If you have been doing crunches regularly but have not seen the strength or appearance results you want, it´s time to make a change. Doing exercises that strengthen your abs not only benefits your ability to compete in fitness activities and the way your stomach looks; strengthening your abs, part of the group of muscles that make up your core, will also make activities in everyday life easier and get you better equipped to respond to challenges, according to the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research´s factsheet on abdominal exercises.
Work Your Entire Core
Doing exercises that work out your lateral abdominals and even your back will make sure that your entire core is getting strong. While you might be focused on how your six pack looks, the truth is that if you just work out one set of muscles with just a few of your favorite exercises, you won´t be transforming your strength as much as you may have hoped. Good exercises to strengthen your lateral abdominals are any crunch type exercises that involve twisting. To strengthen your back, meanwhile, try doing inverted crunches at your gym. Hook your feet in and using the platform that is slanted at 45 degrees, use your abdominal strength to slowly lower your upper torso to a 90-degree angle with your legs, then use back strength to bring your upper torso back in line with your legs.
Push Yourself
The principle of progression, as cited by the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, is at work during your workout. The principle holds that you must challenge yourself with the duration, time period, or intensity of the activities you´re doing in order to continue to make progress in your level of fitness. Apply this principle by avoiding distraction while you're doing your abs. Music is fine as long as it motivates you, but if you suspect your technique is less than perfect or if you´re not even breaking a sweat, chances are you need to focus more on your workout to make it pay off.
Make a Schedule
If you can make doing abs a part of your daily routine, you won´t struggle as much with making your workout happen. Talk to your team or workout buddies about doing abs together after practice on a regular basis; that way, a few times a week you won´t have to rely on self control to unroll your mat at home and start crunching. Instead, your routine will automate your abs workout to be just like brushing your teeth or eating breakfast.
Suck It In
Pilates is a well known antidote to the flabby stomach, so do Pilates on a regular basis to whip your abs into shape, though not without some exertion. One thing about Pilates and yoga both is that you can apply the techniques to any ab workout, especially how you're holding your stomach while you´re exercising. If you´re sticking your belly out, you´re working the muscles in your abdominal area in a different way than you would if you focused on keeping your stomach "sucked in" as much as possible. You want a flat belly, so make it that way during your workout, too.
Member Comments