Ever wished for the head-turning abs? Those rock-hard and killer abs folks at the beach are jealous of? Of, course you do! Everyone does! And, if you research a little, you would definitely come to the conclusion that abs are made in the kitchen. So, this means you need to get rid of the stubborn fat around your body to show off your abs. But, what if you are already doing that; not eating crap and all fat-producing junkies and still getting no positive results. What should you do now?
Well, then you should look for the other ways to shred away all the fat to reveal your abs. One of the other ways could be in the shape of different abs workouts. After giving a shot to these herculean workouts, you’ll be able to target every area of your abdominal muscles which would result in the increase in muscle strength and size. In addition to that, when you boast a strong core, you will notice an enhancement in the overall performance of your body. In the segments down below, I’ve incorporated few badass abs workouts that are worth-considering and good enough to make a difference!
But before we proceed, let’s have a look at a few
- THINGS TO CONSIDER WHILE WORKING OUT FOR ABS.
You might’ve seen, whether at the gym or on social media or on YouTube while looking for the abs workouts that people are actually putting in 30-40 minutes of workouts for abs. Well, you can do that if you want, but, you really don’t need to, to be honest. That’s because your abs muscles aren’t that big; usually, your glutes have more mass than your whole abdominal region. So, hitting your abs for 30 minutes isn’t just a good idea. I reckon 10 minutes or so are more than enough to hit your upper, lower and oblique.
- HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU WORK OUT ABS?
When you are working on your whole body, you don’t need to hit the same muscles every day. You at least need a day for the recovery of the muscles. For the best results, I would urge you to have at least a gap of two days between exercising the areas of your body. Your body needs around 48 hours for recovering the shredded muscles – research says.
But, here’s the thing. Should you follow the same routine to train your abs?
Well, not really. That’s because your core muscles are a bit different than the others. More precisely, these are “stabilizing core muscles” which means, these are the muscles that are engaged all the time and are used daily. Additionally, the core muscles are relatively small and its fibers recover swiftly.
So, the bottom line is that you should work on your abs every day for about 10 minutes. I personally follow that too. Spending only 10 minutes on your abs isn’t a big deal and you can exercise at just about any point of the day. I personally try to exercise my abs right after my normal workout. You can do it at any free time; you can shift it up prior to the normal workout as well. I have different kinds of abs exercises so it makes our normal routine workout a little more exciting and unique.
- EQUIPMENT FOR WORKING OUT ABS
Here’s the thing, you DON’T need any equipment for a badass abs workout. The equipment however, can create an extra bit of a resistance to make your workout a little more efficient. If you’ve been doing the same traditional abs exercises without getting any significant results, then certain types of equipment could help you a lot in getting rid of the stubborn fat around your body.
One of the common equipment and related exercises include
- AB WHEEL
The ab wheel is equipment that enhances the tear of a muscle fiber. Actually, it stretches and pulls your abdominal muscles vigorously, leading to the shearing of the abdominal muscles’ tissues. In all the workouts or exercises, an excellent way to boost the strength and size is through the extension of the level of tension of the muscles. You can use ab-wheel by keeping your knees on the ground and holding the wheel against the ground out in front of you.
After that, allow the wheel to slowly roll out in front of you, you will feel the stretch. Make sure to tighten your core. Inhale and exhale the air accordingly.
While doing this exercise, you should keep your back and glutes tight to avoid sag. This type of body movement will also cause tension in the muscles of your glutes; you will feel a burn in your booty if done right! After rolling out the ab-wheel in front of you, you should stretch out as far as you can without touching the floor. Hold on here for 1 or 2 seconds and then roll back to the start. How many reps you need to do? Well, there are no specific reps, do as many as you can until you just can’t roll back the wheeler.
- BARBELL ROLLOUTS
Can’t find an ab-wheel? A barbell could be an excellent alternative to the ab-wheel!
Simply, Grab a barbell and place 10 lbs (pounds, kgs) or so plates on each side. Again, position yourself on your knees and in the same way; hold the bar against the floor, as if you’re going to push the barbell along the floor. After that, while keeping your abdominal muscles, back and butt tight, allow or push the barbell out in front of you along the ground. Stretch out as far as you can and stop when your body is about to touch the ground, hold here for a moment, and then pull yourself back.
There isn’t any significant difference between the ab-wheel and the barbell. The ab-wheel however, rolls backward naturally and will not cause much of a resistance while rolling back. On the other hand, the barbell requires more effort due to the weight resistance. So, consider barbell rollouts as an even larger step from ab-wheel exercise.
- WORKING ON YOUR UPPER ABS
Upper Abs workouts, you probably know a lot about those; you might’ve seen people doing those, but for the newbies’, let’s zest it up a bit with these alternative upper abs workouts.
- SIT UP AND THROW!
You will need a medicine ball for this exercise; this exercise can produce more efficient results when you have the added weight of resistance. Before starting the exercise, you must tuck your feet under heavy dumbbells. You will be all over the place if you don’t anchor your feet.
Start it off by holding the medicine ball to your chest, and then go down in the regular sit up position. If you are working out with your partner, then chest pass the ball to your partner standing in front of you while you’re moving up. If you are working alone, then chest pass it to the wall instead and catch the ball on the rebound while crunching down. Now, go back down with the ball then on the next up movement repeat the same procedure. It’s better to use the wall instead of a partner because it will help you work on your timing as well as controlling the intensity of the exercise.
- WEIGHTED SITUPS
Weighted sit ups is the traditional abs workout but, with a little more resistance.
This one is just an improvisation in the regular sit-up. By holding down some weight against your chest while doing a sit-up will provide that extra resistance which will not only tighten your midsection but help increase its size and definition. If you’re looking to increase the physical size of your abs, then weighted sit-up is the way to go baby!
Position yourself on the floor and hold a dumbbell or a plate (according to your capacity) above your chest. You can either hug the weight or hold it a few inches in front of your chest; in this way, your triceps and biceps will also get engaged. Crunch your body up till it reaches 90 degrees and stop. If you keep going the strains will be transferred to your back, and that’s just what we do not want. So, you need to stop when you feel your body is at 90 degrees and then repeat!
Do not throw your body up, use light weights for this one. The optimum weight is the one with which you can move freely while performing the exercise. If you are a beginner, don’t use any weight at all, get used to the exercise and then fire up your routine later on.
Weighted sit-ups can be done in two ways, either you can perform it for 30 seconds to a minute or you can go for 30 reps. if you can easily do 30 reps, increase the number of reps, or increase the weight depending upon your choice.
- MEDICINE BALL V-UP
We are going to need the medicine ball here again! Well, here’s the thing, if you really want to workout at your home while spending little amount, look for one of these things! It will not only improvise your abs workouts but would take your cardio exercises or workouts to the next level!
Let’s talk about Medicine Ball V-Up exercise, start the workout by lying on the ground. After that, get your legs to straighten and up into the air, hanging a little toward the floor. After that, hold the ball in your hands up above your head. Now, lift your legs and while keeping your lower back on the floor, push yourself with the ball in your hands towards your feet. I really like this exercise personally, because it allows me to hit both the lower and the upper abs both at the same time through a single body movement. The legs movement crunches the lower abs while the medicine ball burns the upper abs.
You can do this exercise for about 30 seconds in your abs-building-circle and repeat.
- WORKING ON YOUR LOWER ABS
Most of the folks in the gym are only interested in working out the upper portion of the abs. Most moves with a sit up motion including crunches are done for shredding the upper abs only. Additionally, most of our daily movements also use the upper abs. The lower abs, however, remains unused for most of the time.
That is why in most of the cases your upper abs are more defined and pronounced as compared to the lower ones. So, it becomes very important to exercise your lower abs daily and sturdily. Here are few efficient exercises for the lower abs.
- FLUTTER KICKS
This is a traditional lower abs workout and has always proven to be a good one! Lie down on the floor, and straighten your legs. Lift your legs a little off the ground while keeping your knees straight. After that, Kick one leg up off the ground, then straighten it back and then repeat it with the other leg. It’s just like kicking and you can kick as high off the ground as you need. The more feet closer to the ground, the more will be the resistance and tension on your abs. You can do flutter kicks for 30 seconds or more, and then move to the next one.
- SCISSOR KICKS
After the flutter kicks, I like to do scissor kicks; it is the same as the flutter kicks only, instead of kicking legs up and down you need to sway your legs left and right, with the feet cross one another. You can switch the feet below and above the other.
- WORKING ON YOUR OBLIQUES
The Obliques are the parts or areas that receive the least amount of care when working on abs for the reason that, it requires a twisting motion to be burnt. Our very few exercises tend to target our obliques, so we need to give these a proper attention. Thankfully, in order to target this area, you don’t need to do numerous oblique moves.
- RUSSIAN TWIST
For this exercise, you’ll need to position yourself in the up position of a sit up.
You’ll need a V-shape with your thighs and your torso. You’ll place more tension on your abdominal muscles when you lead back further, but make sure to keep your lower back off the ground. With one hand over the other, hold your arms out in fists. Now, without bending your back, twist and touch your fists to the floor, twist to the other side after that and touch your fists to the ground.
Just like the other abs workouts, do this one for about 30 seconds or more.
If you want to improvise this one, then you have few options. For instance, by using a medicine ball which I reckon could help you a lot in generating more resistance. The ball is easy to hold and makes you feel more like an athletic training move. For ultra resistance, you can use a weight plate too.
- PLANK SIDE CRUNCH
You might’ve heard its name, it’s quite common and static move that can be amplified.
There are numerous ways to improve the plank side crunches. One of them is by simply getting into the plank position, supporting on your toes, and elbows while keeping your back straight! After that, rip your elbow down to the side while pushing your right knee up.
Move your elbow closer to the knee. Return to the beginning and repeat the same procedure on the other side. In this way, you will be working on your entire core including oblique muscles too.
CONCLUSION
In the end, I would like to tell you that great Abs needs greater effort, dedication and time. Be consistent with the exercises which I just told you and I guarantee that you will see fascinating results. Also, be flexible with your exercises too, learn to improvise and keep yourself motivated!