Beach Body Ab Workouts

Beach Body Ab Workouts
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Beach body ab workouts aim to tighten and tone your abdominal muscles. While many ab workouts focus entirely on crunches and sit-ups, more progressive workouts combine running and sprinting with ab-specific exercises to tighten and strengthen your entire body. According to Women Fitness, while crunches tone abs, aggressive aerobic exercise helps reduce stomach fat.

Bicycle Kick Workout

This bicycle kick workout helps strengthen your abdominal muscles as well as leg muscles. Start with your back flat on the ground and your knees bent at a 45-degree angle. From this position, place both of your hands behind your neck and lift your legs completely off the ground, shifting into a 90-degree angle. From here, push your right leg out while simultaneously rotating your torso to the right side. Continuously pump your legs back and forth while rotating your torso to the right and left. Perform this workout for five minutes before taking a break. Continue the exercise for another 10 minutes before completing your workout.

Hanging Leg Raises

Hanging leg raises will help strengthen your biceps as well as your abdominal muscles. Start by gripping a chin up bar with an overhand grip and your hands shoulder width apart from each other. Let your body hang from the bar with your knees slightly bent. While in this position, tighten your lower abs and lift your hips up. Lifting your hips should move your legs up toward your chest. Lift them as high as they can go and hold this position for 10 seconds before releasing. Perform this exercise for five minutes before resting. For an additional 10 minutes, perform this exercise at half speed. For a final 15 minutes, perform this exercise at a quarter of your original speed.

Elevated Sit-Up Workout

This abdominal workout helps tone and strengthen your abdominal muscles. Start this exercise by lying down on the ground with your legs elevated on either a chair or any other elevated surface. According to Simple-Flat-Stomach-Exercises.com, keep your knees bent while in the starting position. Place your arms across your chest and lift your upper torso toward your knees. Continue to lift up until you reach your knees, making sure your buttocks remains on the ground. Lower yourself to the ground and repeat for 20 minutes, increasing your speed every five minutes.

Abdominal Jogging Workout

This workout aims to reduce excess stomach fat while tightening your abdominal muscles. Start the workout with a 15-minute warm up jog. Keep a consistent pace throughout the jog. From here, lie on the ground and perform 50 sit-ups. After completing these sit-ups, jog for an additional 10 minutes, increasing your speed by 25 percent. After 10 minutes, perform 75 crunches before resting. Cool down with a 20-minute jog at your original pace.

References

Article reviewed by Melissa Heyboer Last updated on: Dec 8, 2010

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