Weight Training Tips and Articles

Best Exercises For The Abs

  When you were young, you were told that sit-ups are the best exercise for the abdominals. However, they tend to work your hip flexors more than the abs and can be bad for your lower back. Now, most people know that crunches are a superior exercise for actually targeting the ab muscles. When you do crunches you’ll want to just lift your upper body a short distance off the floor or bench and concentrate on contracting the ab muscles hard. Keep your arms folded over your chest or put your hands at the sides of your head - not behind it, which may cause a neck injury.
  To get a nice stretch while doing crunches you should dothem on a core ball. Performing abdominal crunch exercises on a core ball will allow you to lower your upper body more without a bench or the floor stopping you. You can also do crunches with a medicine ball held in your hands for some added resistance.
  Another popular abdominal exercise is the leg raise. You can do them while hanging from a bar, though you’re probably better off using arm harnesses so that your grip doesn’t give out before your abs. Many weight trainers will only raise their legs up until they are parellel to the floor. However, you’ll get more out of this ab exercise if you raise your legs higher and round the lower back some.
  Decline twisting sit-ups are a great ab exercise for hitting the abs and obliques. Lie on a declined bench and use your abs to pull your upper body upwards while twisting to each side on alternating reps. Again, don’t put your hands behind your head and pull on the neck.
  You can also do abdominal exercises using an ab roller. The ab roller will give you some variety in targeting your abdominals. Get down on your knees and, with your hands on the ab roller, roll it forward until your upper body and arms are straight out and close to the floor. Then return to the starting position, making sure to focus the resistance on your midsection.
  If you want to try an incredible program that includes advice on dieting, weight training, and ab workouts you should check out The Truth About Six Pack Abs e-book.

The Truth About Abs

  Whether you’re trying to build muscle, burn fat, or both, it’s likely that you want to improve your abdominals. A tight midsection with that 6 pack look is something many men and women desire to attain. A downloadable e-book called The Truth About Abs is here to show you the way to ripped abs.

  The Truth About Abs will show you how to get six-pack abs without having to spend a ton of time in the gym or a ton of money on worthless supplements. It gives you all the diet, cardio, weight training, and abdominal training advice you’ll need to get into the best shape of your life.

  You’ll learn everything you need to know about eating right to get more defined with the information contained in The Truth About Abs. Stop wasting time trying extremely low-carb or low-fat diets. This e-book shows you why these diets ultimately don’t work and what the best macronutrient ratios to turn your body into a fat burning machine.

  As far as exercise goes, The Truth About 6-Pack Abs e-book covers cardio training, weight training workouts, and, of course, ab workouts. It shows you why the intensity you train with is much more important than the duration of your training. You’ll find some great workout routines that will get you in and out of the gym fast and produce superior results to high volume training.

  If you want ot finally get into the best shape of your life, you should check out The Truth About Abs.

Do Abdominal Exercises On A Core Ball

  Abdominal workouts are great for strengthening your core and giving you washboard abs if you don’t have a layer of body fat covering them up. Chunches are an especially great exercise for building the abs. However, many weight trainers and workout enthusiests do their crunches on flat benches or machines with a flat back support that don’t allow you to stetch the abdominals at the beginning of a rep.

  To build muscle for any part of the body it’s very important to do full reps during your weight training exercises. Part of a full rep is getting a nice stretch at the beginning of a repitition and a good muscle contraction at the end of it. While you can get the hard contraction you need at the end of a crunch rep on a flat bench, you won’t be getting much of a stretch because the bench won’t allow you to go any further back at the beginning of a crunch rep.

  To get that stretch to start a crunch rep you should do them on a core ball. When you do abdominal exercises on a core ball you’ll be able to stretch your midsection to start the rep which should result in an even better contraction at the end of it. Training your abs on a core ball will also allow you a lot of variety. You can add a twist to your core ball crunches to help buiild and strengthen the ab - oblique area on each side of your midsection. You can also start a set of an ab exercise on a core ball with your lower back on the ball to get a better stretch and make the reps harder. Then, as you get closer to failure you can move your body forward so the ball is higher up under your back so you can crank out a few more reps. A weighted medicine can also be used at the beginning of a set of crunches on a core ball and dropped as you get to failure so you get some more reps with just your body weight.

  Beyond the fact that you’ll get a better stretch in the abs when you train on a core ball is that you’ll also be strengthening many small stabilizing muscles and improving your balance. Try doing your abdominal training on a core ball get the most out of your workouts.