What is your favorite and most effective exercise for your Abs? Why and how often do you perform the exercise? You may also wish to list details and tips for that body part.
I agree with the crunches. They're absolutely wonderful. Not onyl can you do them with your legs up in the air, but I remember doing them lots of ways when I took aerobics in high school. One is to drop your knees to you side, and do them that way, and then switch sides. It helps with your sides, duh.
Another way was lifting your legs as if you were in a squatting position, and move your legs as if you were riding a bike while doing the crunches. They hurt the most, but they're very effective.
I have been using a flye machine recently for my abs. I stand up and then with the hand bar behind my neck I pull down using my ab muscles. This is most effective and you can really feel your abs burn. With this I am able to apply maximum rate to ensure it gets harder rather than just repetitions from crunches, which after awhile do not strain the abs sufficiently.
As my blog has mentioned, I am a newbie now to exercise, and I have incorporated some abdominal-targeting exercises. I have started doing crunches for my upper abs, and leg lifts for my lower abs. Here is how I do them:
Crunches:
Lie down. With hands behind your neck, pull your knees just above hips with feel flat on the floor. Lift your shoulders no more than 30 degrees above the ground and hold for 3 seconds. Return to resting position. I repeat these until I can't do them anymore.
Leg Lifts:
Lie down. Lift legs straight out at about 45 degrees in the air. Return them slowly to a resting position without touching the ground. Repeat as many times as you can.
I can definitely say that I can feel my abs crying out when I do these simple exercises. We'll see how effective they are in getting rid of my gut.
I do not have a favorite Ab exercise. You should not do only one exercise when training your Abs because it likely that you are only training one section of your abs. You should do several ab exercises; that way you cover all the sections of your abs. I have a full Ab Exercise schedule which fits me. I will share it with you.
The exercises I do routinely are:
First Exercise: Regular Crunch
Lie on your back. Knees up, feet on the floor. Press your lower back to the floor and place your hands lightly behind your head. Curl up, chest first, while pressing lower back to floor. Just bring your shoulders off the floor 5-10 inches.
Second Exercise: Reverse Crunch
Lie on floor. Place legs in air with feet towards the ceiling. Press legs, feet first, towards the ceiling by curling abdomen so that legs are lifted upward. Imagine a pizza balancing on your feet. https://sportsmedicine.about.com/gi/d...ersecrunch.jpg
Third Exercise: Bicycle Maneuver
Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Place your fingers on the side of your head just behind your ears. Push your lower back into the floor flattening the arch and hold. Bring your knees up to about a 45-degree angle and slowly go through a bicycle pedal motion. Touch your left elbow to your right knee, then your right elbow to your left knee. https://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=sp...yclecrunch.jpg
You should do the first exercise on Monday, the second exercise on Wednesday, and the third exercise on Friday. In each exercise, you should do 3 sets, with 25 reps in each set. After 4 weeks, you should start to see a difference. I hope that helps.
Edited: Touchstone on 9th Aug, 2007 - 8:45pm
Touchstone the reverse ab exercise was described very well I never really fully under stood it until I read that.
I still love the old military sit ups best though I know they claim it wrecks your back. Strange though many martial artist still do them and just add slab weights to increase the work out. Oddly none I know have back backs from it.
Edited: krakyn on 13th Nov, 2007 - 2:41pm
I never cared for the rough ab look that you see female trainers on television have today and because I'm already so slim I guess it's not important for me, but when I do the regular situp in gym that hurts like hell.