Abdominal Muscle Exercises - Which Ones Should You Use?
July 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
When it comes to somebody what to improve the condition of their ab muscles then they need to do more than just carry out a few exercises which have been designed to work on them. A person needs to take a closer look at their genetic structure as well as their age and their gender as all these factors will actually determine the type of abdomen shape a person has. But having said this if you do incorporate the right exercises into your fitness regime you will find that they help towards improving the condition of your ab muscles a lot.
When it comes to finding the right kinds of exercises to use in order to improve the strength and tone of your ab muscles use ones which involve resistance training. As you will soon discover when you use resistance training for helping to improve the condition of your body these types of exercises are much more effective. They work well not only a person’s ab muscles but also those found in their arms, legs and back.
The most effective kinds of exercise you should consider using are those which make the muscles feel fatigued after you have carried out 20 repetitions or less. Not only are these exercises ensuring that you are working the muscles correctly but the results you achieve are much better.
When you want to improve the shape of your abdominal muscles the best types of exercises you should be using are the standard and combination crunch ones as well as the reverse curl. However along with exercising you should also be looking closely at your diet as well. You will not be able to achieve your ultimate goal of having a great looking stomach if you find yourself still eating the same types of food which caused you to put on the weight in the first place. Below we take a look at the exercises mentioned and the ways in which they should be carried out.
In order to do the standard crunch you need to lay out flat on the floor (preferably with some sort of protection underneath you). Then you need to bend your knees and have your feet placed firmly on the floor. Once in this position you should now start to slowly raise your shoulders and head up off of the floor and concentrate on making sure that your ribs are moving towards your hips. If you find it difficult to keep your head level with your shoulders as you begin to raise them then a good tip is to pretend that you are holding something under your chin. When first doing this particular exercise it is better to place your hands on your chest as this will prevent strain being placed on other muscles, ligaments and tendons in your body. Only as your muscles become much stronger then should you attempt to raise up your body with your hands either beside or above your head.
The reverse curl specifically targets the fibers to be found in the lower and side abdominal muscles. Again lay on your back on then floor and then bend your knees towards your chest to a position that you feel comfortable with. But you must ensure that your hips remain on the floor. Then in order to lift up your hips off the floor you need to start contracting your abdominal muscles and this in turn will bring your knees closer to your chest. It is important that whilst you are doing this exercise you make sure that your legs do not swing.
But if after a while you start to find both the standard crunch and reverse curl a little easier to do then why not try out the combination crunch instead. This is more challenging as it requires you to actually do the 2 exercises previously mentioned in this article at the same time.
No matter if you are a man or a woman when it comes to improving the condition of your abdominal muscles you need to be aware that not all the exercises people use will work for everyone. Therefore it is important that you yourself spend some time looking at the ones that others are using and may be try a few of them out. It is only through trying them out are you likely to find the exercises which are ideally suited to you and your body shape. Also by doing this you will find that in the long run being able to achieve your goal of having great looking abs will be much more easily achieved.