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List of the Best Abdominal Exercises

Abdominal muscles respond very well to exercise. Flat, washboard stomachs are one of the coveted targets for both men and women. The advent of the warmer months, when bikinis, swimsuits and exposed flesh at the beaches is the norm, often sees an influx of magazine articles all claiming that they know the best abdominal exercises for the quickest results.

Many people give up abdominal exercises through lack of time or opportunity or because the regimes are too tough. Here is the list of best abdominal exercises, with easier and harder versions of the same exercise.

1.) The Anytime- Anywhere Wonder Abdominal Exercise

The beauty of this abdominal exercise is that you can do it anywhere – standing in line at the supermarket, sitting at your office desk, waiting for a train, in the bath, driving. There is no excuse for not doing this exercise as everyone has times in the day where it can be practiced.

Pull you stomach in as far as possible as if you are trying to touch your navel to your spine. At the same time clench your buttocks tightly which will tilt your pelvis forward. Hold for a few seconds and SLOWLY relax the muscles. If you can’t feel this working your stomach muscles you are doing something wrong. Practice this exercise several times a day and even without the other exercises you will see results.

There is no easy or hard versions here. It is just a matter of increasing the amount of time you can hold the contraction of muscles for which will increase gradually over time as your stamina improves.

2.) Front Support

Easy version of this exercise – rest all of upper arm on the floor, from hand to elbow. Take your weight on your knees but ensure your knees are placed well behind your hips and not directly under them. Keep your body straight and without angles – your bottom must not be sticking up in the air. Clench your buttocks tight and hold for a few seconds.

Harder version – as above but with your toes tucked under and your knees free of the floor.

Hardest version – take your weight on your hands as if you were going to do a push-up. Holding your buttocks tight and sucking in your stomach as for the anytime-anywhere exercise, take one hand off the floor and balance on one hand only. It is important to keep your body rigid and to hold tension. This abdominal exercise will work lateral muscles as well as the central ones for a complete stomach muscle work-out.

3.) Crunches

Easy version of this abdominal exercise – lie on your back with your knees bent and your hands resting on your thighs. Slowly raise your head and shoulders from the floor and slide your hands towards your knees. Hold for a few seconds and then SLOWLY lower your shoulders and head to the floor.

Harder version – as above but with your arms bent, elbows wide and fingers pointing at your ears. DO NOT link your fingers behind your head to do this exercise as this will put pressure on your neck and work all the wrong muscles.

Hardest version – as for above but with your arms straight over your head and with elbows by ears.

4.) Dishes

It is of the utmost importance that the following abdominal exercises are performed with no arch in the back. This means your abdominal muscles are not strong enough for the exercise and will place extreme strain on your back.

Easy version – lying on your back, chin tucked tightly to chest, hands resting on stomach and with knees bent raise your shoulders and feet off the floor. Hold for a few seconds and lower slowly.

It is very important that the small of your back is pushed into the floor and there is no gap underneath your back. The more you bend your knees the easier this exercise will be. Initially you may have to have very bent knees as your abdominal muscles will not be strong enough to tilt your pelvis thus ensuring the small of your back is pressed into the floor. Start with very bent knees and notice at which point your back starts to arch as you extend your legs.

Hard version – as above but with straight legs and fingers pointing at ears, bent arms, elbows wide. This will take a lot of time to reach this point and trying to get there too early will strain your back. Build up very slowly.

Very hard version – as for the hard version but with straight arms extended over your head. To make it even harder, roll over onto your stomach attempting to keep only the middle section of your body in contact with the floor.

5.) Tucks

This abdominal exercise needs a bar for you to hang from. These are quite easily obtained and can be put out of the way in your garage or even in a door frame.

Easy version – from hanging, attempt to lift one knee to your chest slowly. Lower slowly and repeat with the other leg.

Hard version – pull both knees at the same time towards your chest. Don’t jerk to achieve this or swing. Keep your body still and use the contraction of your stomach muscles to pull up your legs

Spending only fifteen minutes every other day on these abdominal exercises will show results in four to six weeks. Don’t attempt to move onto hard versions until you can complete many repetitions of the easier versions.

Before doing any of the exercise ensure your body is warm. You can do this just by jogging on the spot. This is important to get the blood pumping round the body and supplying oxygen to the muscles. Do a few gentle stretching exercises to prepare your body physically and mentally too.

Do all the abdominal exercises slowly. This not only works the full muscle range and ensures optimum results but also avoids injury. Never jerk or strain.

In my opinion this list has the best abdominal exercises that will produce the quickest results. I have used them in their hardest versions to train competitive gymnasts in strength and endurance.

Article by expert author ‘Deneice Arthurton‘.