which muscles make up your core, where in the body they are found and how they are, or rather should, be used.

When most people talk about the core they are mainly referring to the stomach muscles which although not wrong does not give the complete picture. For example there are many pieces of equipment out there that help to strengthen your stomach muscles and as part of their advertising they will talk about “building a stronger core.” This is partly true, but obviously it would be more accurate to say that it “helped towards building a stronger core” as if you just used this piece of equipment you would miss out the other muscles that make up the core.

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What is it for?

Obviously this exercise is for your abdominal muscles and is a very good one to strengthen your core (which are the group of muscles that support your whole body). It concentrates on your transverse abdominals (a belt-like stomach muscle that sits underneath all the other muscles) and the lower portion of your rectus abdominus (aka the 6 pack). As long as your body fat % is lower than 25% for men and 35% for women this exercise can help create a flatter stomach and certainly a firmer one.

Technique

This exercise is in fact very similar to the 20-20-20 leg drop. However because of the increase in movement and the forces this creates, I would say that it is fractionally harder than those two. As with the others it is important to prepare your body before commencing.

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