Hey, and welcome to the second Develop Your Life blog. I’ve got tons of topics to write about, but this week something inspired me. I started to work on my abs, so I’m here to give you guys a few exercises that can help you work on your abs. I’ll also put how many I do per workout, but you can change that depending on what you feel comfortable doing.
One thing you have to know is working out your abs will NOT get rid of fat on your stomach. That is a myth that tons of people think is true. You do want to work on your abs because it is healthy and helps protect your spine.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get to the main attraction.
The first exercise I want to mention is the bicycle. This is probably my favorite abs exercise. It definitely the most effective, but it is also the most tiring. To do the bicycle, you are going to lie flat on the floor, raise your legs in the air, and place your hands on the back of your head. Now, bring your right knee up 45 degrees and touch your left elbow. Now, do the same with the other knee. If you are doing it right it should look something like pedaling a bicycle. I do about 40 of these, twice per workout.
Another effective exercise is the captain’s chair. You actually need the equipment to do this exercise, so if you have it read on, if not you can skip this. The captain’s chair is basically just a machine that has 90 degree arm pads that allows your legs to hang free. You can usually find one of these at a gym, but it’s fine if you can’t. What you are going to want to do here is keep your back straight, bend your knees, and lift them towards your chest. Be sure not to swing your knees to help them up. That’s a shortcut and won’t help you in the long run. I do about 20 of these, twice per workout.
Does your gym have an exercise ball? If they do, this is a great exercise you can do to work on your abs. You are going to use the ball to do crunches. The crunches on the ball are better than the regular crunches on the floor because your abs are more involved, therefore you are benefiting more from the workout. To do these crunches you should lie on the ball, but the ball should be under your lower back. Then you put your arms behind your head, or you can have them on your chest, whichever is more confortable. Now, just lift your chest off the ball, but be sure the ball doesn’t move. I do about 50 of these, twice per workout.
An exercise that ties in with crunches is the vertical leg crunch. You don’t need the ball for this one. It’d be pretty hard if you had to use it. This is sort of self-explanatory, but I’ll give you the jest of it. Lie flat on the floor, lift your legs up as close to 90 degrees as you can, and place your hands on the back of your head. Lift your shoulders off of the floor like you are trying to get to your feet. Make sure you don’t move your legs too much because that won’t help your abs as much. I do about 25 of these, twice per workout.
This is an optional workout because it is known to cause back pain, so if you don’t want to risk it move on. For those of you that live life on the edge, I will teach you how to do the torso track. You can probably find this at your gym. I don’t have one, so I don’t do this exercise. First, grab the handles of the machine and pull. Then, you are going to want to go as far forward as you can without hurting yourself. Now, pull your body back. You can edit the tension if you want to.
By this time in the workout you should feel your abs getting pretty sore. I know mine do, but we are going to move forward. Push yourself! But don’t die.
Another spin-off of crunches is the long arm crunch. If you know the basics of the normal crutch you should be set for this one. The only thing you are going to want to change is instead of having your hands touching your head you want to have them straight out behind your head and together. Now, just do a crunch. I do about 25 of these, twice per workout.
The reverse crunch is another beautiful exercise that will work your lower abs. To do this you are going to lie on your back, again, and put your hand on the floor. You can also put them behind your head, but I think putting them on the floor is better. Now, raise your legs in the air about 90 degrees and use your abs to get your hips off the floor. Use your abs to get your hips off the floor because otherwise it’s a pointless workout.
I finish off my workout with the infamous plank. If you stick with this workout, you will soon learn why I say infamous. Planks are a pretty good way to build not only your abs, but also your back. So, to do the plank you need to first lie face down on the ground resting on your forearms. Now, push off the floor using your forearms and elbows as support. You may want to get a mat because this can hurt your elbows pretty bad. Try to keep your back as flat as possible, kind of like when you do push-ups. I hold this for 60 seconds 3 times, twice per workout.
You may have noticed that I say twice per workout. Well, that is because once I am done with the above workout I repeat it. You’re crazy! No, I’m not; you just have to work up to that spot. Practice makes perfect with workouts and the stronger your abs are the more they can take. If you want additional information on working out your abs, check out Truth About Abs.
