Abdominals

[greghutton]

Stronger firmer abdominals and a true six pack, can be achieved by performing the following abdominal circuit. There are 3 different abdominal exercise circuits, for beginners, intermediates and advance. Aim to perform one of the following abdominal circuits 2 - 3 times a week to help strengthen your abdominal muscles.

The Abdominal workouts will strengthen your lower, upper and oblique abdominal muscles. Start with the beginners abdominal exercise circuit, and try to perform 10 repetitions of each abdominal exercise, having sufficient rest between abdominal exercises (20 -30 secs).

Try and increase the amount of reps that you perform each week by 2, until you can comfortably perform 20 reps of each abdominal exercise. When you can do this, move onto the intermediates circuit, again for 10 reps, aiming to increase by 2 each week. Once again move onto the advanced circuit when you can comfortably perform 20 reps of each abdominal exercise.

Looking at the tips on abdominal techniques, and also clicking on each abdominal exercise, will help give you correct technique.

ABDOMINAL EXERCISES FOR BEGINNERS

HANDS TO KNEES (1)

HIP ROLL (2)

LYING SIDE BENDS (3)

HANDS THROUGH KNEES (4)

NORMAL SIT UP (5)

BALL TWIST (6)

BRIDGING (7)

ABDOMINALS EXERCISES FOR INTERMEDIATES

KNEES TO CHEST (1)

REVERSE CURL (2)

CRUNCH (3)

KNEE TO SIDE (4)

SEATED TWIST (5)

HAND TO KNEE (6)

STATIC ABS (7)

ABOMINALS EXERCISES FOR ADVANCED

ASSISTED WEIGHT 1

LEG WEIGHT 2

1 LEG V-SITS 3

BOXING 4

MEDICINE BALL 5

COMPLETE ABS 6

NASTY 7

Tips For Abdominal Workout

Sit Ups - Avoid The Pitfalls

Great care and excellent technique are required to strengthen the abdominal muscles with sit-ups. To be effective, sit-ups must pull the torso upward from a lying position toward the knees, using only the abdominal group.

Often, more powerful muscles (those that flex the legs and hips), do much of the work. This is especially true with straight-leg sit-ups.

For best results, abdominals should be performed slowly with legs resting on a chair/bench, so that legs are bent at 90 degrees.

Twisting at the top of the sit-up movement causes tremendous rotational stress on the lower back which can lead to injury.

When doing sit-ups, never push through back pain. Stop immediately at even the slightest twinge in the lower back.

Check List:
Lie on back with knees bent.
Feet flat on the floor close to the buttocks, or raised up on a bench.
Avoid having the feet held down, unless you want to work your Hip Flexor muscles.
No jerking or twisting movements for beginners.
Breathe comfortably throughout the exercise.
Commence curls with the shoulders, then the upper back and finally the lower back.
Bring the torso up no more than 30 degrees; hold momentarily then lower the torso.
Clasp hands behind the neck just to support the weight of the head.
Don’t pull on your head when doing the exercise.
Keep your chin off your chest, aim to keep your upper spine straight (neutral).
Warm up your stomach muscles with easy stomach exercises, before you advance.
Finish off by stretching out the abdominals.
By doing some dorsal raises, this will help stretch out your abdominals.
If you have use of an abdominal exerciser, this will help give you the correct position.

[Iktomi]

Re: Abdominals

Excellent posting. One of the pitfalls that I see alot is doing too many ab exercises. The great thing about complexes (groupings) are that its almost impossible to do too much. You simply become exhausted by the rep scheme and time it takes to do the exercises. If I have a client that says they can do 200 crunches in one shot they will be very challenged by a simple grouping of ab exercises.