Abdominal Exercise

Best Exercise to get awesome Abs, Reduce belly fat and to stay fit.

1. How to do Ab Crunches

Most of us have seen bodybuilders and celebrities do crunches to tone their abdominals. This exercise may look easy but needs to be done in the right manner for its effects to be seen. Moreover, doing it wrong can also lead to back and neck injuries. Learn how to do this exercise the right way by following the steps below. Abdominal crunches are great to get a flat stomach and lose the embarrassing jiggly belly fat. Start by doing three sets of 10 crunches and increase the number once you get comfortable.

Step 1: Lie on the floor.

Step 2: Place your hands on both sides of your head to support its weight and bend your knees with your feet on the floor. This is your starting position.

Step 3: Keeping your feet firmly planted on the floor at all times during the exercise, lift your shoulders and upper back up and away from the floor with your face pointing toward the ceiling.

Step 4: Although the range of motion is limited, exhale as you come up as far as you can, hold for a second, then inhale as you return to the starting position.

Personal Training Tips
Perform 8-25 repetitions at a time, and move in a slow and controlled manner.

Keep a space between your chin and your chest. Only use your hands for light support, and do NOT pull your neck forwards.

Really focus on lifting your shoulder blades off the floor. Don’t just move your neck.

If your range of motion is limited and you don’t have good flexibility, you should stretch your hips and lower back before doing ab crunches.

2.How to do Bicycle Crunches

The bicycle crunch is an excellent exercise for building core strength and toning your thighs. It’s an easy move to complete, and when you feel that burn you’ll know you’re doing it right!

Step 1: Lie on the floor.

Step 2: Place your hands behind your head. You can interlock your fingers if you desire. If you prefer, you can keep your arms at your sides.

Step 3: Raise your legs. Raise them so that your thighs are perpendicular to the ground, and your calves are parallel to the ground. Keep your feet together.

Step 4: Touch your right elbow to your left knee. Now lift your head up and touch your right elbow to the left knee while pulling your knee up towards your head. At the same time, straighten your right leg, keeping it several inches off of the floor – similar to the motion you’d make while pedaling a bicycle.

Step 5: Now touch your left elbow to your right knee. At the same time, straighten your left leg, keeping it off of the floor. Don’t forget to tighten those abs. You’ve now completed one bicycle crunch.

Step 6: Perform bicycle crunches in sets of 10-20 repetitions. 1 min Rest between sets.

Personal Training Tips
Keeping your shoulders lifted off the floor keeps more tension on the abs and works them harder.
The tempo and repetitions can vary for this exercise.

Slow tempo and fewer reps (15 each side) help a little more with firming.

Fast tempo and more reps (50 each side) help more with fat burning.

3. How to do Inclined Sit Ups.

This high-impact exercise strengthens your Rectus Abdominis, or your “six-pack muscle.”

Form: Exhale and Curl your body forward to the sit up position. Hold briefly at the top and slowly return to the starting position.

Step 1: Find an incline bench. This exercise will work best if you have a support bar under which to hook your feet as well.

Step 2: Sit on the bench with your knees bent. Your feet should be on the uphill side of the bench.

Step 3: Lie down so that your upper body is facing downhill. Place your hands behind your neck or on the side of your neck.

Step 4: Slowly curl your body upwards to your knees and slowly descend back down. Repeat. Keep the movement fluent, slow, and controlled.

Perform: 10 – 50 Repetitions.

Personal Training Tips
This is an advanced ab exercise because it places a large amount of pressure on the lower back, and many trainers will say never perform sit ups with the feet anchored.

Every exercise has benefits and risks. If you are a serious athlete doing highly vigorous and competitive sports the benefit of incline sit ups may outweigh the risk of injury.

However, if you have a lower back injury and are not competing in serious athletics, incline sit ups might have a higher risk of injury than benefit gain.

4. How to do Hanging Leg Raises

Best Exercise for the lower Abs.

Step 1: Hang from a chin-up bar with both arms extended at arms length in top of you using either a wide grip or a medium grip. The legs should be straight down with the pelvis rolled slightly backwards. This will be your starting position.

Step 2: Raise your legs until the torso makes a 90-degree angle with the legs. Exhale as you perform this movement and hold the contraction for a second or so.

Step 3: Go back slowly to the starting position as you breathe in.

Step 4: Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

Personal Training Tips
Move in a slow and controlled manner so that momentum does not take over. Moving in a slow and controlled manner will also decrease how much you will sway.

Keep a slight bend in the knees to take a little pressure off your lower back.

Stop the set if you feel any discomfort in your lower back.

If your grip strength prevents you from holding yourself up, you can use ab straps to suspend your body.

5. How to do V-Ins Exercise

Best Exercise for both lower and upper Abs.

Step 1: Begin by sitting on the bench with your knees bent and your hands holding the back of the bench for balance as shown in the Image.

Step 2: Inhale and recline your body backwards as you extend your legs straight in front of you. Hold briefly before bringing your knees towards your chest and forming the letter V.

Personal Training Tips
This can be a challenging exercise. Because the legs are moving it puts slightly more pressure on the lower back when compared with ab crunches.

Listen to your body and move in a controlled manner.