BASIC ABS EXERCISE

Almost everyone wants his or her abs to be flatter or more toned. While basic abs exercise will tone and build abdominal muscles, abs exercise will not get rid of abdominal fat. The only way to get rid of fat is cardiovascular exercise. By combining basic abs exercise and cardiovascular exercise, you can get rid of fat and tone abdominal muscles. After the fat is melted away, your toned abdominal muscles are visible and create the look of a flat, hard tummy. With dedication you can tone your abs and pave the way to a flat tummy with some basic abs exercise.

Traditional Crunches
Perhaps the most effective basic abs exercise is the traditional crunch. Lay on your back with your knees bent. Place your hand behind your head, and then roll up, feeling your abdominal muscles tighten. Hold the crunch for a second or two, roll back down, and then repeat. Be careful no to press your hands on the back of your head. This will cause neck strain. Simply let the abs do all the work to lift your upper body. You should feel like your upper body is being pulled towards the ceiling. To work the side abdominal muscles, twist slightly to the right and left while performing the crunches. To reduce back strain, you may want to try using a fitness ball. With your feet flat on the floor and your knees bent, lie back with the ball positioned between your lower back and the floor, and then simply perform your crunches.

Hip Extensions
To begin this basic abs exercise, lie on the floor and put your feet up on a bed, couch, chair, or fitness ball. Use your abdominal muscles to lift your mid-section inline with the rest of your body. Hold this position for a few seconds, relax, and then repeat.

Leg Lifts
Lie flat on the floor to begin this basic abs exercise. Lift up your legs together until they are perpendicular with the floor, and then slowly release your legs back down to the floor. You can alternate lifting each leg separately, and then both together if you wish. This is not a good basic abs exercise for anyone with lower back problems, as it can cause back strain if done improperly. The goal of the exercise is to use your abdominal muscles to lift your legs, not your back. To reduce strain on your lower back and help you use your abdominal muscles to lift your legs, try placing your hands, a folded towel, or a yoga wedge under your buttocks.

If you have lower back problems look at the illustration above. Sit up on the floor with your hands behind you for support. Alternate lifting your legs. This is a good alternative to lying flat on your back. As your strength increases and your lower back starts to feel better you can always go back to the standard leg lifts.

Toe Taps
This simple basic abs exercise seems too simple to be true. Begin by sitting in a chair or on a fitness ball. Sit up as straight as possible and put your hands behind your head. Lift your legs with your knees bent so that your feet are about six inches off the floor. Alternating between feet, slowly tap your toes as lightly as possible against the floor, using your abdominal muscles to regulate your leg movement.

Woodchops
This basic abs exercise can help tone the thighs and arms as well. You may feel it in your whole body and get your heart pumping to burn some calories and fat. Start in the lunge position with one knee bent before you and the other knee bent almost to the ground. Outstretch your arms with your hand clasped in front of your front shin. Stand, rotate your body, and reach to the ceiling facing the opposite direction. To add resistance to this abs exercise, wrap an exercise band around a pole or something sturdy and hold it in your hands.

Ab Exercises - The Basic Ab Exercise

Author Vince DelMonte

When it comes to getting a solid six pack, doing the right ab exercises is crucial. You can spend hours doing needless sit-ups that aren't really going to have all that much benefit, much to your disappointment. Taking the time to choose smart basic ab exercises will save you not only gym time, but a great deal of frustration as well. In this article we will discuss the best lower ab exercises and the best home ab exercises as well.

The best movements for the abdominal muscles are going to be ones that reduce your overall stability. The reason for this is because this will require all your muscle tissues, even the ones deep within the core, to contract in order to maintain balance. When you perform regular sit-ups, for example, they are really only going to target the more superficial muscles; one that will still help, but not get you near the results you could be seeing.

So what ab exercises are ones that reduce your balance?

Basically, anything done on an unstable surface is going to get the job done. This would include movements such as walking across a balance beam, performing one leg squats, one arm shoulder presses, or bent over dumbbell rows standing on one leg and of course, utilizing an exercise ball for any laying abdominal movement you perform. Working on a BOSU ball and stability ball ab exercises are also excellent options. As long as you have a set of free weights and stability ball then these would qualify as your best home ab exercises as well.

By far the most effective lower ab exercises are hanging leg raises while you use your lower abs to rotate your pelvis which is the secret to performing this effectively. Lying leg raises, lying leg raises on a 45 degree incline and cable crunches are also rock hard ab exercises.

Another area you might want to venture into with your ab exercises are those that utilize heavy weights.

While this will not necessarily get you 'cut' so that all your individual muscles are showing - that takes having low levels of body fat, what weighted movements will do is help further build the muscle tissue and make your abs "pop".

The more muscle mass you have, the faster your metabolic rate will then be, so in an indirect way, that could in fact help you burn off excess body fat.

Furthermore, doing weighted movements will also increase your strength greatly, reducing the risk of injuries from any other type of exercise you may attempt. Weighted ball crunches with a stability ball on your chest is my favorite home ab exercises.

When choosing when to perform your ab exercises, if you are looking for performance, do them on a separate day from all your other work. Just like any muscle group, you want to be fresh when you do them.

If, on the other hand, you are more just doing them to help build some strength, but more to round out your exercise program, then you should be doing them at the end of your workout session. This will prevent them from fatiguing early, because they are going to be predominately used in all the other lifts you perform (heavy squats for example).

In many cases this rule can be bent though. For example, if a client comes to me and their abs are the weakest muscle group then performing them at the end of the workout makes no sense because they will be pre fatigued from the workout and you will not be able to train them as intensely so prioritizing your abs at the start of the workout can become the exception in this case.

So, next time you are creating your workout and are picking out ab exercises, keep these points in mind. Having good dedication to performing these exercises on a regular basis and then following a clean diet based around raw vegetables and proteins are the two main components to developing that six-pack you're hoping for.

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About the Author:

Vince DelMonte is the author of Your Six Pack Quest found at http://www.YourSixPackQuest.com

He specializes in helping chubby guys and gals get six pack abs without gimmicks, supplements or dieting.

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