What are some AMAZING AB exercises?

[pimpinballer]

Type away! What are some really good AB excersises... Please include oblique ones and maybe give me an example of how to do them if there not that well known.

[canuhandleit]

Look up the following:

Ball Jackknife
Plank
Ball rollout
Stability ball crunch
Side bridge

Those will completely kill your abs, especially ball jackknife.

[pimpinballer]

thanks hopefully those hit lower midle and top abs.

[MJfinns]

I would say the two exercises that really help me have definition in my Abs are the treadmill jog and the calorie count.


As great as ab exercises are you won't really get visible abs without a low BF. Your core gets work during many other exercises and I think you should only work them out just like any other muscles.

[AzN_hEAT_7]

sit-hold

[vigge]

cable crunches
hanging leg raise
decline bench crunches

[Thinny]

8 Minit Abz

[Primol]

got this from a book, pm if you want the name:

There are literally hundreds of different exercises you can do for ab training, and people are always looking for new ab exercises with the thought that you always need to have a new exercise to get continued results. This is not true. You can pretty much keep using the same core of effective exercises, and change the training variables over time to keep progressing. For instance, you can change the order of exercises, the amount of resistance, the volume of work (sets and reps), the rest periods, the rep speed, or even try a different angle of a certain exercise for variety.

Once youve become proficient at all of the exercises in this manual, you?ll eventually reach a point where youre probably not going to add any more muscle to your abs (just like you would reach your peak level with any other muscle group), and as long as youve reduced your body fat to a sufficient level, you should be able to visibly see a nice ripped six-pack. Thats when things get even easier, because now that youve developed a nice set of abs, all you have to do is maintain them, and maintaining them is easier than building them up in the first place. Once youve reached that point, you can reduce your ab training to once a week just to maintain them. At that point, the only thing that will matter in terms of how your abs look will be whether you maintain a low body fat percentage or not.

I should also note that in order to maintain balanced muscular development in the core, you must also devote sufficient training to the lower back muscles as well as the abdominals and hip flexors. You will get plenty of lower back training to balance out the ab training if you follow the exercises presented in section 9, which is full of lower back strengthening exercises such as deadlifts, swings, and snatches.

Listed below are the ab exercises I recommend avoiding because they are either ineffectual or potentially harmful to the back due to excessive psoas recruitment and/or encouraging an arched back:

The Bad Exercises (avoid these)

Lying straight-legged leg raises (first 45 degrees off of floor, one leg at a time or both)
Hanging leg raises with an arched back
Sit-ups with feet supported
Straight legged sit-ups
Any machine-based ab exercise
Any machine-based twisting exercise
Torso twists (they provide no resistance, nor burn many calories)

Now that weve listed the exercises I recommend avoiding, provided below are the exercises that should be focused on in order to best develop the abs and hip flexors, as they provide the most resistance and encourage proper body positioning:

The Good Exercises (focus on these)

Hanging leg raises (with hunched back)
Hanging knee raises (with hunched back)
Lying leg thrusts (hip thrusts)
Decline bench leg thrusts (hip thrusts)
Reverse crunches (crunching hips off floor)
Ab bicycles (alternating knees to elbows)
Ab scissors
Stability ball crunches (weighted for progression)
Bench crunches
Alternating (oblique) crunches
Weighted cable rope crunches (with hunched back)
Ab wheel
Stability ball hip flexion (knee tucks)
Abdominal vacuums (transversus abdominis development)


A Couple Surprisingly Killer Abs & Core Exercises

Front squats (mostly a leg drill, but requires extreme ab stabilization and strength)
Renegade dumbbell rows (combines incredible upper body work with amazing oblique and core stability work)

[nemato]

I settled for decline bench crunches due to lack of other equipments. The results took a while but the wait is worth it.

[mgeer50291]

hanging leg raise. bring your legs up strait and contract at the top, then slowly lower them down. that is the only way to do it.

[Juggernaut33]

Reverse crunches are good for the lower abs.

[Dhanesh]

Correct me if im wrong but i always thought squats and deadlifts were good for creating a strong core. When i squat without my belt i feel very weak in the abs, so now ive started squatting without my belt to strengthen my abs up.

[ElderJefferson]

Just hit some Push Crunches and you'll be Ab fine (machine or decline bench w/weighted bar - either one will work).

[ElderJefferson]

Originally Posted by Dhanesh

Correct me if im wrong but i always thought squats and deadlifts were good for creating a strong core. When i squat without my belt i feel very weak in the abs, so now ive started squatting without my belt to strengthen my abs up.

From what I've read, using a belt will hinder your abs slightly, but they'll still grow as they're still being incorporated for stability even with a belt. Just do some more direct Ab work to compensate.

[pimpinballer]

sit-hold?......thanks guys anymore?

[BG5150]

Originally Posted by Dhanesh

Correct me if im wrong but i always thought squats and deadlifts were good for creating a strong core.

Dead and squats will do wonders for your abs.


BTW: There is no such thing as "lower" or "upper" abs. They are one muscle. You do have two of them: one on the right, and one on the left.

http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/RectusAbdominis.html

[forcefedfreak]

Split jerks
Windmills
Turkish Get-ups
Cable twists
Russian twists
wood-chops

[darinaldi]

Standing ab crunches.

[legendz411]

Originally Posted by darinaldi

Standing ab crunches.

win

[kim4fitness]

i dont do ab exercises as it is more efficient to do the whole core which includes the lower back! w/out that dont waste ya time! some exercises previous mentioned were quite good but nobody mentioned that it is also working your lower back! dunno about you guys but the jacknife is a killer on my entire core!

[ny_chow]

The Bad Exercises (avoid these)


Any machine-based ab exercise


The Good Exercises (focus on these)


Weighted cable rope crunches (with hunched back)
Ab wheel
Stability ball hip flexion (knee tucks)
Abdominal vacuums (transversus abdominis development)

contradiction?

[chazzy1864]

Originally Posted by BG5150

Dead and squats will do wonders for your abs.


BTW: There is no such thing as "lower" or "upper" abs. They are one muscle. You do have two of them: one on the right, and one on the left.

http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/RectusAbdominis.html

Are you saying broscience is wrong?!?!?

Originally Posted by kim4fitness

i dont do ab exercises as it is more efficient to do the whole core which includes the lower back! w/out that dont waste ya time!

But yeah, Squats and deads have given me pretty good abs. I don't do any direct ab work, only thing was heavy compounds and diet.

Originally Posted by ny_chow

contradiction?

There is a slight different between cable machines and standard lever machines.

[fleezy]

Decline situps with a plate on your chest..

After skipping out on ab isolators for the past 2 months or so, 2 sets of these left my stomach sore for over a week. Obliques I'd say side bends or decline twisting situps/curls.

[noimoonchoi]

Definitely hanging leg raises, lots of slant board, and russian twist for the obliques.

[luv2xercise1973]

Also some good ab exercises are done hanging upside down on an inversion table. Killer routines.

[yoj]

Weighted Planks!