Entries Tagged 'Stomach Exercises' ↓

The abdominal crunch is the most popular abs exercise of all time. It is done by everyone who is trying to develop their abs muscles. But there is a problem. Many of you aren’t doing it correctly.

So what’s wrong with my ab crunches?

You might be a little offended that I am just flat out telling you that you are doing the crunch wrong. I’m not trying to start some inter-site flame war, I am just trying to help.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Does your back get sore?
If you back gets sore while you are doing your crunches then there is a good chance your technique is way off. This is a sure sign.

2. Does your neck or throat get tight?
A common symptom of bad crunching is a tight or sore neck or throat. It shows that you aren’t putting the correct emphasis on the right muscles.

3. Are your abs growing?
The sure sign. If your abs haven’t improved over the last six weeks then you are doing something wrong. The whole point of the crunch is to make your abdominal muscles grow and if that isn’t happening then something is wrong.

4. Do other muscles get worked?
Is it just your abs doing the work or are your hip flexors and obliques stepping in and helping cover some of the load? Make sure you notice which muscles are sore the day after.

So how do I do the abs crunch properly?

Now that we have looked at some of the symptoms of a poor abdominal crunch we now have to look at how to do the damn thing properly. Here are some tips:

1. Keep your lower back on the floor
Make sure you are not sitting the whole way up. That is a sit up! Keep your lower back pressed against the floor.

2. Mentally crunch the abdominal muscles
As always, make sure you are mentally “crunching” the abs as you do the crunches. Do not just go up and down over and over again – you really need to make sure you are crunching them hard.

3. Go slowly
If you are finding that other muscles are getting sore it is most likely because you are going to fast and your technique is suffering. Make sure you go slow and concentrate on the technique.

If you want to learn more about the crunch the check out these other articles which give more tips and hints to help you get the most out of your abdominal crunch.

So you want to tone your stomach with the best exercises? You are in the right place. Besides having this entire site to browse and find all the different stomach exercises and routines, this article will help you find the stomach toning exercises which you can begin integrating today to your stomach exercises workout.

One of the best exercises to help tone the stomach, found by a group of researchers at the University of San Diego, is the Bicycle crunch.

Here’s how to do the Bicycle crunch:

• Lay down on the floor with your hands behind your head, one knee lifted, forming a 90 degree angle with the floor, the other extended.
• Lift your upper body using your abs bringing your right elbow to your left knee.
• Alternate the stomach toning exercise, bringing your left elbow to your right knee making a bicycle motion.
• Repeat 20 times.

Next, perform some Leg lifts:

• Lie with your legs flat on the floor and the hands at the sides.
• Lift your legs focusing on the muscles until they are perpendicular to the floor, toes pointing up to the sky.
• Slowly and with total control, lower your legs until they are a few inches above the floor.
• Repeat 10 times.

Finally, perform the vacuum stomach toning exercises. This is an exercised based in yoga. To do it simply exhale all your air while stuck the stomach in. Picture yourself trying to get your navel as close as possible to the spine. Hold for 20 seconds, breathing in short bursts of air. Repeat three times.

As you see you don’t need fancy stuff to get your stomach toned. Do these exercises everyday and you’ll reap the benefits!