Build Muscle
Do Crunches. Lie on the floor (with or without a mat) and cross your arms in front of your chest. (Do not place both hands behind your head. Placing both hands behind your head can cause lower back problems in the long run as it places unnecessary stress on that part of your body from pulling on your head and neck.) Another alternative is to cross your arms in front of your chest is to lightly place your finger tips behind your ears, without pulling on your neck or ears to help raise you off the floor. Draw in your abdomen towards your spine while inhaling through your nose. Now raise your shoulders (upper torso) towards your knees, using strictly your abdominal muscles. It is very important not to lift your entire back off the floor, as this can cause back strain, and the extended movement does not help you develop six pack abs any faster. The most important part of the crunch is the initial flexing of your abs as you lift your shoulders off of the floor. As soon as you begin lifting off the floor exhale through your mouth, ending with a gasp once your shoulders are off the floor. Then pause for a second once you are at the top of the crunch and exhale the last bit of air from your diaphragm while flexing your abs. The proper breathing and flexing make all the difference. Now lower back down slowly and controlled while inhaling through your nose, just until your shoulder blades touch the ground. Do not let your head touch the ground and repeat.
Do Sit Ups. Lie on the floor, feet on the floor, knees up and fingers placed behind your ears or hands crossed on your chest. Sit all the way up, lifting your lower back off the floor along with your shoulder blades. Lower yourself down. Repeat. Once this becomes relatively easy for you (i.e. you can do a quite a bit with ease) start adding more challenges. Find an incline bench or do these on an exercise ball. Once you "graduate" from that, do weighted sit ups. Hold a weight on your chest while you do these. As these become easier, hold heavier and heavier weights. You might also try lifting your feet off the ground while doing the sit ups or alternating the leg in the air, like pretending to pedal while sitting up. If your hands are behind your head, bring your left knee up to touch your right elbow and then your right knee to the left elbow.
Do Leg Lifts. Lie on the floor, legs straight out, hands at your sides. Lift your legs straight up (not bending your knees at all) until they're at a ninety degree angle (or close). Lower your legs and repeat without letting your legs touch the floor. For more challenge there is equipment at most gyms that will allow you to raise yourself up using your arms as support and dangle your legs. You can perform leg lifts there too. If you're using this piece of equipment, you can make it easier by just raising your knees to your chest. It's more difficult to raise your legs to a horizontal position with your legs straight. This helps firm up the lower abdomen. If you're truly a monster, try doing leg lifts with a medicine ball hanging from your feet. Or hang from a pull up bar and raise your legs in front of you all the way up to the bar. Still too easy?...
Do Jackknife Sit Ups. Lie down flat on the floor. Place your hands on the ground to your sides for balance; you can pick them up as you get used to the movement. Simultaneously raise your knees and torso so that your knees and face meet on an imaginary line extending from your pelvis to the ceiling. You should be able to kiss your knees at the top of the motion. Your legs will naturally fold bringing your feet towards your hips, much like a jackknife. Lie back down (i.e. "spread out") and repeat. Place a weight between your feet when you think you can handle it. What's that? More?
Do V-ups. Lie on the floor, legs straight out, hands on the floor but this time extended out over your head. Simultaneously raise legs and torso. Don't bend your knees! What kind of V would it be if you bend your knees? Reach with your hands toward the raised feet. Touch your feet if possible (might require some flexibility). Relax, return to starting position and repeat. Add weight between feet to match your taste.
Static Hold and Side Statics. Put your body into the push-up position but with your elbows on the floor, and you whole body flat. This position is known as the static hold position and it trains your core (including your abs) to hold the body in place which is the real purpose of your abs. Hold this position for as long as possible, but you should be aiming to start off with at least 45 seconds, while seasoned ab workers known to achieve over 20 minute static holds. To perform the side static hold roll onto one side of your body and lift into the same position as before, but this time only one arm will be on the ground with the other arm pointed straight up the air and your non-weight bearing leg resting on your bottom leg. Once again, hold this for as long as possible
Train Your Oblique Muscles. It's not as important to work on your oblique muscles at first, but eventually you'll want to start working these too. These are the muscles to either side of your stomach. There are multiple ways to do this and anything that includes twisting your torso against a resistance counts. There are twisting machines at gyms, you can twist while you do sit-ups, you can do side bends, you can twist side to side with a medicine ball in hand, etc. Be aware though, that many beginners tend to have weak obliques compared to their abs (it simply isn't used as much in daily life) so go easy
2007-12-27 15:29:46
·
answer #1
·
answered by A.J 2
·
1⤊
0⤋
Variety of exercise is the key I have found. For example..an exercise called Mountain Climbers. Its from a workout that also contains a section for females and males which is excellent.
Mountain climbers are done by starting in a pushup position
and then shuffling your feet in and out so that your knees are
moving in under your chest and then back out to starting
position. It sort of resembles climbing a mountain but flat on
the floor. If you want an advanced version, you can also shuffle your hands 8-10 inches forward and backward in
addition to the leg movements. This really makes it a full
body exercise and MUCH more difficult than standard mountain climbers.
After finishing each exercise, rest about 30 seconds before
starting the next exercise. Rest about 1-2 minutes after
completing each "tri-set" before repeating.
This will give you one of the best ab workouts you've ever had
without even doing any direct ab exercises. You'll see what I
mean after you try it!
Once you get away from the myth that a 1000 crunches and 500 situps a day is all you need to do for great abs, then amazing results can be seen.
There is a completely free 65 page ebook about exercise, nutrition, abs and stomaches in particular at http://www.projext.co.uk that you can download (no catch!) and it is excellent.
It helped me greatly.
2007-12-28 19:27:44
·
answer #2
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
Do 100 crunches every night, then increase that amount to 150, then 200, then 250.
Or if you wanna spend money buy one of those ab workout chairs like the ab lounge.
Good Luck
2007-12-27 23:28:02
·
answer #3
·
answered by Anonymous
·
1⤊
0⤋
Join a gym and use any kind of ab machine or station that you can find. The bigger the weights you use, the more define your abs will get. Work up the weight gradually though, or you'll get a hernia. And that ain't fun.
2007-12-27 23:27:59
·
answer #4
·
answered by Anonymous
·
2⤊
0⤋
Its easier to gain muscle if you eat lots of protein. If you have a high protean diet and you work out at least twice a day (work on your tummy) then you should be on your way to "abs"! Good luck!
2007-12-27 23:29:17
·
answer #5
·
answered by Just wannabe famous so fn jaded 2
·
1⤊
0⤋
I use one pound weights and sit on your butt and elevate your feet bend at your knees (so you are resting on just your butt) and twist from side to side. also i do alot of sit ups and have the wieghts in my hands over my head and you can try laying flat with your hands over your head and bringing your hands and body up with your feet! that is hard but it works. it helps with side abs too. when you get proficent at both of those. then try the twisting and moving up and down also. it is alot of toning exercises. assuming you already work out.
2007-12-27 23:32:28
·
answer #6
·
answered by frostingshowclothes 1
·
1⤊
0⤋
Posture is very important~ 100-200 sit-ups a day!
2007-12-27 23:28:27
·
answer #7
·
answered by crystallamp 3
·
1⤊
0⤋
Crunches, sit-ups, medicine ball (Catch), squat thrusts, duck-walk with weights(it will strenghten arms at same time) a gym would give you more advise! (Golds)
2007-12-27 23:30:58
·
answer #8
·
answered by ? 7
·
1⤊
0⤋
you should do sit ups and press up if ur really commited bwt 300 sit ups a day n bwt 50 press ups
2007-12-27 23:28:38
·
answer #9
·
answered by Anonymous
·
1⤊
0⤋
100 sit ups a day, jumping jacks and running, try not eat fatty foods either.
2007-12-27 23:27:47
·
answer #10
·
answered by Anonymous
·
2⤊
0⤋
eat a alot.... 103 for 5'9 is almost or underweight
2007-12-27 23:40:09
·
answer #11
·
answered by ViewtifulJoe 4
·
0⤊
1⤋