are abs supposed to be hard?
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No, not unless you have something wrong with your muscles or are hyper tense. In any case this is the point: your muscles are only hard when they're contracted. Your abs are muscles and are no different.
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Muscles should always be soft, uniform and consistent. The only time a muscle should be hard is when it is in a contracted state (i.e. when it is actively flexed). If you feel the muscle fibers of a highly developed body builder, you'll notice that the muscle will actually feel soft.
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Yes you should because your abs play several important roles and strong abs are essential even if they are hidden underneath the belly fat. However, if you are working out your abs specifically to burn belly fat and not to strengthen your abs then evidence suggests targeted ab exercises are not the most effective.
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You do not. However, they help. To see defined and visible abs, you would need a low body fat percentage. However, the core could get bigger if you add in resistance training, which then your abs will pop out more without losing more body fat if it's already low enough.
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Exercising your abdominal muscles will strengthen them. However, twisting, crunching and side bending will not make your abdominal muscles visible if they are covered by a thick layer of fat. ... In order to have defined abs or a six pack, you need to get rid of subcutaneous fat from your abdominal area.
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Specific moves, such as ball crunches, ball passes and roll outs, target your ab muscles directly, but doing something as simple as bouncing on the ball challenges your entire core, which includes your back and hip muscles, to be stronger and healthier.
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Easy Ab Crunches Sit on the front of your chair with your legs together, knees bent at a 90-degree angle, feet flat on the ground, arms up and bent at the elbows with fingers interlaced behind your head. Engage your core and lean back until your back grazes your chair back. Keep your back straight and your abs engaged.
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Flexing Your Abs Effectively. Incorporate flexing through your workouts. Once you're comfortable engaging your core while doing basic movements, try flexing during your workout. Keep your core engaged the entire time, but don't try to flex your muscles throughout the entire workout.
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Six-Pack Abs Are NOT Worth It If: While six-pack abs might make you look good for it, you won't necessarily perform better because you have them. You could care less about the aesthetic appeal. Six-pack abs are purely a vanity metric, not a measurement of overall health or fitness.
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Planks activate more muscles Well, one reason is that situps and crunches can be hard on your back. ... Additionally, planks don't just work your core: They work your entire body. Planks require your arms, your legs, and all of your abs, making them an all-encompassing workout and a more efficient way to exercise.
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Are ab workouts necessary? It's not necessary as your other lifts (squats, deadlifts, etc.) are going to target your abs in a secondary fashion. If you want a 6-pack, however, ab workouts (along with a very low bf) can make a difference.
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Abs are made in the kitchen and the gym. Like anything worth achieving in life, getting a six-pack takes both work and knowledge. Doing 1000 crunches and 1 hour of cardio a day won't help you see your abdominal muscles any faster if you don't make the right changes to your diet.
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Herein lies the question, “Ab machines… to use or not to use?” There is no perfect or right answer for this question, but after a little guidance and suggestion, you will be able to form your own opinion. Ab machines present no problems. They don't train your abs the wrong way or cause bad form.
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Abs Don't Come with a Side of Health and Happiness While abdominal obesity is proven to have negative health consequences, the amount of body fat difference between a flat belly and six-pack abs isn't going to make you any healthier.
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Yes, you can develop strong abs under fat. The rectus abdominis is the section of the core that forms the traditional “6-pack” look, and even if these muscles are strong, they can still be hidden underneath a layer of subcutaneous fat.
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“You can exercise abs daily, but I personally don't recommend it,” he says. In his opinion, abdominals are essentially just like any other muscles, so to make them bigger and stronger he recommends targeting them about twice a week.
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If you're already doing compound exercises like squats and deadlifts, one or two ab exercises for 2-3 sets each at the end of your workout is sufficient. You can train your abs all you want, but if your diet isn't in check, you'll never see that six-pack.