Complete Abdominal Exercises

Strong core muscles are essential for all athletes. Six pack abs are not – but they are fun, and also a goal for some people.

CrossFit and functional fitness always put function over looks, unlike bodybuilding for example, which generally prioritises aesthetics over fitness. The former can be a healthier approach to fitness, because your body becomes defined by what it can do, and not just by how it looks.

In the end it all comes down to what you are training for, and what goals you would like to reach. Whatever your targets, these are the best abs workouts to help you forge strong core muscles and six pack abs. 

Get A Six Pack In Only 5 Minutes A Day With These Bodyweight Abs Exercises

The core is the group of interlinked muscles that make up the trunk of your body and keep your spine in place. These deeper Muscles include your transverse abdominals, multifidus, diaphragm, pelvic floor and internal abdominal obliques.

The collection of muscles that make up this trunk of your body help to control and transform the force that you create into the movements you want to perform. From throwing a stone into a lake, picking up vegetables from the bottom of the fridge, or hitting a new Deadlift PR, core stability and strength is vital for enabling you to complete a huge array of activities.

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The Best Abs Workout: The Only 6 Exercises You Need To Get A Six Pack

And its content is not affiliated with CrossFit, Inc in any way nor is it endorsed by CrossFit, Inc or any of its subsidiaries. CrossFit® is a registered trademark of CrossFit, Inc.Fear, money, time, and lack of will are the four main obstacles that prevent us from starting going to the gym, continuing a healthy lifestyle, and/or consolidating the results we have achieved.

Define how long or how long you will work. If there are periods when you really have to spend more than 8 hours at work, you will just benefit from 40-50 minutes of active breaks: you will feel better and work more productively.

One of the most important aspects to understand in order to best develop the abs is to maintain a proper posterior pelvic tilt during ab training.

The Best Abdominal Workout Apps For Iphone

We offer several virtual exercise posters for which you will not spend much time, but will enjoy a more beautiful abdominal press.

Exercises are carried out without interruption, at a relatively fast pace. You can do a 2-minute exercise series at home, lying on the floor directly on the carpet or on the gym towel.

By the way, if you need a free workout program for women, check this article: Free Workout Program At-Home With No Equipment Required.

Best Ab Workouts

The recommendation to minimize hip flexor activity during ab training stems from the thought that excessive psoas activation during attempts at ab training creates compressive forces on the discs of the lumbar spine.

When the psoas is activated to a high degree, they pull on the lower spine, creating compressive forces on the discs. If your abs are very strong, the abs will keep the back from arching and prevent damage from occurring.

However, even those with strong abs may not be able to keep the back from arching once the abs have fatigued. Once the back arches during heavy psoas activity, the vertebrae around the psoas attachment can grind together, potentially resulting in disc degeneration over time.

Abs Exercises To Tighten Stomach Muscles For A Strong Core

Now with all of that said, I believe that a balanced approach is best and that you must focus on building both strong hip flexors and strong abdominals. Strong hip flexors are necessary to improve on movements such as sprinting or any other movements involving hip flexion.

As long as you perform the exercises in this manual with the correct body positioning, you will develop very strong abdominals to protect your back, and you will also develop sufficient hip flexor strength.

I do believe that there are certain exercises that are both ineffective and can potentially put undue stress on the lower back. Some of these exercises that I recommend you avoid are straight-legged sit-ups, sit-ups with the feet supported, hanging leg raises with an arched back, floor leg raises with straight legs and an arched back, and machine crunches.

Minute Ab Workout

One of the reasons that many people who spend half an hour during each workout doing hundreds of crunches fail to ever develop six pack abs is that after a certain point, regular old crunches just don’t provide much resistance to develop your abs.

In addition, all of the time wasted doing crunches or other minimally resistive ab exercises (i.e. working for a very small muscle group) could have been better utilized by working larger muscle groups that burn more calories.

By focusing the majority of your time in the gym on bigger compound movements like squats, deadlifts, lunges, and upper body multi-joint presses and pulls, your body is forced to work harder and burn more calories during and after the workout.

Ab Exercises For A Concrete Core

Don’t get me wrong, crunches can have their place in a routine, especially for beginners, and advanced versions of crunches can even be challenging enough for well-trained athletes.

Spend a half-hour or more every day training abs. You can complete an intense ab training session in about 5-10 minutes during your workouts, either at the end or at the beginning of your workout, or on a separate day.

We would recommend doing your ab training at the end of your workouts to assure that you don’t pre-exhaust the abs when you might need their stabilization to protect your back during some of the bigger compound exercises that might make up your workout.

Pack Abs Workout At Home That Actually Work

If you still need workout motivation check this funny and inspirational post: The Moment I Began To Sculpt My Body. Motivational Fitness Quotes.