Ab workouts

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In short I need a better way to workout my abs. Just list your favorite ab workouts, based on which part of the abdominal they workout, and by best results. How to do said workouts would also be incredibly helpful.

Try exercises like hanging leg raises (where you hang from a pullup bar and raise your legs up) or windshield wipers (kinda hard to describe). Focus on intensity rather than volume.

The ab wheel is all you need, it's a killer exercise and it builds muscle/strength fast. For starters do it on your knees. The ab wheel sanding up is for the pro's. It works all parts of your abs. You can alter it to work your obliques more, though I don't.

Heavy squats and deadlifts will work the abs well too.

Hula-hooping! Inexpensive, fun and effective.

Also, if you have a stability ball, there are a lot of exercises you can do with those to stengthen your core.

Remember to diet to lose fat.

If you care about your work showing, it won't happen without weight loss.

My dad gave me the book Keys to the Inner Universe which is pretty much an encyclopedia on body building, weight training, and general exercise. There are a lot of good workouts, most of them are actually pretty easy to do, and the first chapter is on the abdomen.

Make sure you have a varied workout and include 'rotation' movements to work the obliques for maximum stability. A typical core workout for me starts with dragon flags (these will take some working up to...), cable lumberjacks (rotation), leg raises/twists from a hanging position, and trunk twists with a 'medium-pizza' (nickname for a 35lb weight plate. 45lb = 'large pizza' ). For some excellent workouts, look up the AthLeanX channel on YouTube, and watch everything they have on abs. It is a very NT presentation, but the info is excellent.

Front squats, deadlifts and squats.

Leg raises are BY FAR one of, if not the, best AB exercise you can do.

How to: Either hang from a pull-up bar or use an ab station (Which I have and like better). Extend your legs straight down and lift them up parallel to your body.
If you can't quite do this (I couldn't when I started) do knee ups instead where you keep your knees bent and lift them to your chest.

AB Station:
[img][800:550]http://fittipdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/straight-leg-raises1.png[/img]

Planks are also another fantastic AB workout.

How to: Hold yourself up parallel to the floor, keeping your back straight, and resting on your toes and forearms. Hold this position for as long as possible! I'll typically hold for 1.5-2 minutes and repeat. Like the picture below:

Deadlifts, squats, and the bench press all work your abs (try stabilizing the bar at the bench with weak core muscles). Apart from that, cable crunches are also excellent.

One awesome core exercise that rarely gets mentioned, is the Pallof Press. There are several ways to do this exercise, Horizontal, Vertical, Kneeling, Standing. This exercise focuses on the Obliques. If you do it in the horizontal plane, it is anti-rotational. In the vertical plane, it becomes more anti-lateral flexion focused.

My favourite variation is the Half-Kneeling Pallof Press. Attach the single (D-shaped) handle to a cable machine. Position yourself on one knee at a 90 degree angle to the machine, pulling the cable out until the weight is suspended. The height should be set level with your stomach, with the handle parallel to the rack. Using a slow and controlled motion; press from your stomach to full extension and then reverse the movement. Your goal is to keep the weight from moving up and down and not let the machine twist your torso. I would suggest doing these in the 8 to 15 rep range. If my description is too confusing, there are lots of Youtube tutorials!