When it comes to getting a solid six pack, doing the right ab exercises is crucial. You can spend hours doing needless sit-ups that aren’t really going to have all that much benefit, much to your disappointment. Taking the time to choose smart ab exercises will save you not only gym time, but a great deal of frustration as well. In this article we will discuss the best lower ab exercises and the best home ab exercises as well.
Movements that lower your overall stability are excellent for working out your abdominal muscles. The reasoning behind this is - when you do such movements, all your muscle tissues, including those that are deep inside your body, have to contract so that your stability can be maintained. This is why when you do your regular sit-ups, only the external muscles are being targeted. Yes, they do help, but you will never achieve the results you could be otherwise getting.
Which ab exercises are we exactly referring to that decrease your stability? Well, all the exercises that are performed on an unbalanced surface will help your abs greatly. Good examples of such exercises are walking on the balance beam, doing squats on one leg, performing bent over dumbbell rows while on one foot, one arm shoulder press, as well as making use of an exercise ball for lying down ab exercises. Doing exercises with a stability ball as well as using a BOSU ball are also effective choices. In essence, a stability ball and free weights are all you need for an effective home ab exercise session.
If youre looking for the best lower ab exercise there is, then hanging leg raises it is. However, you have to ensure that youre using your lower abs to twist your pelvis so that you get the maximum out of this exercise. In addition to this, lying leg raises, lying leg raises with 45 degree incline, and cable crunches are some other effective abdominal exercises.
The more muscle mass you have, the faster your metabolic rate will then be, so in an indirect way, that could in fact help you burn off excess body fat.
Increased muscle mass translates into a much faster metabolic rate, which in turn will indirectly also help to melt away your surplus body fat. Moreover, performing exercises with heavy weights also helps to enhance your strength significantly, thereby lowering your chances of getting injuries from other exercises that you do. If one were to ask me what my favorite home ab exercise is, it would have to be doing weighted ball crunches keeping a stability ball on your chest.
As far as knowing when you should do your ab workout, it has to be on a day other than when you do other exercises. You need your muscles to be fresh when youre doing ab exercises so that you can get the best performance from them.
If, on the other hand, you are more just doing them to help build some strength, but more to round out your exercise program, then you should be doing them at the end of your workout session. This will prevent them from fatiguing early, because they are going to be predominately used in all the other lifts you perform (heavy squats for example).
However, if your primary goal for doing ab exercises is to get a balanced workout and not necessarily for building great strength, then such exercises should be done during your regular workout, but at the very end. This way, you wont be tiring your ab muscles at the start and can thus use them properly when doing other heavy exercises and weight lifting.
You thus need to keep these pointers in mind when youre chalking out your ab workout and are choosing which ab exercises to do. A dedicated ab exercise regime and a nutritious diet that includes plenty of uncooked vegetables and protein ” these are the two primary factors that will help you to achieve those rock solid six-pack abs.
