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Attack your abdominal muscles in all directions! Take on the challenge of imbalance and build strong abs with this 5-exercise workout!
Author: Katie Chang Hua
Crunches are good, but for a full workout, you must attack your abdominal muscles in all directions. My workout works all your abdominal muscles with a series of five exercises that will flatten your belly or accentuate your six-pack!
The proposed program is not designed to train the abdominal muscles from scratch; I’ve found exercises that help keep my stomach flat and my torso muscles strong. A multi-rep protocol has been selected with relatively short rest pauses, so get ready to sweat and cut yourself a window to a flawless belly!
1. Pulling the legs to the chest on a fitball
How to do it: put your feet on the fitball, and rest your palms on the floor to be in the starting position for push-ups. Bring your knees to your chest and then straighten your legs using your abdominal muscles as motors.
Abdominal Action: This exercise has a triple effect. It doesn’t just pump the muscles of the trunk – the need to balance on the apparatus develops both muscle strength and the ability to keep balance. What I especially like about the fold on the fitball is that half of the body is above the ground on a rolling ball, and this creates additional stress.
2. Twisting on fitball
How to do it: these are not crunches for grandmothers! I want you to join your hands and try to reach the ceiling. Concentrate on this feeling of being stretched at the top.
Abdominal Action: A nimble ball support makes your core muscles work really hard and takes away the stability you would expect from regular crunches. And instability becomes an additional training stimulus!
3. Plank on the fitball
How to do it: put your forearms on the fitball, stretch your legs behind and take the plank position. Be careful not to let your belly sag and your buttocks too high.
Action on the abdominal muscles: are you looking for additional stimuli? To complicate this exercise, try doing it on one leg, or add a dynamic component to a regular plank by rolling the fitball back and forth.
4. Pulling the legs to the chest
How to do it: sit on a gym mat, rest on your elbows and lift your legs off the floor. Then lift your torso and simultaneously pull your knees, and pull your knees alternately to the left, then to the right side.
Abdominal Action: I love this exercise because it deprives us of our fulcrum and pushes us out of our comfort zone. You have to switch from side to side and simultaneously raise your legs to the right and then to the left. Be sure to keep the abdominal muscles tense and not cool during the movements.
5. Touching the feet
How to do it: lie on your back, lift one leg up and touch your toes with your hand, lifting your shoulder blades above the gymnastics mat. Alternate lifts to the right and left leg.
Action on the abdominal muscles: under no circumstances rest between repetitions. I want you to keep your torso muscles tense for the entire set!
Training
3 approach to 20 repetitions
3 approach to 20 repetitions
3 approach to 20 repetitions
3 approach to Max. minutes.
3 approach to 20 repetitions