From Flab to Fab Abdominals
It's time to drain your abs to dry - not to mention the flab around your waist - using new abs exercises instead of the regular curl training ones. What you'll get is not just a six-pack but a stronger core. When your core is strong enough, this will help prevent your other workouts from causing back pain and improve your overall body function.
By feeling the force of the abs in a slow and focused manner, you will build up to 30-second sets of quality movements in no time, ensure the quality of your workout today, and enjoy the washboard abs you've always wanted.
1. Bicycle Crunch
- First, you must lie on your back on a mat or soft floor, place your hands behind your head (remember not on your neck), lift your legs, and bend your thighs and calves to about 90°.
- Touch your left knee with your right elbow, then touch your right knee with your left elbow to repeat and alternate this movement until the end of a set of 60 seconds.
This movement works the entire abdomen, including your rectus abdominis and external obliques. It combines the functionality of the regular curl with the addition of lateral contractions for the lateral abdominals and contractions for the lower abdominals making the entire movement more targeted to the abdominals.
2. Spiderman Plank Crunch
- This movement starts in a push-up position with your hands shoulder-width apart, supporting the floor and tightening your core.
- Push your right knee forward to touch your right elbow, then return to the starting position.
- On the other side, repeat the above movement, pulling your left knee forward to touch your left elbow.
- Finish with both left and right for a complete movement. This movement needs to be done 10 at a time, and repeat for 3 sets.
Planking is more efficient in exercising the entire core. This movement does not require you to use any equipment or assistance. This movement can exercise your upper abdomen and lower abdomen at the same time. And your external abdominal obliques and your lumbar side muscles are also firing at the same time. This movement is so simple and effective that you can do a set even while watching TV commercials at home.
3. Cable Core Rotation
- Facing the cable machine upright, keep your feet shoulder-width apart to stabilize your weight, and hold the cable handle with both hands in front of your body. The height of the cable is slightly lower than your shoulders.
- You need to keep your arms fixed and straighten your arms to maintain a fixed action and then exhale and tighten the abdominal muscles through the power of the waist and hips to turn the movement first to the left and then back to the middle pause and then rotate to the right, and then back to the middle of the starting position. Whether turning to the left or right, it is important not to relax your abs. It is best to keep the movement consistent throughout the stroke.
- Slow down, pay attention to the peak of the contraction, and feel the abdominal muscles firing!
Finish both left and right as one movement, ten as one group.
This movement targets the external abdominal obliques and is geared toward dynamic movements. Therefore, it is ideal for small ball players and people who play racket sports with many spins. Exercises like this try to benchmark the movements you'll be doing in your sport so that the effects of this movement will be reflected in other sports.
4. Cross Crunch
- Lie down on your mat and extend your arms and legs diagonally, keeping your weight on your hips and limbs off the ground.
- Keeping your arms and legs straight in their natural curvature, touch your left foot with your right hand (left foot and right hand need to be activated at the same time), then touch your right foot with your left hand, keeping your head, neck, and shoulders off the ground and keeping your abs tight (don't lend too much strength with your neck).
- After the left and right are completed is a complete movement, we need to do a group of 10.
It's a simple movement, and you don't need to worry about your safety on the ground, so there's no need to worry about injury. Still, it's important to note that everyone's dynamic ligament stretch length is different, so the movement may differ slightly. Hence, there's no need to blow it off. When your legs leave the ground, the abs naturally tighten, and your lower abdominal muscles contract more actively. Because this movement still includes the turning movement, your external abdominal obliques will also be exercised.
5. Swiss Ball Rollout
- Stay on the mat kneeling, then place your small arms on a Swiss stability ball (similar to a plank position) and keep your knees off the floor after stabilizing.
- You need to tighten your abs by exhaling and not collapsing your hips, push the ball as far as possible, and then slowly return to the starting position. (If you can't do the whole thing, you can move in the direction of trying to do it in a kneeling position first)
- Ten times for a group, we need to do more than three groups.