I am often asked “What are the best ab workouts for women?”
My answer is always the same.
It really depends on the type of workout you are doing. By that I mean are you doing a traditional weight training workout? Are you using the TRX Suspension trainer? Do you use kettlebells?
Once they tell me what kind of workout routine they are using I try to guide them along using the same type of routine.
Regardless of the workout that you are using we first need to know how to work actually get our abs to work!
So before we jump into specific ab exercises let’s start with the basics.
Here is the problem…
Most people simply do not know the correct way to do any type of ab exercise. They are mostly going through the motions without fully engaging their ab muscles. Doing a crunch or any other ab exercise will not be effective if you do the exercise incorrectly.
That being said we first need to understand how to do a basic ab movement before we get into all kind of fancy pants ab exercises.
Rule #1- Use your abs to do the movement! This sounds simple enough but after years of training people I can tell you that most people still use everything but their abs when they are doing an ab exercise.
In order to use your abs you need to focus on your ab muscles and let them pull your head and shoulders through the movement.
Try this: The next time you do a basic crunch try to exhale all the air from your lungs just prior to doing the crunch. As you go to lift your head and neck to do the crunch try to contract your abs as you are doing it. Try to feel the ab muscles engaging a pulling your body through the movement.
Rule #2- Avoid momentum! Faster is not better so slow down and do the exercise correctly! Doing 1000 crunches as fast as you can is not only ineffective is probably means you are doing them wrong!
Squeeze and contract on every single rep that you do! Focus on quality not quantity!
Rule #3– Don’t use your arms to pull! If you place your heads on or behind your head when you do ab exercises make sure that you aren’t pulling you neck and shoulders through the movement.
You can rest your head in or on your hands but do this only for support. If your abs are doing the work then you should feel them working and you can’t do that if your arms are pulling you up on every rep!
Learning HOW to use your abs in extremely important if you want to get the most out of your ab workout.
This will not come easy for some of you but with a little practice you will get it!
-Amber
Coming next in the Ab workouts for Women series we will get into some specific ab movements that you can do to help you get that nice tight stomach you are striving for!
