Some of the mat AB exercises that I do:
Leg raises
Sit up crunches
Cycle crunches
Elbow plank
Full plank
Swiss ball
Has many exercise options here a just a few that I do, most Swiss balls come with an exercise guide.
Upright plank to pull in.
Pull in. I place my shins/ankles onto the Swiss ball so I am doing a press up with the ball supporting my ankles/lower shin; I then pull myself up using only hips. No bending the legs, so I am pulling the ball towards my arms. To make it tougher I throw in 3 pull in's then 3 press ups then 3 pull in's to 3 press ups etc.
Shoulder presses, Wait that's not an AB workout? True, but sitting on a Swiss ball with my legs as close together as I can without being too unstable and doing a set of weighted shoulder presses impacts the abs too, how?
Well the ball will want to move as I'm pressing the weights; my core will be trying to stop the ball moving, which is working my abs at the same time. I really notice the abs on this one, after I have done a hard abs only set of exercise.
Crunches, legs over the ball and coming up into a crunch
Crunches laying over the ball: I Sit on the ball, and lower myself back and come up to a crunch, this has the added benefit of trying to keep the ball still and working the core muscles even more.
Kettle bell or weights.
Sit ups holding a weight or kettle bell: Holding the weight/kettle bell behind my head when I'm laying flat down. Then bring my arms over and crunch into a sit up, also at the same time bring my knees up so my hands are meeting my knees. Then lower down, but don't rest my feet on the ground.
Bull horn squat: Holding the kettle bell out just in front of me like I'm holding a bull's horns, about 10/12 inches away from my chin, then lower down into a squat keeping the kettle bell exactly where it is. Keeping my stomach pulled in tight, we need to keep the back nice and straight. After a while this will burn your legs, upper arms and will burn the abs if you have done some tough abs exercises beforehand.
Medicine ball (small rubber ones):
This is my favourite!
If I have someone there with me I do the following: laying down, I have someone throw the ball at me which I catch above my head as I come up for a crunch, I lower myself down keep the ball above my head and throw back as I start to come up into a crunch. I get them thrown into me at chest height or to either side of me, very good work out.
If I am on my own I throw it against a wall and catch it on the rebound instead of someone throwing it to me.
Another exercise I do is to sit with knees bent up holding the ball in front of me, and slowly twist my torso round to the left and back to middle, then slowly twist to the right. Good for the oblique's, and also impacts the upper chest and shoulders a little.
Push Up bars:
Generally an all over work out if used correctly, the push up bars allow you to go deeper into a push up than just using your hands, so this will start to impact the shoulders, chest, arms, AB's also the legs. The AB's will work out because keeping the stomach pulled in tight, improves posture and enables a good press up to be performed with no bent back. Once you cannot keep your back straight and the hips start dipping below your back line. Stop the exercise its putting a lot of pressure onto the back
AB Rocker:
To me this is the least effective AB toner, I'd only use this after i had worked my abs out hard and just fancied a top up. The thing with Swiss balls is that the ball wants to move all the time so while I'm using it you need all my core muscles to keep the ball still, this provides a much greater workout, as I'm targeting many core areas at once.
So this is just some of the abdominal fitness equipment available, i hope it has helped you get a little more info on what you can do. You don't need to break the bank with very expensive high tech AB kits.
0 comments:
Post a Comment