I have listed below my favorite ab exercises that I use for celebrities wishing to achieve those awesome abs fast!
1. Cable crunches
Sit-ups
themselves are not very effective at all, however if you take a gym
ball and perform crunches using a cable machine with a rope, then that
added resistance makes it a very effective exercise! Sit-ups are a waste
of time because the stress on the abdominals is very poor. If your
using a quality load then that makes a big difference.
Take a gym
ball and place it next a tricep rope cable pulley with the cable
position at the bottom of the machine. Lie back on the gym ball and take
the rope behind your neck and then start performing cable crunches in a
very controlled manner.
2. Ab roll-outs
Ab roll-outs
are very effective as the target the abs in a manner in which the abs
should be stressed. Your abs are not designed to do sit-ups, they are
designed to resist forces and add strength and stability to your torso.
Take
a gym ball and place it out in front of you whilst you are kneeling on
the mat. Place your two hands on the front of the ball and then roll the
ball out extending your arms and dropping your hips so that your body,
from the top of your neck to your knees, is completely straight. The
stress is placed on your abs when dropping your hips as your abs are
contracting strongly in order to prevent your body from dropping to the
mat.
To increase the intensity for this exercise you can use an ab wheel, but stick to the gym ball first.
3. Lying leg raises
This
is actually a hip flexor exercise so make sure you stretch them after
this exercise as you don't want tight hip flexors. Lie on a mat, lift
your legs straight up to the ceiling and slowly lower them to about a
foot off the ground. Have some momentum on the way but slow and
controlled on the way down. Your abs again are being used as
stabilizers.
4. Standing cable shoulder presses
This
exercise uses the abs as stabilizers. Use a rope cable pulley from about
shoulder height and face the opposite way to the machine with the rope
behind your neck resting onto your shoulders. Perform 12-15 reps of
shoulder presses in a slow and controlled fashion. The cable will be
pulling you back towards the machine whilst you are performing the
shoulder presses which places quality stress on your abdominals.
5. Dumbbell reverse wood-choppers
Standing
straight up, take the dumbbell from the side of you hip and explosively
twist from the torso chopping the dumbbell up and around towards the
side of your head. If you imagine a clock and from the starting position
the dumbbell is at 8 o'clock you then chop round to 10 past the hour.
There must be a sudden stop at the end position which will place more
stress on your abs and obliques.
These five exercises are not the
common exercises used in gyms today as most people are still performing
sit-ups on gym balls and bosu balls. Combined with a good diet, these
great ab exercises will give you those sleek celebrity abs you've always
wanted!
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