Before you start your ab exercises make sure the ones you are doing will truly result in the benefits you are expecting. If your goal is to have a six-pack abdominal area, doing a thousand sit-ups a day won’t accomplish that. Doing the proper ab exercises takes a little knowledge of what your muscles do and how they perform.

This guide should help you find the right ones for you, including those that you can do in your own home with no need for special equipment. For the most part, effective ab exercises include stabilizing and balancing yourself in the action of performing them.

When your goal is to stay in one position as you do your exercise, your body uses muscles you didn’t even know you had. While sit-ups may have their place in your fitness routine, they work only a few abdominal muscles and won’t always give you the desired appearance. Below are some of most comprehensive exercises for abdominal muscles.

Forcing you body into an unsteady position where your goal is to maintain balance is very effective and is sometimes also the most difficult. For example, doing exercises using one leg and then alternating legs as you proceed will give your entire body a workout.


These might include standing on one leg and doing a squat, or lifting weights while standing on one leg. Anyone who has ever used a balance ball knows how difficult it can be. The truth is, for a workout at home all you really need is a balance ball and weights such as dumbbells. If you have a place where you can hang by your hands while lifting and rotating your legs, this will build your abs.

If your upper body strength isn’t adequate for that, or if you have nowhere to hang, you can lie on your back and side and lift your legs from those positions. The cable crunch or any exercise that forces you to pull in a downward motion using your abdominal muscles will help in achieving the washboard appearance.

Remember also to do these exercises slowly. From stability exercises you can move on to heavier weights which will improve your abdominal muscles even more. Using and supporting heavy weights will both enlarge and strengthen your abs. Interestingly, as you do the hard work of a heavy weight exercise routine your entire body will be strengthened. As muscles work together they all benefit.

Another side effect of this overall strengthening will be a reduction in exercise injury. These problems can occur because of instability in the body when one muscle group is stronger than another. You might want to devote one day in your weekly regimen to abdominal exercises.

This will ensure both physical and mental strength as you work out. Another possible method is to add those exercises to the end of every workout. Your abs will likely be fatigued from using them supportively in other parts of your routine. But this will increase their workout and bring quicker results. Everyone is different and individual preferences will often dictate what is best for you.

But if you want solid abdominal muscles you have to concentrate your efforts to strengthen them so they won’t be the weakest muscles in your body. Additionally, as you build the muscles in your body you increase your metabolic rate resulting in a more efficient calorie burn.

And of course, eating less fat in your regular diet will enhance the process. Combining these exercises with an overall healthy lifestyle will guarantee success and you will soon meet your goals of abdominal strength and six-pack appearance.

A great machine to work on your abs is the Ab Coaster.

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