Food, Fitness and Sport: Muscle Groups

It seems like the best place to start when talking about muscle exercises is the Abdominal muscles, having good abs is the sign of someone who is at the top of their fitness and rightly so as it requires a lot of hard work to get these muscles into top condition. There is a lot to talk about with looking after your muscles so I'll be breaking this into two parts. Part 1 will give you an insight into what makes your abs and how to stretch them, with part 2 looking into the equipment you can use and how to exercise them! So lets start with a brief biology lesson:

The Anatomy:

Picture from wiki commons

Rectus Abdominis - This is the muscle that defines the abs, it is responsible for the '6 pack' that so many people crave. It consists of 2 vertical muscles that run from the pubis up to the 5th rib covering all of the abdomen. It has various functions that include helping with posture as well as helping to flex the spine in a 'crunch' motion. It can also play a part in forceful respiration such as heavy breathing after intense exercise and helps to protect the organs behind it.
External Obliques - These muscles run across the side of your midriff and are involved in any rotation that the torso does, so when you turn from side to side or go to throw a punch for example these are the muscles that allow your rotation to occur, they also allow sideways bending of the torso.
Internal Obliques - These unsurprisingly are found beneath the external obliques and they also are at right angles to the external obliques. They are similar to the external obliques in that they are also involved in the rotation of the torso, however they run in an opposite direction, for example; if the left internal oblique contracts and so does the right external oblique contract then this will bring the right shoulder towards the left hip. As well as this the internal obliques are also involved in breathing by helping move the diaphragm up and down.
Transverse Abdominis - This muscle lies beneath the rectus abdominis and holds your abdominal region together. It is involved in respiration and is used to pull the abdominal wall in, so basically this is the muscle you use when you want to such in your gut and make your belly look smaller then it really is!

Now that you know what makes up your abs its time to look out how you can stretch them out.

The Stretches:

It's important to stretch well before a workout as this will allow you to work to your best, as well as avoid injury. It's wise to do stretch after a work out as well as this will prevent muscle stiffness the next day and will speed up recovery time!

Stretch 1 - Waist Press

This stretch works your rectus abdominis and starts off in a press up position with the body pressed against the ground and with the arms perpendicular to the body with the hands placed against the floor.

Start position

Next push your torso up using your hands while keeping your waist close to the ground, once you get to the top of this movement and can feel the stretch, hold this position for about 20 seconds.

End position

Stretch 2 - Hip Stretch

The Hip stretch will help stretch you obliques by doing some simple controlled rotations. start by lying with your back to the floor and with one leg raised and crossed over the other leg.

Start Position

Now rotate the raised leg in the opposite direction (so move your right leg left or your left leg right) until you feel the stretch and hold this for about 20 seconds. When you've stretched one side, swap legs and do the same for the other leg.

End Position

Stretch 3 - Seated twist

This again will help stretch out your obliques but should help stretch your internal obliques more then stretch 2! Sit down on the floor with your legs straight, now cross one leg over the other one (basically the same as the previous stretch but sitting up)

Start Position

Now twist your torso in the opposite direction to the crossed leg until you can feel the stretch and hold it for about 20 seconds then change legs and repeat