What Ab Exercises That You Can Do At Home

We live in an age where rock-hard, six-pack abdominal muscles are the goal of many workout enthusiasts. We all want that washboard look, but which ab exercises actually work? There are two sets of muscles to target: the rectus abdominis muscles (the ones you engage during regular situps, that run from your sternum to your pelvis) and the transverse abdominis (the deepest ab muscles that wrap around the spine and help stabilize your core). It’s important to remember that you can’t spot-reduce your abdominals. You have to lose the layer of fat over the abs for your abs to show through. Cardio workouts and a good diet are key to success. Building your abs does more than just help you look toned. In fact, a strong core can improve posture, stability, and balance as well as reduce sports-related injuries and low back pain.The good news is you don't even need a gym membership to strengthen your core as most exercises that target your abs can be done at home. There are plenty of simple ab exercises that you can do on your own, in your house, with no special equipment required. Most of the best exercises for strengthening the ab muscles are crunches. The crunch is a very similar home abs workout to the sit up, but it is a slightly different technique. Start in the same position as the sit up, but instead of raising your entire torso, you need to just push your lower back into the floor and raise your shoulders a few centimetres off the floor. Return to the start position under control. It’s really important you keep your lower back on the floor here, or you won’t feel the benefit.Crunches are exercises where you bring your body right forward, curling upwards to bend yourself into a tight ‘V’ shape. There are very many variations on crunches. One of the most popular is the exercise ball crunch, which is where you lie back onto an exercise ball, and then do a crunch slowly, without the ball moving. This allows you to keep a good crunch speed, as well as supporting your back while you crunch. Another good method is the full crunch, where you extend out your legs and then put your hands behind your head. As you pull yourself up with your hands, push outwards with your legs. If it is done right, this will exercise both your upper and lower body. You might also try the reverse crunch (sometimes known as a V-up), where you lie on the floor, put your legs in the air, and then instead of bending up towards your legs, you bend your legs back towards you. This has the same effect, but is less strenuous, as you are lifting less weight. A word of warning: as ab exercise becomes more popular, some companies are trying to cash in by hawking ab exercise machines and tools – those little frames that you put around yourself while you exercise, and that rock you back and forward. However, research has shown that there is no difference between the benefits of using these machines and just doing a normal ab crunch. There is, however, certainly a very large difference in price (the difference between free and very expensive), so it’s best to just avoid them altogether.