abdominals Archives - Body Building and Fitness News Blog

Side oblique crunch

The side oblique crunch exercise is extremely useful for those looking to tighten and strengthen their abdominal muscles. It allows you to stretch and tense those muscles which will give more definition. If you turn sideways for the starting position, place your two legs straight out, laid on top of each other, and place your hand and forearm on the ground. You will be supporting yourself at the elbow, placing your other arm around the back of your neck. The

Abdominal hold

The beauty of the abdominal hold exercise is the fact that it can be done anywhere where you have a chair or a stairway with at least four steps. If we look at the exercise involving a chair, simply sit in the chair with a straight back and your feet firmly planted on the ground. Then place your hands towards the side of the chair and lift your feet and your bum slowly off the ground. You should aim to

Abs roll-out

The Abs roll-out exercise is another great way to strengthen your abdominal muscles. For this exercise you will need a barbell with round weights on either side or a specific abs roller. The starting position is the kneeling position with your back straight up. Then grab the barbell, on the ground, with your hands just a little more than shoulder length apart. You then simply roll out the barbell, while remaining as straight as possible, as far as you feel

Hand walk-out exercise

The hand walk-out exercise is a surprisingly intense and useful exercise when looking to tone up your abdominal muscles. The starting position may is effectively bent over double from a standing position. This means that your feet are placed firmly on the ground as are your palms (for those who cannot touch their toes, simply bend as far as possible) and you simply place your hands on the floor and walk them out slowly. This will make use of the

Mountain climber exercise

The mountain climber exercise is a great way to tone up those ab muscles, with a relatively short but intense burst. The starting position is similar to a straight arm press up with your arms locked and your body as straight as possible down to your feet. Pull your left knee up you towards your elbows, with your left foot touching the ground (as if you were in the blocks waiting to start a 100m race!), with your back right

Hand slide crunch

In many cases it is relatively small movements such as the hand slide crunch exercise which have the greatest impact on your upper and lower abdominal muscles. The starting position for the hand slide crunch exercise is to lie down on the ground with your feet flat and your knees raised. Then place your hands onto your thighs and sit up only using the top half of your body. As you sit up, slide your hands down towards your knees

Leg raise

There are many relatively simple exercises which will help to build and develop your abdominal muscles. The starting position for the leg raise exercise is to lie down flat on your back on the floor. Then, while maintaining your legs as straight and outstretched as possible, raise them as high as you can or until they are vertical. Then very slowly lower your legs, while maintaining the outstretched position, until they are positioned just above the ground. It is advisable

Forearm Plank

While some people see planking as some kind of exercise craze, it can have a major impact upon your core strength and in particular your abdominal muscles. As well as exercising the abdominal muscles it also helps with shoulders, arms and glutes and can also improve your metabolism which will increase fat burn. For many people the forearm plank is the most popular variation on this exercise and is fairly simple to do. This exercise can be carried out in

Sustained abdominal muscle hold, Ab Crunch

For many people it is the abdominal muscles which are of most concern as they look to tone their stomach and reduce their “belly fat”. There are a number of very simple exercises which will help to burn fat in the abdominal muscle area and tone the abdominal muscles themselves. One basic exercise called the sustained ab muscle hold (or ab crunch) involves lying flat on the floor (preferably using a fitness mat) and lifting your knees 3 to 4

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