Ab Exercise

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STOP! Don’t do another crunch ab exercise. You have alternatives :)

Abs are the most sought after body part. We want beautiful abs with no fat on top! While many of us stick to basic crunches and sit-ups, I am going to show you something new. Something refreshing. Get rid of those crunches and sit-ups forever. They are only effective if done properly and that is not an easy task.

Below are some ab exercises that I love to do. I find them to be effective and fun. Oh yeah… they don’t HURT my neck either!

Take your time as you learn each ab exercise. Using the chart below, abs are defined as three main muscles. They are called: internal oblique, external oblique and rectus abdominus.

What’s Your Favorite Ab Exercise?

Plank Pose

Start- Start in an upper push-up position. Your hands are directly under you shoulders and your feet are together. Keep your back as flat as possible. Your head and neck are in line with your spine (you should be looking at the ground).

Go For It- Stay in this position as long as possible. Just count those seconds!

Tips and Techniques-

– Remember to breathe!

– Pull your belly button into your spine.

– If you feel this ab exercise in your lower back, lift your derriere up into the air a bit.

– When you cannot hold on for another second, come down to all fours (hands and knees). Then recline back so you are sitting on your heels. Then bend from your hips so that your head is resting on the ground. This is a called Child’s Pose.

– Plank Pose and Child’s Pose are two of many yoga poses that I use in my trainings.

– This is my favorite ab exercise of all time. It works the inner most ab muscle called your transverse abdominus. That muscle is responsible for holding in our stomach (giving the appearance of a flat stomach), and supporting our spine.

Leg Lowering

Start- Begin by laying on your back. Place your hands wherever they are comfortable. Lift your legs straight into the air.

Go For It- Very slowly begin to lower your legs so that they are almost touching the ground. Pause for one second and begin to lift back to start.

Tips and Techniques-

– Inhale as you lower your legs to the ground. Exhale as you lift them back to the sky.

– Pull your belly button into your spine.

– If you feel you need some lower back support, place your hands in the small of your lower back.

– You should feel this ab exercise in your lower abs.

Reverse Crunch

Start- Begin by laying on your back. Place your hands wherever they are comfortable. Bend your knees and bring your feet off the floor. Push the small of your lower back into the ground.

Go For It- Lift your bottom off the floor by bringing your knees back towards your chest. Once they reach your chest, go back to the starting position in a controlled manor.

Tips and Techniques-

– Exhale as your lift knees back towards chest. Inhale as you lower back to start.

– Pull your belly button into your spine.

– Try to only use your lower abs to lift your bottom off the floor. Using momentum or your arms is not going to give you the stomach results you are looking for.

– You should feel this ab exercise in your lower abs.


Bicycle

Start- Begin by laying on your back. Place your hands wherever they are comfortable. Bend your knees to a 90 degree angle.

Go For It- Very slowly straighten your right leg up to the sky and lower it almost to the ground. Bring it back to start. Now slowly take your left leg straight up and slowly lower it to the floor. Take it back in to start.

Tips and Techniques-

– Inhale and Exhale as you feel most comfortable. Just breathe in this ab exercise.

– Pull your belly button into your spine.

– If you feel you need some lower back support, place your hands in the small of your lower back.

– You should feel this ab exercise in your lower abs.

– It is extremely important to do this exercise slow and controlled. Many people move through it faster than the speed of light. If you want results, go slow and controlled.

– Only take the right leg up, down, and back in. The left leg stays bent in a 90 degree position. Then do your left leg. Take it up, down, and back in as your right leg stays in place.

Ball Crunch

Start- Have a seat on the stability ball. Place your knees over your ankles, and separate your knees so that they are hip width apart.

Go For It- Begin to lean the upper body back. Stop at a 45 degree angle. Pause for a second and return to start.

Tips and Techniques-

– Inhale as you lower back. Exhale as you move back to start.

– Putting your tongue on the roof of your mouth will help with any neck strain.

– The closer your feet are to one another the harder this exercise is.

– You can do this ab exercise many ways. Try leaning back and holding there for 10 seconds. Yowser!

Ball Oblique Crunch

Start- Begin by sitting on a stability ball and leaning back until your lower back is supported by the ball. Your knees should be hip width apart and directly over your ankles. Hands can be where you feel most comfortable.

Go For It- Begin to lift the upper body. However, instead of lifting straight up, we want to lift up and to the right. Pause here for a second and return back to start.

Tips and Techniques-

– Exhale as your lift up. Inhale as you lower back to start.

– Pull your belly button into your spine.

– Putting your tongue on the roof of your mouth will help with any neck strain.

– Remember to do an equal amount of sets and reps on the opposite side.

180 Ball Crunch

Start- Begin by sitting on a stability ball and leaning back until your entire body is supported by the ball. Let the head relax too. Hands can be where you feel most comfortable.

Go For It- Begin to lift the upper body to an almost-sitting position. Pause here for a second and return back to start.

Tips and Techniques-

– Exhale as your lift up. Inhale as you lower back to start.

– Pull your belly button into your spine.

– Putting your tongue on the roof of your mouth will help with any neck strain.

– The further your feet are apart from one another, the easier this ab exercise becomes.

Ball Rock

Start- Begin by laying on your back. Place a stability ball between your palms and the tops of your feet.

Go For It- Begin to rock back and forward.

Tips and Techniques-

– BREATHE.

– Putting your tongue on the roof of your mouth will help with any neck strain.

– This is NOT an ab exercise for beginners.

Great abdominals are possible with regular exercise, cardio and proper nutrition. Use the above ab exercises to create your favorite routine. Remember to switch your ab exercise regularly.

Leave Your Thoughts and Comments Below!

  • tamsyn

    Great suggestions for ab — a couple are variations I’d never thought of, of similar exercise I do. Another great ab exercise that’s different than is interesting and avoids the repetitious crunch compulsion is the “Russian Twist.”

    I’ve seen a couple versions of this exercise as well, but the version my athlete brother taught me is to take a flat weight (the sort you’d stack onto a bar) — start with a small weight to get the proper form down. Find a piece of equipment or furniture in the gym, or wherever you’re doing the exercise, under which you can brace your feet…. or if you have a workout buddy, have that person stand on the ends of your feet.

    Lie down in the same position as if you’re about to do a standard crunch, but brace your feet under the piece of equipment (I find that small space under the frame of the squat bar machine in my gym works well).

    Grab the flat weight you’ve brought over. With feet secured and weight in hands, lift it so it’s almost over your face as you’re lying down looking up at the sky.

    Then sit up slightly, so your back is off the floor — and still holding the weight in that position relative to your head / face, twist to one side, then the other.

    It should just be your torso twisting, not the legs. And the weight needs to remain suspended in the same position relative to your face as you twist — making sure you don’t touch the ground, but just come close to it.

    The motion should take from a twist on the left side (or right, if you started there) back to central, over to ride side, in a nearly 180-degree motion.

    You can roll up a towel (or I roll up my gym long-sleeved zippie) to place in the lower back for support… Great exercise! But also not one for beginners.

    A variant of this that’s a bit easier is using a weight ball — one of those basketball-looking balls that come in different weights — and twisting with this instead, but the body orientation will be slightly different: legs at 90-degree angle parallel with the floor, and you’ll be sitting up a bit more to twist the ball from side to side.

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  • Christine

    What sort of frequency and reps/sets should these be done?

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  • Blueflames

    When I do the leg lowering and even most of the ball exercises, my lower back hurts (even if I put my hands under for the leg lowering). Do you have any advice on how to avoid this/why my back is hurting? Thank you

    • http://www.Strength-Training-Woman.com Lynn

      Hi, BlueFlames.

      Most likely it’s because your form is off somehow. I would ask your local trainer to check your form. The other possibility is that your core is not yet strong enough to support the type of exercises you’re doing. So if leg lowering hurts, try the Ball Crunch of Plank Post.

      90% chance your issue is either form or level of exercise being too difficult. Hope that helps!

      • Blueflames

        Thank you! It does, I believe it’s more the lack of strength in my core,so I will work on that!

      • Jucky7

        Lynn, does it really matter that much?? i never new things like this could go into so much detail!!

        thank you!

        • http://www.Strength-Training-Woman.com Lynn

          Hi, Jucky7.

          It does! Most injuries come from doing an exercise that your muscles cannot quite handle yet AND from improper form :)

  • Suzan BUTum

    Im am sorry for your pain blueflames : ( hope it gets better. i find sticking to junky food and greasy oily stuff can give you more fat and excersising is just too far out there to try to get rid of it! thanks for creating this website, but i think its was a waste of y our time, you should go home and do some sit-ups! Know thats effective!

    • Ghetto2

      ( this person is highly rude, who agrees?) I find this a great sorce and it helps my every wait loss problems! thanks!

      • http://www.Strength-Training-Woman.com Lynn

        Thanks Ghetto2! I removed the other person’s comments. Clearly they are more focused on the negative than the positive.

  • Elise

    I am 22yrs old and around 215lbs.
    I recently had a baby and went crazy with my eating and did not workout. I was a wrestler, trainer, bball all through HS and then when I got to college IT ALL STOPPED!
    So in my pregnancy beginning to birth I gained total 90lbs. At his birth I weighed 244lbs.
    I know it was horrible. Blessed as we are I had no health issues and neither did our son.
    WELL 11 months later…..after several attempts to lose weight I quit.
    I am now in nursing school and am stressed more than ever. BUT I am on the train again :)
    I am eating good foods like crazy, I am drinking 2L of water per day and have begun a workout regimen that is good for me-time wise. I have a goal set to lose 5lbs/month for a year. SO hopefully next Christmas I can be around 150-155lbs.

    MY question/concern is that if I lose this weight will my stomach/baby pouch hang off my body?

    My husband and I decided that I am young enough and have not been overweight too long that is I do my cardio and strength exercises I will be ok- no saggy pouch.
    Do you think that we are right?
    I looked at your strength exercises (AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!)
    and I know I could add those to my regimen but I wanted your opinion. Thank You so much!!!!

    • http://www.Strength-Training-Woman.com Lynn

      Hi, Elise.

      There’s no way to tell what will happen. But you have age and a history of athleticism on your side. So that’s the good news!

      I wouldn’t worry to much about what will happen or be sagging over. The truth is, and I think you already know it… you’ll be much happier, healthier and able to enjoy your life much more once you lose the extra weight. And that’ll definitely be worth it – even if there is a chance of some lovely mommy-belly left behind :)