The muscles of your stomach are engaged whenever you move or sit up. They also support your spine and lower back to maintain your posture and keep you balanced during dynamic movements such as running, sports and hiking. Even though you use your abs for every exercise, specific exercises target the muscles your abs exclusively.
Supine Hollowing with Lower Extremity Movements
Perform this exercise by lying on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Freeze your body in position without trying to push your lower back down. Then, squeeze your abs and activate your pelvic floor muscles by imaging you are stopping yourself from urinating. Just breathe normally and hold the abs tight.
The supine hollowing with lower extremity exercise targets the transverse abdominus muscle of the abs, which is located beneath the other abdominal muscles. Since it is the closest to the spine, the transverse abdominus has the most effect on the stabilization of the spine and pelvis.
Lever Kneeling Twist
The lever kneeling twist is an exercise done on a kneeling twist machine that uses the obqliue abdominal muscles. The obliques are located between the transverse and rectus abdominus and on the sides of the stomach. Perform this exercise by kneeling on the leg pads, placing your chest against the chest pad and holding the handles while twisting your lower body from side-to-side in a controlled fashion. The twisting motion of the exercise ensures that the obliques are targeted.
Crunch Up
The crunch up is a bodyweight exercise that incorporates the last portion of your abdominal muscles, the rectus abdominus. The rectus abdominus is the muscle you can see on someone who has toned abs. Perform the crunch up lying on your back with your legs straight in the air. Reach your arms straight upward and raise your head and shoulders off the floor as if to touch your toes. Lower your upper body and repeat the movement, keeping your legs lifted the entire time.
Standing Lift
All of the abdominal muscles are targeted in the standing lift exercise. To perform this exercise, stand up tall and hold a medicine ball between your palms with your arms straight. Bring your hands next to the outside of your right hip and then lift your arms diagonally above your left shoulder. Lower back to the starting position. Do the standing lift on the other side too, starting at your left hip and moving toward your right shoulder.
The standing lift may also be done seated or kneeling, but standing up with a straight spine uses your abs to stabilize more than sitting does.
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