Are ABS separate muscle groups or single one?

[SSAlexSS]

Hello all! Are abs a separate muscle group or a single muscle?

The reason i am saying this is:


My abs are deformed! My abs on left side are huge but not on my right. Further my abs are bigger at the top and my lower abs have trouble showing through me (fat prevents them from showing? I am at about 15 % bodyfat).


Any opinions? I don't think my problem is genetic because my father had perfect 6 pack (leaning towards massive side) without training them much.

Also are cable crunches an effective exercise for mass in the abs?


Reply please!

Thanks!

 

[MrMuscle]

ok im gonna say that oyu can do training exercises that target the different areas. and you SHOULD do this.

Hanging legraises for lower abs
Twists or side crunches for you obliques..you can also do weighted obliques, ive never been much fan of those though. Twists with a broomstick over your shoulder is also a good way to strenghten obliques.
Ordinary crunches is ecellent for the upper part of the abs. this is the exercise you see most people do..most tend to neglect the rest.

 

[Cackerot69]

The abs (6 pack abs) are one muscle, that appears to be seperated due to tendons that are above them and the ab muscle protrudes these tendons making the 6 pack visable.

When the abs contract, the whole thing contracts because of the way it's innervated.

So, don't worry about working the upper/lower abs because it's impossible.

Alex - Eat steak and squat.

 

[MrMuscle]

how weird that you answered the direct opposite of me...each to his own i guess

 

[WarriorPL]

i too feel you can taget areas, because well my upper abs are more cut than my lower.


~WizKid

 

[Tuna Guy]

Mr 69 is correct but it is easier to think of exercises as being either lower ab exercises or upper ab exercises.

 

[Robboe]

Just because your upper section of abdominals is leaner than the lower section doesn't mean you can target areas. It just means you have more fat there.

 

[goahead]

Well, if its tru that u cannot target areas than stick to 4 reps with heavy plates on the roman chair and tell me 3 months later that you didn't like those crude first two rows sticking before your chest...


This seems to be a neverending disussing....

anyway even if u cannot target a section of the muscle still doing different exercises can be important for different neuromuscular steering and leverage differences, giving new stimuli to the whole muscle....

So I suggest you DO several exercises, after all the HIT jedis say you cannot target this and that, so obviously it does'nt matter and means there is certainly nothing against it!

You know what: don't train abs at all, stick to heavydeadlifts and squats, that will build the abs. All you need is some ECA-T3-clen-ket-DNP stack and the 9 pack jumps right out (yeah right)

 

[Belial]

Cackerot is right.

*hands Cack a cookie*

Now go along and play.

 

[Jeremy21]

Well... actually he could be wrong

Recent MRI studies show that while you cannot "isolate" any section of the abdominal wall, there does appear to be methods of stressing one area of the abdomine over another. So are ther ereally, upp & lower abs? Probably but the effect one would get from trying to train these areas seperately is negligable at best. So.. the jury is still out, but there is mounting evidence that one area can be stressed over another, just like it is possible to stress different heads of the bicep but impossible to work a different section of the same muscle group.


kind regards,
jeremy