Exercise Fiend - Ab workout - not your average crunch

Who loves crunches? Not me that’s for sure. I found a great list on Health.com of 24 different ab exercises to help tone, tighten and shrink that waist (do I sound like an infomercial?).

Courtesy of the sixpackfactory.com. Thankyou.

Seriously though, a strong core is really important. It helps stabilise the posture and protects the body from injury when you’re doing other activities by supporting the spine. What is the ‘core’ I hear you ask? It’s those deep inner muscles that support the spine, ribs and pelvis, keeping everything in place and in alignment. They are below the outer abdominal muscles, which are the muscles you see, or don’t see. I’ve included a picture to the left to illustrate.

I spent alot of time researching this, you can thank me later. And in the interest of fairness...

Grumbles about how hard it is to find a non sexual picture of a womans abs where she's not holding a tape measure

The usual sit-ups and crunches work the outer abdominals, but they do little for your core. You need to challenge your core by doing more complex movements that require the muscles to work to stabilise your body. This usually involves challenging your balance. These types of exercises are often found in pilates.

Health.com's ab workout can be found at http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20664616,00.html

This article has some very interesting exercises and I have to say, if you’re doing them in the gym you may feel like a weirdo. If you’re worried about this, don’t be, there are plenty of less conspicuous exercises in there.

I wouldn’t do all these exercises daily. I would probably pick 3 or 4 and do them twice a week as instructed. Try and pick ones that work different areas of the core and abdominals. You’ll notice some say they work the core, others say they work the obliques, or the lower abs. If you don’t know what any of that means, just do the exercise, if you’re doing it right you’ll feel where it’s targeting. If you’re struggling to choose the exercises, at the end of the 24 slides, there is another workout called 4 Weeks to Flat Abs, which is a preset workout. This title sucks. I do not condone it. If you’re overweight, simply doing ab exercises is not going to give you a flat tummy. That being said, the workout is good.

The key to ab exercises is control. Make sure you’re not using your hips or pulling with your head or your arms. If you’re just randomly swinging your arms or legs you’re not getting the full benefit, not to mention you’re at risk of kneeing yourself in the head during the Donkey Kickback. Try to focus on your abs. Even if you only move slightly, if its movement from your abs you’re getting the benefit.

If you go all the way through the 24 exercises you’ll notice that some are simply slight variations on a previous exercise, that’s cool too. Any adjustment you make keeps the body guessing and will stop you getting bored.

Enjoy. Aussies, we have 8 and a bit months until summer, I want to see some ripples!