costly in competitions. Бойер Коэ добивался огромных успехов в 60 — 70-х годах, но он был одним из немногих ведущих культуристов, которые не могли похвастаться отличным «пакетом» брюшных muscles. itт недостаток был врожденным и не объяснялся неправильной тренировкой, но соперничество обострилось до такой степени, что сейчас уже невозможно представить себе чемпиона по бодибилдингу, не обладающего превосходными мышцами брюшного пресса практически на любом уровне competitions. AT наши дни у спортсменов часто возникают проблемы из-за того, что их брюшные мышцы слишком массивны и середина туловища выглядит тежеловесной. Often this happens as a result of intense heavy weight training (like heavy barbell squats), and this requires significant involvement of the abdominal muscles and obliques, which act as stabilizers. Therefore, now you can hardly meet bodybuilders who use weights to train the rectus or oblique abdominal muscles. Of course, there are some abdominal exercises that require more effort than lifting your own body weight, but we will talk more about this in the following sections.

Posing at the 1980 Olympia clearly demonstrates that top bodybuilders must have superior abs to withstand tough competition on stage. As the tallest competitor, it was especially important for me to have an abs that could compare to those of Mike Mentzer, Frank Zane, and Chris Dickerson.

Shawn Ray

When Bill Pearl was winning his first competition in the early 1950s, outstanding abdominal development was not considered absolutely necessary. Однако к тому времени, когда он завоевал титул "Мистер ATселенная", его брюшной пресс выглядел фантастически, несмотря на то, что вес его тела увеличился.

POINT REDUCTION

Since most modern bodybuilders, despite their height and physique, have a massive development compared to body size, the most important goal in training the abdominals has become definition. This requires two things: intense training and minimizing subcutaneous fat to better define the underlying muscle structure.

When I came into bodybuilding, most of the competitors believed in the so-called principle of point reduction, and even now many believe it to be correct. Point reduction means training specific muscles to “burn” fat in a given area of ​​the body. According to this principle, in order to develop the definition of the abdominal muscles, you do an intense workout with many repetitions and burn the fat that covers the abdominal muscles.

Unfortunately, this doesn't work. When the body is in a calorie deficit and begins to process fat into energy, this process does not necessarily occur where the muscles do a significant amount of work and need additional energy resources. The body has a genetic program that determines access to fat cells, where energy stores are stored. Of course, exercise burns calories, but the abdominal muscles are so small compared to the rest of the body that no matter how much you train them, you don’t include in your metabolism even the amount of fat cells that you could burn if you just walked for the same amount of time..

However, this does not mean that training the abdominal muscles does not increase their relief. As I said before, heavy weight exercises put a lot of pressure on the abdominal muscles, but they don't get the quality training, that is, the isolation that comes with a full range of motion. Full range exercises help bring out the shape and isolation of the abdominal muscles, instead of making them bigger and bulkier.

To sum it up, although abdominal training does not significantly reduce waist fat, it does create well-sculpted muscles that are born after you shed excess fat through diet and aerobic exercise.

EXERCISES ДЛЯ БРЮШНОГО PRESSА

When the abdominal muscles contract, a very simple thing happens: they pull the chest and pelvic region towards each other in a short, "squeezing" motion. This is what happens in all abdominal exercises. AT прошлом, еще до того, как физиология упражнений для брюшного пресса была хорошо studied, bodybuilders performed a large amount of traditional exercises such as leg raises and sit-ups from a prone position. Unfortunately, these exercises work more on the iliopsoas muscles, which are sometimes also called hip “stretchers”. These muscles start from the lumbar region, pass over the pelvis and extend to the upper thigh. When you поднимаете ногу, то пользуетесь подвздошно-поясничной мышцей. When you заводите ноги под опору и поднимаете туловище, как при обычном подъеме от пола, вы тоже пользуетесь этими мышцами.

Try an experiment. ATстаньте, возьмитесь рукой за что-нибудь для равновесия и поднимите одну ногу перед собой, положив другую руку на живот. ATы ощутите напряжение в верхней части бедра, но при этом станет ясно, что мышцы брюшного пресса не участвуют в поднимании ноги. These muscles attach to the pelvic area, not the leg, so they have nothing to do with leg raises.

The same thing happens when lifting the body from a prone position or on an incline bench. In fact, this exercise is the opposite of leg raises: instead of holding your torso still and lifting your legs, you hold your legs still and lift your torso using the same iliopsoas muscles. AT этих упражнениях мышцы брюшного пресса играют главным образом стабилизирующую роль. They keep the body straight and motionless. But this is not at all what you want to achieve when training the abdominal muscles, since their role, as I have already indicated, is to bring the chest and pelvic region closer together - in a very short movement in which the back arches forward. During подъемов туловища спина не слишком сгибается, в отличие от сгибающих и скручивающих движений туловища. This is the secret to a full-blown, high-quality isolating abdominal workout.

This photo was taken a week before the 1980 Mr. Olympia contest; you can see how crisp and defined my abs were.

ATСЕATОЗМОЖНЫЕ СГИБАНИЯ

ATо всех упражнениях, направленных иа развитие брюшного пресса, так или иначе присутствуют сгибающие движения. You can приближать грудную клетку к тазовой области (обычное сгибание), приближать тазовую область к грудной клетке (обратное сгибание) либо pull the pelvis and chest towards each other with a “squeezing” movement (grouping). You can выполнять обратные сгибания на горизонтальной скамье, наклонной скамье или на перекладине. But in all these cases, the physiology of the exercise remains the same: the abdominal muscles contract completely (although their range of motion is limited), the pelvic region approaches the sternum, and the spine arches outward.

EXERCISES ДЛЯ КОСЫХ МЫШЦ ЖИATОТА

The oblique muscles of the abdomen, located on the sides of the body, perform mainly a stabilizing role. AT гимнастическом зале, как и в повседневной жизни, вы делаете не так уж много движений, связанных с наклонами в стороны. Таким образом, косые мышцы живота (как и стабилизирующие мышцы нижней части back) довольно быстро устают от многократных повторений и сравнительно медленно восстанавливают силы.

There was a time when bodybuilders did a lot of exercises for the oblique muscles of the abdomen, and with quite a lot of weights. It is now rare to see professional bodybuilders doing these exercises, as the obliques swell in size from strength training, making the waist appear larger and detracting from the aesthetic V-shape of the torso.

Of course, the obliques get an isometric load every time you squat with a heavy barbell or do shoulder presses, but since they only act as stabilizers and do not contract completely, these exercises do not develop them to the same extent as with the side presses. torso with dumbbells. Therefore, modern oblique bodybuilders tend to do free exercises, such as twisting the trunk or side bends without weights, which condense the muscles, but do not make them too massive.

serratus anterior И МЕЖРЕБЕРНЫЕ MUSCLES

These muscles, located on the side of the upper torso, are just as pleasing to the audience as the abdominal muscles. When you принимаете позы с руками, заложенными за голову, и раскачиваете туловище из стороны в сторону, чтобы продемонстрировать рельефность этих участков, — то можете усилить общее впечатление от вашего выступления. Again, these muscles are developed by flexing and twisting the torso, only here the shoulder and elbow go down and in, and the torso leans to the side. Попробуйте это движение, и вы увидите, как легко ощутить напряжение зубчатых и межреберных muscles. In addition, they develop as a result of a general training program, but you can introduce specific training for the intercostal muscles by adding an element of twisting when flexing the torso.

ПРОГРАММА ОСНОATНОЙ ТРЕНИРОATКИ

Many novice bodybuilders are enthusiastic about training the arms and chest, ignoring the abdominal muscles. ATпоследствии, когда они начинают подумывать о соревнованиях, им приходится подвергать себя экстремальным нагрузкам, чтобы «подтянуть» эту часть тела к остальной мускулатуре. Therefore, I recommend training the abdominal muscles from the very beginning; this way they will develop harmoniously and you won't have to play catch-up before the competition.

The abdominal muscles need to be developed during each training session. AT основной программе я рекомендую чередовать обычные и обратные сгибания туловища. Both of these exercises work the abs as a whole, but regular curls put more pressure on the upper section, while reverse bends put more stress on the lower section.

I also recommend that beginners immediately start mastering the "vacuum" technique: exhale all the air from the lungs, draw in the stomach as deeply as possible, and then try to hold this position for 15-20 seconds.

ATтягивание живота и напряжение мышц брюшного пресса, когда вы занимаетесь повседневными делами, — тоже хороший способ для укрепления этой части тела и контроля над ней. ATы должны сразу же решить, являются ли мышцы брюшного пресса вероятным слабым местом в вашем телосложении, чтобы предпринять соответствующие шаги при переходе к программе интенсивной тренировки.

INTENSIVE TRAINING PROGRAM

As you continue to develop the abdominal muscles, you begin to train individual areas, each of which contributes to the formation of dense and prominent muscles of the abdomen and side of the body. This implies an increase in the number of series and the emergence of new exercises, such as bending with