The summer season is just around the corner, which means it’s time to get ready for the beach season. I can say with confidence that most people worry more about their abs than about other parts of the body. Indeed, the presence of cubes and a sculpted belly makes its owner more athletic and attractive, but whether everyone can achieve good results and how long they will have to wait for them – we will find out further.
What affects the appearance of the abs?
Pumping up your abs, or rather your six-pack, is not difficult when it comes to working out the muscles. The most difficult thing is to stick to the right diet so that the abs “break through” from under the layer of subcutaneous fat. The problem of lack of abs most often lies in poor nutrition, in which even the most well-developed abs are hidden under fat reserves. Therefore, before you start exercising, understand the importance of nutrition.
The main enemies of cubes are simple carbohydrates: all kinds of sweets, baked goods, fruits with a high glycemic index (GI), as well as excess amounts of complex (but healthy) carbohydrates, especially in the evening. Therefore, it is best to consume complex carbohydrates in the first half of the day, and allow yourself fruits with low GI for sweets. Table of foods with GI →
Most of the menu should consist of proteins of plant and animal origin, as well as vegetables with low GI. You don’t need to give up fats, but you should distinguish “good” fats from “bad” ones. By bad we mean refined oils, low-quality butter (or spread), margarine, as well as animal fats in the form of lard, large amounts of pork, lamb, and duck.
Diet is important for both beginners and advanced athletes, and for both, poor nutrition prevents them from finally seeing their desired shape.
How long does it take to pump up your abs?
Here again we are faced with subcutaneous fat: the less it is, the faster the abdominal muscles will appear. It happens that thin, untrained people have stronger abs than a person who has been going to the gym for six months. This is due to the thickness of the fat layer. Already physiologically, the rectus abdominis muscle has tendon bridges, with which we associate the presence of cubes; it is precisely in thin people that they are clearly visible even without the presence of force loads, creating the effect of a trained abs. While all the work of a more well-fed person is hidden under adipose tissue. That’s sorted out.
To get six-pack or “pump up” abs requires, oddly enough, time. Yes, the degree of load plays a certain role in this, but not a single muscle in the body is capable of increasing in a short period. Increasing muscle fibers is a labor-intensive and slow process. To see an additional centimeter in volume (for example, breasts), you can train for several months, if we are talking about natural sports. In general, no muscle will increase significantly in size in a few weeks.
Accordingly, in order to increase the “cubic capacity” you will have to sweat for 2 to 3 months. The duration of the period will depend on the depth and quality of the muscles worked. It all depends on your own idea of your form. If we talk about bodybuilders’ abs, then such development takes months, or even years of hard training.
If you do not intend to develop such a “hard” ab, you will naturally need less time. If you are a beginner athlete, then only a month of your training will be spent on strengthening your abdominal muscles, or rather their tone. A toned muscle is already capable of handling additional loads in the form of weights and more complex exercise techniques. Next, muscle growth will begin, in our case, the abdominal muscles. In another month or two you will see a relief that may suit you, but provided that you have a small layer of fat in the waist area.
Bottom line
Coming to the end, I would like to emphasize that the presence of cubes will depend on the percentage of fat in the body, this includes the constitution, as well as the intensity of training. By the way, like the rest of the muscles of the body, we are talking about their thickness; the abs require loads with weights and from 8 to 12 repetitions per set. Provided that the ab is loaded no more than three times a week, you can get a visible result within 2 months. It is absolutely not worth training every day. But do not forget that everything is individual, for some it will take six months. Eat right, exercise regularly and you will see results in any case.
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