When performing gym exercises, tightening your abdominal muscles is a common movement, present in almost all workouts. Therefore, knowing how to tighten your abdominal muscles correctly will help increase your daily workout efficiency. This article will share with you the correct way to tighten your abdominal muscles at the gym, as well as some safe and effective abdominal exercises. Let’s explore!
What is Abdominal Muscle Tightening?
Muscle tightening refers to contracting and tensing the muscles, bracing the body. This is a frequent action during physical exercise. Each area of the body contains distinct muscle groups. Abdominal tightening focuses specifically on the abdominal muscles, causing them to contract and firm together. Abdominal engagement is essential in exercises like planks, push-ups, crunches, squats, and weightlifting.
Benefits of proper abdominal contraction
Constricting the abdominal muscles is much more difficult than tightening the thigh, glute, or back muscles because the abdominal area is covered by a thick layer of fat. However, if you know how to contract your abdominal muscles correctly, you will receive the following benefits:
- Quickly improve your physique and enhance the effectiveness of your workouts.
- Clearly define your abdominal muscles: 11-line abs for women and 6-pack abs for men. This creates a lean, striking physique that attracts attention.
Instructions on how to contract your abdominal muscles correctly
Some gym-goers easily confuse the two concepts of contracting abdominal muscles and sucking in their stomachs. Contracting abdominal muscles is completely different from sucking in your stomach. When you suck in your stomach, it will appear to shrink. Contracting your abdominal muscles will make them more visible on the surface of your abdomen. Therefore, to quickly achieve your dream physique, follow these instructions for tightening your abdominal muscles:
- Step 1: Take a deep breath until your abdomen is fully expanded. At this point, air should fill your entire abdominal cavity.
- Step 2: Exhale and push out all the air from your abdominal cavity. At the same time, tighten your abdominal and back muscles as much as possible. To feel your abdominal muscles more clearly, you can lower your shoulders, keeping them away from your ears.
- Step 3: Keep your abdominal muscles engaged and slowly breathe normally.
However, during training, you should also pay attention to your diet. Animal fats, sugar, starches, and fried or stir-fried fast food should be limited. Instead, supplement your diet with foods rich in protein, fiber, water, healthy fats, etc.
Perform effective abdominal exercises
After learning how to properly tighten your abdominal muscles, you can practice additional physical exercises that help with weight loss. Below are some popular abdominal exercises you can refer to:
Air cycling exercise
Air cycling is a simple, easy exercise that you can do at home or at the gym. To perform the exercise, follow these steps:
- First, start in a supine position with your hands behind your head.
- Slowly raise both legs alternately to an angle of about 45 degrees. At the same time, raise your head and shoulders slightly off the floor.
- Begin the cycling motion, bend your right leg, and simultaneously lean to the right so that your left elbow touches your right knee. At this point, straighten your left leg, tighten your abdominal muscles for about 2 seconds, then repeat the same with the other side.
- Perform the movement 20 times in one set. Rest for about 5 seconds between each set.
Abdominal muscle tightening exercise with arm and leg raise
The abdominal muscle tightening exercise with arm and leg raise is also one of the exercises favored by many “sports enthusiasts”. The way to tighten your abdominal muscles when performing this technique is not too difficult, including the steps below:
- Lie on your back on a mat.
- Lift a dumbbell of a weight suitable for your body type. If you don’t have dumbbells at home, you can use other heavy objects of similar weight as a substitute, such as water bottles. Slowly straighten both arms upwards.
- Raise both legs 20-30 cm off the ground. Keep your legs parallel to each other.
- Tighten your abdominal muscles and exhale. Then, raise both shoulders and keep your legs at a right angle to the ground.
- Return to the starting position and repeat the movement 10-20 times to increase the effectiveness of the workout.
High Leg Raises
When mentioning effective ways to tighten abdominal muscles, the high leg raise exercise cannot be overlooked. This is also one of the favorite waist-tightening exercises because the movement is not too difficult, does not require many complicated techniques, but delivers results beyond expectations.
- First, lie on your back on a mat.
- Slowly raise both legs until they are perpendicular to the floor. Keep your knees slightly bent.
- Continue to keep your lower back pressed against the floor, with your knees still bent. At this time, try to tighten your abdominal muscles to stabilize your upper body on the floor. Spend 3-5 seconds lowering your legs as close to the floor as possible.
- Repeat the movement 10-20 times to maintain the effectiveness of the workout.
T-Side Plank Exercise
If you’re looking for a simple yet effective way to tighten your abdominal muscles, the T-Side Plank is the perfect suggestion. This exercise doesn’t require much technique or equipment, so you can do it at home. The steps for doing the T-Side Plank are as follows:
- To begin, lie in a side-sitting position on a mat. Place your right hand on the floor.
- Keep your legs straight and raise your hips until they are almost level with your shoulders. Your hips, shoulders, and ankles should be in a straight line. Keep your right hand perpendicular to your shoulder and perpendicular to the floor.
- Place your left hand perpendicular to the floor.
- Try to tighten your abdominal muscles and maintain a steady, gentle breathing rhythm. Hold this position for about 30 seconds. Lower yourself down slowly, then relax your entire body and switch hands.
The above information relates to ways to tighten abdominal muscles to increase the effectiveness of your workout. Hopefully, after reading this article, you will quickly find exercises suitable for your physical condition and start planning your workouts accordingly.
Tightening your abdominal muscles isn’t too difficult; you can choose to exercise at home if you’re confident you have enough experience to perform the technique correctly. If you’re a beginner or new to gym workouts, it’s best to choose a sports or fitness center to receive proper guidance on how to tighten your abdominal muscles.
