KiefersCorner

There are a lot of abdominal exercises but only a select few are the best on how they effectively they target your mid section.

     What ab exercises do you do?

First lets get the basics out of the way; everyone has abdominal muscles they are just hidden by a layer of fat. 

You cant spot reduce fat, so you can do all the abdominal exercises till you are blue in the face and never see your abdominal muscles.

You are probably asking why even bother to train abs if this is so?

Simply because your abs are the core muscles to protect and support your back. Without them you couldn’t twist, turn, or bend.

Most people will have back problems when they get older simply because they neglected to exercise these important muscles.

Plus as an added bonus they make you look dam good.

If you follow a proper diet and work your abdominal muscles you will give them strength, definition, and separation to make them stand out.

Your diet is the key to seeing you’re abdominal muscles combined with a good exercise routine. And just like any other routine there is a series of progression you should follow when working abdominal muscles.

So here is the ultimate at home abdominal muscle routine!

Most people have heard of the abdominal crunch to work their abs, this is the basic starting point in most routines. The crunch focuses on the upper abs

Here is how to perform the abdominal crunch:

Lie on your back with your legs bent at your knees and your feet flat on the floor. Fold your arms across your chest, or hold along side your head for extra resistance.

Inhale slightly and hold your breath as you raise your head and shoulders off the floor, concentrate on lifting your upper torso while keeping your spine on the floor. Stop and hold this position for a few seconds then exhale then return to the start position controlling the decent.

Most people fly through abdominal exercises like it’s an Olympic sport this is counter productive. It’s not the quantity; it’s the quality that counts.

Now to work the lower abdominal muscles you can do the reverse crunch.

Here is how to perform the reverse crunch:

Lie face up on the floor and put your arms over your head shoulder with apart, knuckles touching the floor. Now raise your legs with your knees bent until thighs are vertical.

Inhale slightly as you raise and rotate your pelvis up and toward your chest until your hips come off the floor. Keep your knees bent to isolate the lower abdominal muscles and hold for a second then exhale and return to the starting position

Keep your head and neck relaxed at all times, if this is to difficult place your arms by your side palms facing the floor and use your arms to help stabilize and push off the floor.

Now comes the fun part:

Some call them love handles, but the oblique muscles give you that lean definition that completes your abs for that six-pack look.

They are very hard to for most people to obtain so here is an extreme exercise to get them, the reverse trunk twist.

Here is how to perform the reverse trunk twist:

Lie face up on the floor with your arms out to your sides and your palms down. Your arms should be out to your sides so your body looks like a T. Raise your legs to create a 90% angle at your hips, keep a slight bend in your knees and your feet together.

Now lower your legs to one side while keeping a 90% angle in your hip joints, touch the floor with you’re foot keeping your shoulders and arms in contact with the floor.

Then raise your legs back to the top and continue over to the other side touching the floor. Exhale when you raise your legs, and inhale at the top center position.

If this is too difficult slightly bend your legs to reduce the resistance, but make sure you use correct form when performing this exercise.

To work both upper and lower abs together the V up is a great way to finish off your ab routine.

Here is how to perform the V up:

Lie face up on the floor legs straight and arms by your sides. Keeping your legs straight and feet together lift your legs and upper body simultaneously off the floor reaching for your toes with both hands.

Hold at the top position and your body should look like a v shape, and then reverse back to the starting position. Exhale on the lifting part and inhale on the return down, this exercise requires a lot of balance so it might take you awhile to get the hang of it.

Now to put it all together for the ultimate at home abdominal routine:

Start with and perform in this order:

1.The abdominal crunch
2. Reverse abdominal crunch
3. Reverse abdominal trunk twist
4. The abdominal V up

Do one exercise than move onto the next with no rest in between.

Your first goal should be able to do 2 sets of 15 reps for each exercise.

Always hold the crunch position the longer the better.

Never rock or use momentum to work your abdominal muscles.

Always control the return motion.

You can work your abdominal muscles 3 days a week, but just like any other muscle they need a day of rest in between workouts.

If you reach this goal go to 3 sets.

After 6 weeks reverse the order in which you perform the exercises.

Have any questions or comments, let me here them?

Want to know more read-  Why you can’t loose that last few pounds

Tags: ab exercises, ab routine, abdominals

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 24th, 2009 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Exercise Programs, Mens Health, Womens Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.