Abdominals for all. Hipopressive abs!
- 3 min. reading -
Spring arrives and with it our first thoughts about summer and raise your hand who has not worried about that first day in a swimsuit and abdomen in the sun.
I remembered that I recently read an article that explained how difficult it is to mark the abdominal muscles for both men and women, and that is that the abdominal muscles are covered by a fatty layer that makes it much more difficult to mark them. Hence the famous phrase that says: "abdominals are made in the kitchen"
To this is also added in the case of those of us who have had babies, the distension of the abdominal walls produced by the pregnancy, which causes the anterior rectus to lose tone and strength.
But all is not lost because we will always have the Hypopressives.
For those who don't know them yet, this is an ancient technique practiced by the ancient fakirs and yogis of India since ancient times. It consists of working the abdominal area, using the apnea respiratory technique. To do this, we must open the ribs when breathing and thus maintain the position for a certain time.
The pressure inside the abdomen is closely linked to the muscles of the thorax, pelvis and back. And precisely the objective of this training is central stabilization and muscle work without excess intra-abdominal pressure.
This discipline has become the favorite technique for everyone, even elite athletes, to improve their physical condition. And it brings numerous benefits. Among them we find:
- Reduce waist fat
- Improves sexual function
- Prevents urinary incontinence
- Relieves back pain
- Improves respiratory function
- Corrects body posture
- Strengthens the pelvic floor
Tuck-ups are quite precise, so it's best to make sure you understand the technique and are doing it right.
Before practicing them, you should inhale and exhale several times. Each inhalation should last about 3 seconds and each exhalation about 4 seconds.
In the last inhalation we are going to hold the air in apnea. We will try to open the rib region as if we wanted to take all the air out of the room.
We will hold this position for about 10 seconds, slowly exhaling until the abdomen returns to its starting position.
We are going to repeat this exercise about 5 times in different positions:
- Standing with your hands open forward, what is known as the "Venus position". We repeat 5 times.
- Lie on your back, with your knees bent and resting on your heels. We will hold the air for 10 seconds, 5 times.
- Stand with knees slightly bent and hands resting on the inside of the knee. We repeat 5 times.
- Lying down again, we stretch our arms and legs to their maximum level. We contract the abdomen in 5 repetitions.
These are just some initial, easy exercises that we can do at home, in the gym or even in the office.
They only take about 15-20 minutes and as with everything, with consistency the results are spectacular.
Be encouraged to try them and tell us how you felt!
