Ab Exercises

Free Weight Exercises For The Abs

Exercise: Crunches:

These hit mostly the upper Abdominals. Place your hands behind (support, but don't pull) your head and curl your upper torso forward, bringing your rib cage toward your pelvis until you feel a contraction in your abs. Holding your hands down by your hips is an easier version. Pause for the contraction and slowly return to the starting position. Exhale on the contraction - this breathing advice applies to all abdominal exercises.

Exercise: Reverse Crunch:

Lie face up on a flat bench with your hips and knees bent. Grasp the bench behind your head with both hands. Keeping the angles in your hips and knees fixed, contract your abs to pull your hips upward until your lower back is a few inches off the bench. Hold for a moment, then lower and repeat.

Exercise: Smith machine, Swiss ball hip rolls:

Set the bar low in the smith machine, just below the top of the Swiss ball. Sit on the ball and roll out so that you have to reach back and grab the bar as you lie on the ball. You should be about 2-3 feet away, stabilizing your self by holding the bar and flexing everything! Using only your abs, stretch your pelvis down as low as it will go and then do a hip roll. Legs straight is the hardest.

More Abdominal Exercises