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Archive for the ‘Abdominal Exercise’ Category
Here is an abdominal exercise you can do practically anywhere and without using any special equipment. The abdominal exercise for today, is called the Seated Leg Pull In or the Seated Leg Tucks.
- Sit on a flat bench or sideways on a chair and grab the sides.
- Lean back to about a 45 degree angle.
- Extend your legs out in front of you, keeping the knees together and slightly bent.
- Pull your belly button to your spine, keep the upper body stable and pull the knees toward your chest.
- Extend the legs out, but don’t touch the floor and repeat keeping legs lifted and pulling knees toward your chest.
- Exhale as you pull the knees in and inhale as you extend.
Personally, I’d do about 20 reps for 3 sets. If you need to gain abdominal strength, start out with 8-10 reps. You must maintain proper form and stabilization to achieve results. So if you are going on vacation and wish to continue doing a mini workout, you can incorporate this abdominal exercise.
I have not talked about doing an abdominal exercise on a Foam Roller. Like a stability ball a foam roller adds instability to an abdominal exercise. In fact, there are other moves on the foam roller you could do, like chest presses and chest flys. That discussion is for another day. Today, it’s all about the abs on the foam roller.
There are different size foam rollers you can utilize, however, for an abdominal exercise, I suggest a roller, that’s approximately 6″ x 36″, so you can lay on it vertically. Foam rollers have been popular for therapeutic use. I like to use mine for some back aches or hamstring pulls, which was the original reason I purchased one. Now there are many moves on the roller that add intensity to some exercises.
Try a basic crunch on the roller. Lie back vertical on the roller, knees bent, feet on the floor, hands behind your head and lift the upper body off the roller to a crunch.
Try a Pilates Roll Up on the foam roller. Again, lie vertical on the roller, knees bent, feet on the floor, arms extended over head or cross them over your chest. Inhale, lift head neck & shoulders off the
roller and exhale roll up and reach forward past your knees. Sit up tall, inhale and then exhale and slowly roll back down on the roller. Do 8-15 repetitions for 3 sets. Keep the belly button pulled into the spine. You should feel some of the instability on the foam roller.
The foam roller is not that expensive and has multiple uses. We have discussed an example of an abdominal exercise. Come back to this blog or check out my website, www.Fitnessfromthepro.com for other abdominal exercises or to purchase a foam roller!
I teach this great Body Sculpt class weekly. Today after we did an abdominal exercise using the stability ball, I made a comment about lengthening the levers (arms/legs)makes an abdominal exercise more intense. I also added a comment about the basic crunch. When I was done explaining it, everyone learned how to get more from a basic crunch. Now I’m going to share this little tidbit for you.
When you get in a basic crunch position, hands behind head, knees bent. As you bring your head neck and shoulders off the mat, simultaneously do a pelvic tilt up. Think of it like bringing the ribs to meet the hip bone. By tilting the pelvic bones up, it also ensures that the low back stays into the mat. Not only that, you will use the entire abdominal range, incorporating the lower, mid and upper areas of the abs.
Wherever you are, and whenever you do a basic crunch, include the pelvic tilt and you’ll be working the entire abdominal area. Here’s another great abdominal exercise from Fitness From the Pro!
I have talked about the abdominal exercise called the Roll Out, but I talked about being on your knees to execute this exercise. Have you tried the Standing Roll Out using the stability ball? Standing adds a new intensity to this abdominal exercise.
Get a stability ball. Stand behind the ball, and place your elbows on top of the ball, folding your hands or making fists with your hands. From a standing position, roll the ball all the way out in front of you. This move is similar to using the Ab Wheel. Contract the abdominal muscles and use them to pull yourself and the ball back to a standing position. Repeat this abdominal exercise for 10 reps and try to do 3 sets. You will feel this right away!
I have another fun abdominal exercise for you that is going to work the entire abdominal region. I’m not really sure what it is called, so I’ll just explain how it is done. There will be a medicine ball (MB) that should be used. You can determine how heavy you want the MB to be.
- Lay supine on the floor.
- Extend the legs straight up at 90 degrees.
- Hold the MB in both hands.
- Pull the navel to your spine.
- As you lift the upper body so shoulder blades are off the mat, push the MB toward the feet, while simultaneously doing a reverse curl.
- Lower butt back to mat, though the legs are still straight up.
- Lower upper body slightly, and repeat reaching for your toes, and pushing legs straight up in the air while you are lifting the butt off the mat in the reverse curl.
- Repeat 25 times, for 2 sets.
If you get tired, you can put the MB off to the side and just reach with your arms to your toes and reverse crunch. With the upper body and lower body working together, you can see how this abdominal exercise works the entire abdominal muscle group.
Kettlebells are a good way get in some quality abdominal exercise. Here are few really good abdominal exercises you can use with the kettlebells. Any workout you do with kettlebells require you to stabilize your core. For instance the Kettlebell Swing, makes you keep the abdominals tight, to protect the low back as you swing the kettlebell between your legs and under your butt. You’ll want to raise the kettlebell only to shoulder height, so you need to engage the abdominals to control the movement.
Another great abdominal exercise with the kettlebell that we have not talked about before is Around the World. You’ll want to stand tall, bring the kettlebell (KB) around your body passing the KB around your back and pass it to the other hand. Try to do this as quickly as possible, resisting rotating your body. Then hold the KB and pass it around the other way, keeping the abdominals tight and don’t twist the body.
This may sound easier than it actually is. Always a good idea to change up your abdominal exercise for some real results!
Here is yet another abdominal exercise that works the entire abdominal area and is very challenging. It’s called the ab Roll out. It uses one of those little ab wheels. This exercise can also be executed on a stability ball too, but not as intense.
What you have to do for the ab roll out is hold onto the wheel with both hands. Get on your knees,
and push the wheel forward. As you are leaning forward, do push the hips forward and extend as far forward as possible and then roll back in. Do as many as you can until you work up to 4 sets of 10 reps.
If you want to isolate the obliques, roll out to one side and back, for a set, then roll out toward the other side and back for a set. The ab roll out is a more advanced exercise, so start slow.
One sure proof way to target the abdominals with 1 abdominal exercise is the PLANK aka the HOVER! The plank or hover never seems to get any easier, but the more you do it you should increase the length of time for the hold. Start with a 30 second hold, for 4 sets. Gradually building up to 1 minute planks.
Another really effective abdominal exercise that targets the obliques is the Side Plank. Try to
build the time of holding the side plank on each side up to a minute. Now, for a real 1-2 punch, hold a side plank, and then turn the body into a regular plank/hover, followed by the other side plank and one more hover. OOOO-EEEEE are you going to feel that!! It is very effective combination!
Hey guys, here is another great abdominal exercise for you which is very functional for every day life. It’s a natural rotational movement, and ooooo-eeeeee does it work! It uses the cable crossover machine and a stability ball. This abdominal exercise works the entire abdominal region and the erector spinae (back muscles).
Here’s how it works:
- Put a handle on the cable crossover machine and put a pin in the desired weight.
- Put the handle about chest height.
- Get a stability ball and hug the ball against you.
- Pick up the handle and pull it in front of the ball and hold onto it.
- Step out toward the middle of the cable machine holding handle and ball.
- Legs are wider then hips, keep heels in the floor, and have a stable stance.
- If your right hand is holding the ball and handle, you’ll want to rotate right and rotate all the way to the left in a slow controlled manner.
- Rotate 12-15 times in one direction.
- Then switch, and the left hand holds the handle and ball, then rotate left and then to the right.
You are sure to feel this the next day, but a great way to strengthen the abs and lower back.
Hey guys, when I was teaching my Body Sculpt class the other day, we did an abdominal exercise that I actually was a little sore afterwards. I don’t know about you, but it’s hard for me to get sore in the ab area, even with Pilates. Being sore meant to me, that I targeted muscles that haven’t been used in a while. So I thought I would share it with you.
- Lay on the floor.
- Bend your knees and bring them to tabletop, a.k.a. 90 degrees off the floor.
- Put a dumbbell between your legs. ( I used a 8 lbs.)
- Make a T with your arms for stabilization.
- Pull the navel to your spine.
- Inhale and roll your legs with dumbbell, to the right side. Be mindful to keep the both shoulder blades on the floor.
- Exhale as you begin to lift the legs and roll them over to the other side.
- Repeat rolling the knees from side to side.
- Start with 10 rolls on each side, then increase number of reps.
- Also be mindful, that you don’t go too heavy with your dumbbell, that will actually increase your waist size.
This abdominal exercise actually targets your obliques. Let me know what you think.