Weight Training Tips and Articles

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.

Building A Stronger Core

  If you’re into weight training it’s very important to have a strong core. The core is made up of the muscles in the midsection area of the body, including the abdominals, obliques, and lower back. Strengthening these muscles will help your body support and stabilize more weight on many major weight training exercises for other muscles, especially ones that involve many muscle groups like squats and deadlifts. Strengthening your core will also help you avoid injuries and improve your posture.

  To build a stronger core you need to perform abdominal and lower back workouts regularly. For your ab workouts do exercises such as crunches and leg raises, along with some ab training on a core ball. The abdominals recover quicker than most muscle groups so you can train them as much as every other day. For the obliques you should do some ab exercises where you twist on the way up, whether it’s on an upper ab or lower ab exercise. You can also do some side bends with a dumbbell in one hand or on a cable machine, or on an ab machine that allows you to do some more direct oblique training. Deadlifts and hyperextensions are great for building strength in the lower back. Some exercises for other muscles like dumbbell bench presses for the chest can be done on a core ball to build more core strength. Training the abdominals and lower back will also help you get a ripped midsection if you don’t have too much body fat covering them up.

  Even you’re more concerned with lifting as much weight as possible than getting ripped you’ll still need to strengthen your core so you can handle those weights. You’ll be glad you did.

Abdominal Workouts

  If you’re into weight training one of the most important muscles groups to train are the muscles of the midsection, especially the abdominals. Like with the lower back muscles, having strong abs will help support your body when you’re lifting heavy weights. Training your abs will also help you get that six-pack look when you get rid of extra body fat.

  Your abdominal workouts should include crunches, leg raises, and twisting sit-ups on a declined bench. If you do your crunches on a workout ball you’ll get a nice stretch at the bottom of each rep, which you won’t get if you do them on a bench or on the floor. Leg raises should be done while sitting on the edge of a bench or on an apparatus that allows back support so your body doesn’t sway back and forth while doing them.

  When you do abdominal exercises like crunches and sit-ups you need to either put your hands at the sides of your head or fold your arms over your chest. Placing your hands behind your head may force you to pull on your neck. There’s no need to pull on the back of your head when you’re training abs.

  The sets you do during an ab workout should be done with higher reps with no, or very light, weight. The abdominals are muscles that you don’t actually want to add a lot of size to as this will give you a blocky appearance. Keep the reps high and strive to get a good burn in the abdominal area.

  When you train your abs you should do some training for your obliques as well. The obliques are the muscles on the sides of the midsection that are covered up by love handles on many people. Do side bends with light dumbbells or cables to work the obliques with high rep sets. Like with the abs, you don’t want to gain too much actual muscle size in the obliques.

  Abdominal training can be done more often than training for other muscles groups because the abs recover very quickly. If you want, you can do some ab training during almost every workout since it’s hard to actually overtrain them. Trying a new abdominal exercise may make you sore at first, but your body will quickly get used to it. Frequently change the way you do your ab exercises so you don’t hit a plateau.

  Abdominal training workouts, along with the right diet, will put you well on your way to getting those ripped abs you’ve been dreaming of.