I understand having well tuned abs is an important part of soccer (helps alot) and is used in loads of diffrent ways. So I was wondering, how do I get my abs "in shape"? I have read loads of sites, but they all say diffrent things. Some say its all about curl-ups, other says curl-ups are useless you just need to diet. So does anyone know how I can "get my abs in shape"? Any tips, diets, exercises? High school soccer is coming up in Spring and I want to be ready. P.S. This will be my last thread, for a bit . "Soccer is not about life or death, but something more"
sit ups work well if you do them correctly. Pull-ups work well also (when u bring ur knees to your chest while suspended in the air by ur arms) Contrarty to popular believe, when your back hurts while doing them it's cuz ur back isn't strong enough.
Very important! You don't just need good abs in soccer, all your trunk muscles need to be good. So always exercise your lower back too when you excercise your abs, just do back raises while laying on your stomach. It will eliminate back pain and risk of injury. Always remember that you need to train opposite muscles with the same effort (abs-lower back, quads-hamstring, bicep-tricep...). If you don't you risk injury.
Sit-ups. I do leg lifts, but have heard that other people have problems with them. Then again, I do them by starting flat on my back on the ground, then lifting both my feet to eye level. I also do the back exercises too. And from the the websites you are reading, it seems they talk about getting the six-pack. You'll only get that if you lower your body fat percentage low enough.
Just to follow what GreenDay said, you have to do situps correctly to prevent injury and to not waste time. Lie down with bent knees. Lift your upper body off the ground, but no more than that. If you have your hands behind your head, be careful not to lift on your head with them - you will end up hurting your neck. You can try crossing your arms on your chest to prevent that. Exercise all the muscles by varying the situps. Exercise the lower muscles by doing leg lifts from that position. Exercise the higher muscles by leaving one leg down and placing the other ankle on the knee of the down leg and doing situps. Get your side muscles by twisting on the way up. Another variation to try is a crunch - lie on your back with your knees up and feet in the air (almost like a fetal position), then move your knees to your chest while doing a situp. You only need slight movement for this one. Having a strong abdomen is helpful in protecting your back. Just remember that, as microbrew said, you can have a strong abdomen without having a visible six-pack.
Thanks all for your help, so its to sit-ups with me . "Soccer is not about life or death, but something more"
when ur doing situps, take one hand and feel ur abs. Go through 1 motion with your hand on your stomach. When you crunch, yours abs should be flexed, if they aren't flexed your going too high.
There are many things you can do for your abs: -flat crunches--legs lying flat on ground, not bent...and crunch. -bicycle crunches--touch opposite knee to elbow and alternate...right knee to left elbow, left knee to right elbow, make sure stomach is flexed. -double crunches--crunch up and at the same time pull your knees into your chest and then back out and repeat. if you have access to a gym: -rope crunches--on a cable machine, put the rope on the cable and get down on your knees. take hold of the rope and hold it by your head. then using your abs only, crunch down pullling the weight down with you. -gravity boots--those boots that you hook onto the smith machine where you are hanging upside down. incredibly hard...but will get your abs in better shape than anything else IMO. somethings my coach has us do for abs: -with a partner--lie on the ground and have your partner stand with their feet on either side of your head...take hold of their ankles and do leg raises, but have your partner throw your legs back down...using your abs, with stand the throw by catching them before they hit the ground and raise them back up.... -lying flat on back--hold your legs out 6 inches off the ground for 2 minutes, then rest, and repeat. lastly--lying flat on back...write the alphabet with your legs out in front of you and your toes pointed...write with your legs.
Stretching is everything, when you want to prevent major injuries. I am trying to learn yoga right now, this will help me not to get injured in a game. My fault, I am just playing with idiots, who saw soccer only in TV and think they are the best. So they are very rough.
I'm a fan of stretching myself. I'm always the only one who stays on the pitch after practice and does a good strech to all the muscles involved. I feel so much better afterwards and the next day. If I don't strech, some joints might feel uncomfortable and rusty. I don't get the guys who come on the pitch and aren't even warmed up and just start banging at the ball. On guy seriously messed up his quads by taking a huge whack at the ball the moment he walked on the pitch and couln't play for ages. I train with a division 1 team in my country and even they don't strech unless the coach tells them...
Yeah, thats sucks. When you get on the field and the coach is absent,nobody is warming himself up. So, I am doing my excersises mostly alone and when he makes it to the field, he stops the warming after two minutes, because he thinks, everyone was intelligent enough less to strech himself. But I need more time for it, same problem when the two hours are over, everyone goes into the locker room, but nobody's doing a little er...outlet (says my dictionary). They just don't know how important it is. As you described, you feel more comfortable and safer afterwards. Once I had an injury on my ankle (one year ago)which was not too serious but I haven't totally recovered yet(it hurts, when I get a little pressure on a certain point). That taught me a lesson.
The simplest excercise is to lie on your stomach, put your hands behind your head and continously raise your body as high as you can. It's good to tuck your feet under something or have a partner hold them down. Basically it's just like doing a crunch but your body is turned upside down. Another and maybe better version of excercise needs gym equipment - there's a sort of bench for this - your legs are held in place horizontally and you can hang your body down in a 90 degree angle and raise it up from there. This gives you a much wider range of motion (sounds like a Total Gym commertial )
I ran cross country. That got me abs, plus I could eat whatever I wanted. I also did like 15 sit-ups every other day.
Your going to need to more then 15 sit-ups ever other day unless you want to spend awhile developing definition etc
getting chest muscles How do I get chest muscles? I am 14 now. And chest is big and my tummy is also not flat as soccer players have, Is it because I have not yet gone through puberty or what? Help me.
Can you get chest muscles like hunks have just by doing pushups? Why is that that just by doing pushups you can get chest muscles? I can only do 5 pushups before I get tired...Hehe...And what about my stomach?
If can do only 5 there's a loooooong way to go until pushups become too easy and you have to go benchpressing to develop further. Practice them until you can do around 50. Then your chest will be very hunky! To get a srong flat stomach just do situps. There are many versions and all of them work well. Just lay on your back knees slightly bent, put your hands behind your head and pull your body up and touch your knees with your elbows. Don't put your feet under anything, it's harder that way, and don't use your hands to pull your head up, just your abs (danger of neck injury). But please don't just work out to look good - do it to be in good shape. It's the typical western ideal of a man to have huge pecks, biceps and six-pack stomack. And the rest of the body doesn't matter. He can have legs like spaghetty and be considered a super-stud. To me that's pathetic. Basically you need to develop your whole body not just the chest and abs. If you don't it's very easy to get injured, for example if you have good abs but a weak back, your back will start to hurt or get injured eventually... Ever seen Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan? Their pecks ar 10 times smaller than your average stud in America but their whole body is 10 times stronger and more agile. That's because their bodies are trained in balance.
What is benchpressing and what do you mean by the last sentence. Practice on what? I thought pushups are ONLY for your bisceps and not ur chest. That is not true right? And just doing situps will help my stomach? I first need to burn the fats first. because without burning my fats in my stomach and if i start doing situps then the muscles will be building below my fat tissues. what are your advice and thoughts?
yeah, don't try to look like the typical meathead out there. i call them "fat swoll" cuz they got muscles but still kinda chubby, no definition. itll get you the dumb everyday sluts, but not the model types. if youre 14 its almost time to hit the gym bro. work on pushups like he said till you can do about 50; do pull ups, chin ups until you can do a lot of those. dips are also very nice for your chest and triceps. i used to do them in my parents kitchen: where their counters meet there is like a 90 degree angle, lift yourself up with your arms full extended, slowly lower yourself up and down. you can do triceps oriented dips too. get a chair and a table. put your arms behind you on the edge of the table and and feet up on the chair with your head to the ceiling (laying on your back). lower yourself down and concentrate on your triceps lifting you up. i wouldn't really start with freeweights at the gym until you can do all of these excercises comfortably and in many reps. and don't forget to eat a lot of healthy food.
You have a LOT to learn about exercise! (and that's a good thing if you want to learn). By practice I mean do them every day and you will improve - you will be able to do more and more. If you can do 50 you're in pretty good shape. And pushups do absolutely nothing to your biceps! They train the triceps and the chest muscles. If you place your hands wide appart, it'll do the chest more, if you place your hands closer together it'll do the triceps more. The navy seals do them with their hands touching - it's mega hard do do it that way! Try it, I bet you can't do one! Yes situps will help your stomach. They will develop your abs. How many situps can you do right now? I understand you want your abs to look good as well. That means you have to get rid of fat. There are two ways of doing that - consume less calories or exercise more. Basically eat healthier food and exercise every day. And benchpressing is what you see everybody doing in the gym while they should be doing squats It's when you lay on a bench and lift a barbell off your chest. Don't go doing that without a coach's advice.