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Daily Abdominal Exercises for Women

Many people diet religiously and wonder why they still can’t get a flat stomach. Even an intensive exercise regime, unless very specific, won’t reward you with a firm, toned midriff. All muscles, or sets of muscles have to be addressed individually in order to get the exact results you want. Here are some midriff or abdominal exercises for women and men which will specifically address the muscles needed to reward you with a flat and toned stomach.

Preparing Yourself for Abdominal Exercise

Warming-up is not just about getting the muscles ready for exercise; it is about mental preparation. Warm-up exercises will release chemicals that send your brain messages of what is expected from the body, therefore preparing it correctly.

Warming-up will be a way of easing both your body and mind into exercise and doing so will reduce the risk of injury to muscles.

During a warm-up you are aiming to increase the heart rate and increase the blood flow and oxygen supply to all parts of your body. Therefore, any exercise that gets you a little out of breath will work. Running on the spot, star jumps, running up and down the stairs a few times or skipping for a few minutes can all be used.

Once you have increased your heart rate you can follow this with a few gentle stretches for each part of your body – neck, shoulders, hips, back, arms and legs. When doing stretches NEVER bounce the stretches. This confuses the body’s natural injury protection system called the myotatic stretch reflex and may result in further tightening of muscles resulting in small muscle tears. Here are some useful abdominal exercises for women:

1. Leg Pumps

Sitting on the floor with straight arms placed behind you, palms flat on the floor, taking some of your weight. Bend your knees and keep your feet free of the floor. Alternatively bend and straighten each leg, fairly slowly. Only your bottom and hands should be touching the floor. Repeat for a count of twenty.

Harder version – as before but without your hands resting on the floor. You will need good balance for this.

Very hard version – straighten both legs at the same time. DO NOT attempt this exercise from the beginning. Stomach muscles need to be strong to cope with this exercise or it will place excessive strain on your back.

2. The Lazy Persons Anywhere Abdominal Strengthener

There is no excuse for not being able to find time for an exercise regime with this exercise as it can be done literally anywhere – waiting in a supermarket line, sitting at an office desk, while doing the dishes and so on.

Clench your buttock muscles tight and try and tilt your pelvis forward. At the same time pull in your stomach as if you were trying to touch your navel to your spine. Hold for a count of a few seconds and then slowly release to your normal position

3. Crunches

Lie flat on the floor on your back with your hands crossed across your stomach or by your sides but free of the floor. Keep your chin tucked in tight to your chest. Simultaneously lift your shoulders and upper back clear of the floor while drawing both knees towards your chest so that you are in a tucked position. Then extend your body again by straightening your legs (don’t extend them fully but keep your knees slightly bent) and lowering your upper back towards the floor. Don’t allow your head, shoulders or feet to touch the floor. Repeat the exercise.

Hard version – as above but with arms bent and finger tips pointing at your ears. Do not link your hands behind your neck as this places excessive strain on the neck and encourages you to assist your rising without fully utilizing the stomach muscles.

Very hard version – as above but extend your arms fully above your head with your elbows in tight to your ears. Legs extend fully in each repetition. NOTE – this is a very difficult version of this exercise and should only be attempted after months of the easier versions. Unless your stomach is strong you will place excessive strain on your back and risk injury.

4. Elastic Resistance

Resistant, stretchy elastics can be bought from sports supply stores or alternatively you can use bungy cord for this exercise.

You will need to lean on a wall or chair back for balance during this exercise.

Wrap the elastic around one foot to hold it in place. Loop your other foot into the elastic and attempt to draw your knee up to your chest. Slowly lower your knee. Repeat several times ensuring you swap feet.

Hard version – lying on your back. Wrap bungy or elastic around something that will hold it in place. Put both feet into the elastic and attempt to draw both knees together towards your chest.

Very hard version – the above exercise but the elastic wrapped double or triple in order to increase resistance (needing more effort to stretch the elastic). Exercise elastics can actually be bought in different strengths, some very loose and easy to pull on while others are tight and need much greater effort.

5. Dishes

Lie flat on your back with your arms crossed across your stomach, chin in tight to chest. Raise your head and shoulders clear of the floor and simultaneously raise your feet a few inches from the floor. Your lower back must be pressed hard into the floor. Test this by seeing if you can slip your hand under the small of your back. If there is a gap it means that your stomach muscles are not yet strong and you will need to bend your knees until the lower back gap with the floor closes. Initially your knees may be very bent. Gradually you will be able to straighten your legs for this exercise and it will act as a bench mark for your increasing strength.

Your body shape should be that of a gently curving banana or shallow dish. Hold this position for a count of a few seconds and lower very slowly to the floor. Repeat several times.

Hard version – as above but with arms bent and fingertips pointing at your ears.

Don’t attempt this version until you can maintain the dish shape with straight legs and no gap between the small of your back and the floor

Very hard version – as above but with arms stretched above your head with elbows in close to your ears. From lying on your back attempt to roll over to lying on your stomach. The only part of your body in contact with the floor throughout should be the middle section of your body.

Cooling Down After the Exercise

A great deal is talked about cool down but in essence it is only a reversal of the warm up. It is about allowing your heart rate to return to normal gradually and preparing yourself mentally for moving from a state of exertion and exercise to a state of rest.

For the purposes of the exercises here, that can be achieved by lying flat on the floor and concentrating on returning your breathing to normal. On rising give each of your limbs a good shake.

Do not be disheartened if you can only complete one or two of the simplest exercises at the beginning, this is normal. If you find you are sore the day after exercising it means you have pushed your body too far and too quickly and you will achieve nothing by doing this and increase your risk of injury. Pull back a little and be gentle with yourself.

You will also need to be patient as you may see no results from your hard work for at least eight weeks. After that you may find that things accelerate quite quickly.

You do not need to complete the exercises every day. Aim for two or three times a week and then increase to every other day, if you can, for faster results.

Increasing the number of repetitions of the exercise will increase your stamina.

Moving to the harder versions will work on strengthening your muscles. Once you have started doing the abdominal exercises and become familiar with the feeling of working certain muscles you may be able to devise your own exercises.

This article on daily abdominal toning exercises for women has been written by expert author ‘Deneice Arthurton‘