toward the pelvis

The external obliques (obliquus externus abdominis), muscles at each

side of the torso attached to the lower eight ribs and inserting at the side

of the pelvis

BASIC FUNCTION: to flex and rotate the spinal column

The abs are, in fact, the visual center of the body. If,you superimpose

an X on the body with the terminal points being the shoulders and

the feet, the two lines cross at the abdominals, and this is where the eyes

are inevitably drawn. Men carry a disproportionate number of fat cells in

the abdominal area compared to women (who can often be relatively fat

and stillhave abs showing), so well-defined abs are one sign of being in top

condition-lean, hard, and strong.

 The traditional V-shaped torso is as important as sheer mass when it

comes to creating a quality, championship physique. I have often seen

contests in which good  bodybuilders came in a few pounds overweight in

order to appear bigger but found the extra weight they were carrying at

the waist spoiled the visual effect. When I got into bodybuilding, there

were a few bodybuilders who made up for lack of overall size by the outstanding

development of their abs-competitors like Pierre Vandensteen

and Vince Gironda, for example. But in modern bodybuilding every

 would-be champion, no matter his body type, has to have well-developed

abs in order to be competitive, from the really massive bodybuilders (Dorian

Yates, Nasser El Sonbaty, Yaul Dillett)

 Lack of abdominal development, or failure to display

the abs properly, can be very costly in competition.

 Squats call for a lot of involvement

on the part of the abdominals and the obliques as stabilizers.

Spot reduction refers to training a specific muscle in order

to burn off fat in that particular area. According to this idea, to develop abdominal

definition, you do a lot of ab training, lots of high reps, and burn

away the fat that is obscuring the development of the abdominal muscles.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work. When the body  is in caloric deficit

and begins metabolizing fat for energy, it doesn’t go to an area where the

muscles are doing a lot of work in order to get additional energy resources.

The body has a genetically programmed pattern by which it determines

from what adipose cells to access stored fat energy. Exercise does burn

calories, of course, but the abdominals are such relatively small muscles

that no matter how much ab training you do you won’t metabolize nearly

the energy you would by simply going for a walk for the same amount of

time.

 But this is not to say that training a given area like the abs doesn’t

increase definition. As I said, the abdominals get a hard workout when

you do heavy exercises, but what they don’t get is quality training-that

 is, isolation, full-range-of-movement exercises. Movements that do this

bring out the full shape and separation of the abdominals instead of just

making them bigger. So although training the abs like this doesn’t do a lot

to reduce the fat around the waistline, it does create very well defined

muscles that are revealed once you are able to reduce your body fat sufficiently

by means of diet and aerobic exercise.

by vinchaylabs