Showing posts with label ABS. Show all posts
How to Get Killer Abs!
Top 5 Best Ab Exercises
There are hundreds of ab exercises that you could do without any equipment, anytime, anywhere. Throw in an exercise ball, medicine ball, dumbbells, barbells, a pull-up bar and all the other gym equipment and the possibilities are nearly endless. Based on sheer volume, picking out the best ab exercises can seem like trying to take a drink from a fire hose.
To make matters worse, six pack seekers have to tone out all of the clever marketing of wonder pills and the newest fads in ab training and exercise products, which always seem to guarantee six pack results. Remember the As Seen on TV Ab Belt? Give me a break.
Lucky for you, we’ve crunched the list down to the five best ab exercises to to bring you the skinny on ab training. Our list of the best ab exercises was built assuming you have a gym membership, but each exercise or a slight variation can be performed with minimal equipment.
Not worried about how to lose fat? If you’ve already dialed in the diet, cranked up the cardio, and abandoned the bulging belly for a flat stomach, congratulations. You’re in the right spot.
If you’re one of those lucky people that can eat whatever they want, never pick up a weight, and never have to worry about how to lose belly fat, you’re also in the right spot, but none of us like you.
And now, on to the best ab exercises…
5. Hanging Leg Hip Raise: The hanging leg hip raise is our first of the best ab exercises and is a more effective variation to its popular cousin, the hanging leg raise. This belly buster forces your abs to statically contract as you bring your knees parallel to your waist (the hanging leg raise portion of the lift) and dynamically contract as you complete the exercise by further bringing your knees in to your chest. Throughout the exercise, your forced to stabilize your core as your body weight and hanging legs serve as a natural source of resistance.
To do the ab exercise, grab a pull-up bar and allow your body to hang straight down with your legs dangling below. Next, bring your knees up to waist height by flexing your hips, pause for a moment, then bring your knees in to your chest by flexing at the waist, pause again, then slowly return to the starting position.
Make the leg hip raise easier by doing the exercise on a captain’s chair (pictured right), an incline, or on a flat surface.
Make the leg hip raise more difficult by holding a light dumbbell between your feet. Remember however that added resistance is a poor substitute for correct form.
4. Incline Oblique Crunches: Like the hanging leg hip raise, our second of the best ab exercises uses your body weight to add resistance to an already effective abdominal exercise. The incline oblique crunch keeps tension on your abs throughout the lift with two types of muscle contraction. When you lift your torso, the abs are shortening; whereas in the trunk lowering phase, your abs are lengthening. The incline of the bench makes these muscle contractions more intense than crunches or oblique crunches on flat ground.
To do incline oblique crunches, lie on your back on an incline, secure your feet in place, and put your hands behind your head. Next, exhale and crunch your body upwards, driving your right shoulder towards your left knee about halfway up. Your elbow will ultimately touch your knee, but make sure you’re twisting with your abs and obliques and not just repositioning your arms to make it easier for your elbow to touch. Return to the starting position by untwisting and lowering your torso back on to the bench. Next, do the same thing but to the other side.
Make the exercise easier by Decreasing the incline or lying flat on the ground with your quads and hamstrings raised so they’re perpendicular to your back and the floor.
Make the exercise more difficult by increasing the angle of the incline or adding resistance. To add resistance, hold your arms straight behind your head or hold a medicine ball, dumbbell, or weight plate at your chest or behind your head (see weight position during ab exercises). Even a small amount of weight can make the exercise much more difficult.
3. Bicycle Crunches: Bicycle crunches are one of the best ab exercises but also one of the most difficult exercises to get the hang of. I mean, you’re lying on the ground with your hands behind your head pretending to ride a bicycle for gosh sakes. More specifically: lie flat on the ground with your hands behind your head. Then, raise and bend your knees so that your calves are parallel with the floor and form a right angle with your quads and hamstrings. To start “pedaling,” simultaneously kick your right leg straight forward and bring your left knee towards your chest. Crunch by driving your right shoulder towards your left knee and touching your left knee with your right elbow. Then, slowly return to the starting position, pause, and repeat the motion by simultaneously kicking your left leg straight forward, bringing your right knee in towards you, and crunching your left elbow to your right knee.
Lot of stuff going on. Thank god for picture and video. No matter what, make sure to fully concentrate on your abdominals and each movement and move in a slow, controlled manner.
We’re not the only ones to rank the bicycle crunch highly.
2. Plank: The plank is a great ab exercise that forces you to keep your abdominals and back in a straight line while holding your body weight above the ground. This exercise tests your core strength and endurance more than any of the other best ab exercises.
To walk the plank, lie on your stomach and position your forearms below your shoulders and parallel with your legs. Then, push off the ground and raise your torso and legs so that you are supporting all your weight on your forearms and toes with your back and abs in a perfectly straight line. Make sure your butt is not raised or sagged and hold this position for 20 to 60 seconds.
Make the exercise easier by supporting your weight on your forearms and knees rather than forearms and toes or elevating your upper body onto a platform or bench.
Make the exercise more difficult by using an exercise ball. An exercise ball can be utilized in a lot of ways for abdominal training (see Exercise Ball Jackknife below) and can create some other tough variations of the plank. These are great to have at home too as their only about 20 bucks. Try placing your forearms on the ball and your toes on the mat or resting your feet on the ball and your forearms on the ground. Also try the alternating plank on an exercise ball or flat ground as well as the walking plank for even more intensity.
1. Exercise Ball Jackknife: Another great abdominal annihilator is the Exercise Ball Jackknife. To begin this balancing act, position your body so that both your shins are on the Exercise ball and your hands are shoulder width apart on the floor in front of you. Your back and abs should be in a straight line from your head to your toes. Next, roll the ball toward your upper body by crunching your abs and bringing your knees into your chest. Pause for a moment then slowly roll the ball back to the starting position with your legs extended.
The act of rolling the ball into your chest and flexing at the waist fires on the abs to dynamically contract while your arms, chest, and shoulders have to stay strong to stabilize your body. Your abs and obliques are constantly under static tension as your weight shifts from the movement of the ball.
Make the exercise more difficult by: supporting yourself on your forearms and toes rather than shins, alternating legs, or adding a pushup (See Exercise Ball Jackknife with pushups and best core exercises).
So there you have it.
So there you have it.
How to Basic Crunch
Basic Abdominal Crunch
The basic crunch exercise for the abs targets the rectus abdominismuscle. Although it seems simple, many people don’t perform the basic ab crunch properly. Using good form when doing an crunch makes this a much more effective abdominal exercise.
How to Do the Basic Abdominal Crunch
- Lie on your back, bend your knees, placing your hands on the sides of your head.
- Contract your abs and flatten your lower back against the floor.
- Slowly lift your shoulder blades one or two inches off the floor.
- Exhale as you lift, keep your neck straight and chin up.
- Hold for a few seconds (don’t hold your breath).
- Slowly lower while keeping your abs contracted.
- Repeat up to 20 reps this perfect form for each rep.
THE BEST WORKOUTS FOR FLATTER ABS !
Rectus abdominis (abs) is the paired of muscle running vertically each side of human abdomen.there are two parallel muscle groups separated by a midline (linea alba). Ab muscles are divided into three parts lower ,and upper abdominals and the obliques.
If you want to get flatter abs .you need to do two things 1st one lose fat and second build some muscles . Rectus abdominis muscles are always there but just covered with a layer of fat for most people.With regular exercising and dieting you can also get the toned and muscular abs.
here are the best exercises for flatter abs:
1. CRUNCHES-Lie on this floor and keep your knees bent . hips bent at 90 degree.raise your shoulder off the floor and start crunching toward chest and thn slowly come back to starting position.
2.Twisted crunches -twisted crunches are more effective than regular crunches.Lie on the floor and your hands behind your head or neck.keep your knees slightly bent and feet on the floor.lift your right shoulder towards your left shoulder and vice versa .
3.high pulley crunches- knee down the bar behind your neck.crunch the bar downward, curling your torso and bending your waist.return to the start position
4. Reverse crunches-lie on the flat bench . your knees and hips at 90 degree bent. hold the bench with your hands for suport.Raise your legs off the bench slowly until your feet pointed to the ceiling.and come back to staring position slowly.
5.Side crunches-Side crunches are same like twist crunches , lie on the floor your knees should be bent.drop your knees slowly to right side and raise your shoulder off the floor and bring your left elbow toward your knees.inhale and come back to stating position .
6. Double crunches- Lie on the floor and your hands behind your neck or head . keep you knees slightly bent. Bring your knees and shoulders towards your chest by contracting your abs.Come back to start postion and repeat.
7. V- ups – lie on the floor , knees slightly bent .hands fully extended as shown in picture .contract your abs and raise your shoulder off floor , also raise your legs and try to touch your hand to your feet.back to start position and repeat.
8. Hanging leg raises -
9. Incline leg raises- Lie on the flat incline bench and hold the rungs. move your feet until they are above your hips and try totouch your head with you knees .come back to starting position slowly .
10 Plank- Set your body in push up postion, elbows on floor and whole body flat.it helps to train your abs and core.
The best exercises for the abdominal muscles.
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6 Tips for a Ripped Six-Pack
Stop neglecting your abs training. These six strategies will help you retool your training to get the midsection you want
Here are 6 tips to help you conquer your abs neglect
Train abs, calves and forearms together
The big-boy lifts—the ones that build the most muscle—are quite understandably the priority for most guys at the gym. The problem is, once you're finished squatting, leg pressing and benching yourself to complete exhaustion, you probably don't want to dive into an abs session. To remedy this, We recommends scheduling one session a week for abs, calves and forearms. "Training all of these bodyparts together in one session ensures that you're attacking them with the utmost intensity," he says. "No need to worry about being too tired to get to them at the end of your workout"
Do your abs at home
The good thing about abs is that they can be trained anywhere. "If you find spend some time at night watching television, promise yourself to do abs during all commercial breaks," says M&F Senior Science Editor Jim Stoppani, PhD. Cycle between reverse crunches, oblique crunches and regular crunches for sets of 12-20 reps. You can also do this at the office. Every hour drop to the floor and cycle through these three exercises. (Note: This works best if you have an office with a door, or if you're not concerned about your coworkers thinking of you as a body-obsessed lunatic)
Do your abs in traffic
Yeah, you read that right. In traffic. But how? "Do static ab contractions while driving," says Stoppani. "Simply flex your abs and hard as possible while crunching down and exhaling. Hold for a count of five, then relax and repeat until you get to where you're going." You can also work your deep transverse abdominis—the muscles that keep you from having the dreaded beer gut—by pulling your belly button in toward your spine, and holding for a count of 10. Repeat this up to 10 times
Do staggered sets
In between sets, instead of resting with your glutes on the bench, rest that muscle group while doing an ab exercise between sets. "But only use this method if working a smaller bodypart," cautions Pena. "Doing abs in the middle of a heavy workout—between sets of squats, for example—can weaken your core and put you at risk of injury"
Learn to multitask
Instead of walking out on a good abs workout, learn how to multitask. In particular, you'll want to read up on the tri-sets method, which presents an equally challenging spin on the abs/calves/forearms workout listed above, and the cardio/abs HIIT (high-intensity interval training) routine, which is guaranteed to work in no time flat
Rethink abs training
Instead of merely focusing on the aesthetic reward at the end of the tunnel, give more thought to how abs training contributes to your overall body composition. "Having a strong set of abdominals absolutely makes you stronger on all of your bigger lifts like squats, deads, benches, and overhead presses," says Pena. "And those are really the lifts that cause lasting, dramatic changes in your body because they work the most muscle. If you're skipping abs workouts, then you're not just
The best six-pack moves
What are the best moves for working on your six-pack? Sports scientist Ross Edgley looks at the latest evidence
Most of us are familiar with the idea that six-packs are made in the kitchen, meaning there's no point slaving away over exercises that target your abdominal muscles if a poor diet is keeping them hidden by a layer of flab. However, if you have your diet sorted and belly fat is no longer an issue, you may want to do abs exercises in an attempt to develop and enhance the defintion of you six-pack. But what type of moves are the best?
Core training improves stability, maintains mobility and reduces injury, say strength and conditioning coaches the world over – not to mention The American College of Sports Medicine. And of course, done correctly, it can produce a pretty awesome six-pack ready for beach season and who doesn’t want that?
But what’s the best training technique to activate the core muscles? Isolation exercises such as the standard crunch, or compound core exercises such as barbell rollouts or plank variations? A recent study conducted at Pennsylvania State University attempted to find the definitive answer – and the results could help you plan your summer abs routine.
Study background Compound movements such as plank variations are those that require ‘proximal limb’ muscles such as the deltoids and gluteals while activating the ‘primary trunk’ muscles (lumbar and abdominal). Isolation movements such as the standard crunch are those that only target the primary trunk muscles. Twenty healthy athletes were chosen to complete a series of core exercises while connected to surface electromyography (EMG) electrodes to monitor core muscle activation. Muscle engagement was measured during both isolation and compound exercises and then compared.
Results The figures showed activation of the abdominal and lumbar muscles was greatest during the compound movements. Specifically, the plank with reach exercise showed a 20% greater activation in the rectus abdominis muscle than the standard crunch. Anterior deltoid, erector spinae and gluteus maximus activation was also twice as great. This was supported by results that showed the compound side plank increased external oblique activity by 25% compared with the isolation side crunch.
Conclusion These results clearly show greater activation in the core muscles during the compound exercises. That’s not to say isolation movements aren’t without their benefits – if you are following a split training routine where you work different body parts on different days, for example, you may not always want to engage the proximal limb muscles, so isolation movements are ideal for this. But, if your goal is a strong, functional six-pack this summer, stick with planks and barbell rollouts.
The BEST Kettlebell Exercise for Abs?
The Kettlebell Renegade Row
The way that your abs and your whole core (which includes your glutes, your midsection, your lower back and those muscles in the middle of your back) functions is as a stabilizer.
Say for example, if I’m doing a kettlebell swing or I’m doing a goblet squat, my abs are tightening up to stabilize my trunk during functional movements.
So here is an exercise called the renegade row. This is a unique exercise, you may have see it before, but it is a great total body ab movement.
Grab two kettlebells. The basic version has you practicing shifting your weight back and forth. Shift your full weight to one side while keeping your abs tightened like you are doing a push up. This is SUPER helpful to get the proper weight distribution of the movement down.
Then you can go ahead and add a row to it. The move should now be exactly the same, except you’re actually doing a row.
If you want to make it more difficult, you can add a push up between each row.
Also important to note, my abs are bracing really hard to stabilize as I shift my weight and do a row on one side.
This is a total body exercise with a strong emphasis on the abs. There’s the kettlebell renegade row – a great exercise for abs!
Drag Out Your Abs for a Stronger Core
f your gym has a weighted dragging sled, count yourself lucky. It can take your strength, cardio, and recovery to a new level. It can also allow you to perform one of the all-time toughest and most effective ab exercises—the alligator walk. There are so many challenges to the alligator walk, it’s no wonder you seldom see it being performed. Your core has to contract isometrically to keep your spine straight while you walk on your hands and drag the sled behind you. That means it’s fghting the urge to let your lower back and hips collapse, or to allow your torso to twist to either side—all while acting as a bridge between the force generated by your shoulders and arms and your legs trailling behind you with the heft of the sled beneath them.
Work alligator walks into your routine, either to finish a shoulder day or as part of a high-intensity ab or cardio circuit(they also get your heart rate up fast), and you’ll show everyone who the real animal in the gym is.
How to Do It
■ Get into a pushup position on the floor and rest your feet on the sled. Make sure your abs and glutes are braced and your arms are beneath your shoulders.
■ Maintain your body position and walk forward on your hands. You’ll look like an alligator dragging its tail. Go for distance or time, and build up from there.
Quick Tips
If this is too easy, wear a weighted vest or place a weight plate on the sled. Loading the movement will increase the difficulty, so be conservative.
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