This is a method that very few athletes know about. The ‘hypopressive' technique is founded in a much less traumatic, stressful approach to working the abdominal belt and you get some rather interesting results.
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The hypopressive ab method, it’s all about your breathing
The hypopressive technique is not very widespread in the world of fitness and bodybuilding, but it is actually quite revolutionary and has many health benefits. Everything comes down to your breathing. In fact, the goal is to contract your abs by breathing in and releasing the air until the abdomen begins to contract on its own and ‘shrink’, sucking the abdominal muscles inwards as a result. So forget about crunches, sheathing and other exercises that traumatise your abdominal belt.
Benefits of hypopressive exercises
Working your abs in a different way will allow you to see different results and understand your body and control your breathing better. There are many advantages such as:
- It will reinforce your back: by working only on your breathing, you will avoid that occasional painful pressure in your neck, lower back and spine. Unlike crunches, you will be stretching and refining these areas.
- It will help you relax: by learning to breathe better, you will gradually find calm. By focusing on your breathing, you will consequently find the physical and mental relaxation and calm that goes along with it.
- Organ maintenance: with this breathing work, you will also be working the organs located in your stomach and around that area. In fact, this back and forth movement from bottom to top will help improve your flexibility and your stomach muscles. This technique is recommended for pregnant or postpartum women as it is perfect for pelvic floor repair.
- It will help you get a flat and muscular belly: doing hypopressive ab exercises are almost as effective as crunches as it will allow you to work both your abdominal belt and lower back muscles. Your figure will change and your stomach will also slim down.
If you want more details on how to do these exercises and work on your breathing, check out the video above for more info on this type of training.
