Ab Exercise Tips

Brian ~Third time’s a charm~ asked:


I understand that abs exercises are important in actually building the muscle. But it will never show if its underneath, even a thin layer of fat. What’s the most effective way to get toned abs to show through. Should you do tons of cardio on top of the abs exercises? Such as running?

If you have experience with this, please share your tips!

Ashlynn

Alan Tii asked:


Exercise balls,being a highly versatile piece of exercise equipment provides plenty of ways to help improve your strength, balance, flexibly and co-ordination. Compared to working on a flat surface, your body needs to respond to the instability of the ball to remain balanced and by doing so, many body muscles will be engaged. These muscles will become stronger over time in order to keep the balance. Most frequently, the abdominal muscles and the back muscles will be developed the most in the process of keeping your balance.

In this article, I will highlight the 3 GREAT ABS exercise that can be executed with the exercise ball and they are as follows

1) Exercise ball ab crunches

2) Stability ball hip flexion (knee tucks)

3) Stability Ball Plank Holds

Great abs exercise 1 - Exercise ball ab crunches

Stabilize your body on a stability ball by finding your balance point for performing a crunch movement (your lower back will be on the top of the ball). Then simply crunch your upper body up while keeping your fingers on the sides of your head, chin up, and feet planted flat on the floor. Try to hold the top of the crunch for 2 seconds while forcefully exhaling and holding a tight contraction of the abdominal muscles. To make this exercise more challenging, you can move your arms straight out behind your head. For more advanced trainers, you can hold a medicine ball or weight out behind your head while completing the crunch . The addition of medicine ball in the exercise will add more resistance to the exercise making it more effective.

Recommended reps : 1 set x 10

Great abs exercise 2 - Stability ball hip flexion (knee tucks)

Start with your arms in a push-up position and your shins balancing on the top of a stability ball. Tuck your knees in under your body as you roll the ball closer to your hands and elevate your rear. Your back will come up in a hunched position and your abs will contract if done properly.

Recommended reps : 1 set x 12

Great abs exercise 3 - Stability Ball Plank Holds

Stability ball plank holds are similar to floor planks, but the instability aspect of the ball will make this exercise much more challenging to your abs and core than standard floor planks. To do stability ball planks holds, position yourself on your toes and with your forearms on the top of a stability ball. Be careful if you’ve never tried this before as it takes quite a bit of balance. Hold the plank position on the stability ball while you make slight 1-inch movements back and forth in every direction with your elbows to make this even more challenging. Try to hold this for 60-90 seconds. Super-studs can try for over 90 seconds hold time on this one.

Recommended reps : 1 set x 30-60 seconds

Now that you have learnt how to use the exercise ball effectively,be sure not to miss using this excellent tool the next time you hit the gym !



Ethan

Saz asked:


I do cardio, but now I want to start working at my abs. What exercises really work best?? Is it the ab machines at the gym, the ab machines on t.v., or good old fashioned crunches, or something else?

Rylan

Todd Scott asked:


Many times, the best ab exercises aren’t the type of exercise you’d expect, nor are they always performed lying on your back. Are you ready for 3 of the top abs exercises that’d you’d never expect? Here goes:

1) High Dumbell Squats

2) Cradle Stiff Leg Deadlifts

3) Dumbbell Shadow Boxer

High Dumbell Squats- The purpose of this exercise is to use fairly heavy dumbbells and old them at shoulder height. The dumbbells serve 2 purposes: 1) to through off stabilization during the squat 2) engage your abs and obliques to work extra in order to provide balance. If you use a nice heavy dumbbell, this will activate your abs like no other exercise. Once you have the dumbbells at shoulder height, perform a regular squat.

Cradle Stiff Leg Deadlift – This exercise is much like a regular stiff leg dead lift, except you will be “cradling” the bar in front of your body within the creases of your elbows. Make sure you keep your back straight, knees slightly bent, and your abs tight at all times. Begin with a moderate weight and increase the poundage as necessary. This is a Killer ab exercise.

Shadow Boxer – This is very similar to shadow boxing, except you will be holding a dumbbell in each hand. Use a moderately light weight as it is very taxing on your arms. Aim for a point directly in front of your nose, and begin “boxing” by alternating each arm. Try to keep your hips locked squarely facing forward.

The rep schemes for the High Dumbell squats should be in the 8-12 range. I’d recommend doing this particular exercise as a stand alone, while the other 2 can be grouped together with other abs exercises.

For the Cradle Leg Deadlift, keep the reps around 8-10, and the Shadow Boxer, you should perform for time intervals of 20-45 seconds. Make sure you use a light weight to ensure you’re able to isolate your abs during this exercise.

After finishing each exercise, you can move immediately into the next, or rest for 20-30 seconds and repeat for 3-4 sets total.

This will give you one of the best ab workouts there is without having to get on the floor. You can use these as your main program, or throw them in with your current ab routine to spice things up!



Declan

Jesse Miller asked:


Yeah, right. Training your abs with the right program will give you results in no time. What may be necessary other than working out is feeding your body with the healthiest choice of diet—fibrous, nutritious and low-fat.

There are notions, however, that may have guided health buffs on how to do their abs exercises. Others may be right, a few may be erroneous. Whatever they believe in, these 4 myths about abs exercises must make sense in helping them do the appropriate things:

1.Abs exercises will give best results if done every day. This myth is risky. Just like training your biceps and triceps, abs exercises may wear out muscles of done without rest. They all apply the same degree of quick to slow twitching of muscles. Don’t you know your muscles develop during rest periods, thus doing your abs exercises every day will shortchange yourself of consequences. Besides, you are just breaking down your muscles if you work on them daily.

2.Training your abs delivers flat tummy. It must be noted that when you perform any workout routine, it’s all areas of the body that burn fat. You cannot simply reduce fat in your stomach if you just do abs exercises. You need to do cardio routine for 45 minutes to 1 hour to shed off fats and eventually get that flat tummy. Abs exercises develop muscles, so if you only do them without cardio, tendency is that your fat will be lying underneath the muscles. Burn the fat first and develop muscles after.

3.Placing your hands behind your head will support your body when you do the crunches. This is untrue. You never should place your hands close to your head as may tend to flex the neck muscles instead of contracting abdominal muscles. If you do this, you will trigger risks for your neck muscles like straining and wearing them out especially when the repetitions begin to be more difficult. Your hands and elbows must cross each other in front of your chest instead. You can also place your fist at your ears.

4.The lower and upper abs muscles are separately situated. Again, this doesn’t speak of truth. The abs is one long sheet of muscle. Upper and lower muscles aren’t separate. Whatever abs exercises you are executing, they target all abdominal spots. Although there are specific routines that aim more attention to the lower or upper abs, but still they aren’t separate. To focus the upper abs, you can do crunch that takes the chest toward your pelvic. To target the lower abs, you can do leg and butt raises.

These myths should tell you what to do and what not. It’s best that you take note of them so that you aren’t risking yourself as try to get your six-pack abs in a period of time.



Ellen