Ab Routine
An ab routine is essential in completing a full-body workout. However, in this article, I am going to give a simple ab circuit that you can use for a lifetime. These four simple ab exercises are going to challenge you, but completing these at least three times a week will give you a start to getting your dream body. Overuse of this circuit will be too much and you should try and refrain from completing this circuit every day because it will be overkill at that point. Abdominal muscles are not supposed to be trained every day. That is a very common misconception of early members of the fitness community. Another key point to remember is that you will need to improve your diet as well in order to see abs. You can do this circuit for months and not see abs if you do not change your eating habits to a healthier alternative. You need to remove that layer of fat over your abdominal muscles with a healthy diet.
What is a Circuit?
A circuit is a series of workouts that you complete back-to-back and then you take your break. For this ab circuit, you should complete it three times with a three to five-minute break in between each circuit. You should not have breaks in between the workouts and this will give you the maximum benefits. There is wiggle room in this workout, and you can change the reps and the time it takes to complete this circuit. The best advice is to try and add more reps or more time every few weeks to make sure your body is not getting comfortable. This circuit is meant to challenge you.
Order of Exercises
- Russian Twists (40 Reps)
- Crunches (50 Reps)
- Flutter Kicks (30 Seconds)
- Plank (1 Minute)
- Rest and Repeat
Russian Twists
The first workout in this ab routine is Russian twists. In order to complete this, you will need a medicine ball. In this workout, you will raise your feet off of the ground and rotate the medicine ball from one side to the other. However, do not just use your arms for the rotation, you should try and use your abs to rotate the medicine ball. Complete this workout for forty touches or twenty on each side. This workout targets your side of the abdominal muscles. You are hoping to feel that burn in your abs while completing this exercise. You will be able to tell if you are completing correctly or incorrectly. If there is more burn in your arms than your core, you are probably not performing it correctly.
Crunches
The next exercise in this circuit is crunches. I am sure that everyone has completed these at least once in their lifetime. However, for this, you will raise your legs off of the ground and have your knees towards your stomach. With your elbows behind your head try and squeeze your abs to make your elbows and knees touch. Complete this exercise for around fifty reps. Try and make sure you are feeling it in your abs and are not using your arms to propel you up. This is a very simple exercise, and you will probably not feel anything until you increase the number of reps. This exercise takes a lot of reps in order to do anything to your abdominal muscles.
Flutter Kicks
For flutter kicks, lay on your back and lift your legs about 6 inches off the ground. In alternating movement quickly raise one leg and then the other. This is a fast exercise and should be done for 30 seconds for beginners and after a little raise that time to about a minute. Another tip for this one is not to raise your feet too high in the air and too low to the ground. Try to keep them in a 12-inch range from top to bottom. In this exercise, you need to make sure you are engaging your core. Incorrectly, you will only feel burn in your legs. You need to make sure to squeeze your abs almost as if flexing them during this exercise. Otherwise, this will count as a leg exercise and will not target the area that you are intending to target.
Plank
This is the last workout in the circuit and it is this way because this will be the hardest to maintain. A plank is similar to a push by the way you start, but instead of hands on the ground, you should have your elbows on the ground and maintain that upright position. It is important to not round your back or stick your butt too high in the air. For planks, complete this for one minute at least. Make sure you are maintaining good form and squeezing your abs to make sure your abdominal muscles are getting the full effects of this workout. Every week try and to fifteen seconds to the end of your time and you will continue to achieve success in your body.
Rest and Repeat
This is the part where you will take your three to five-minute break. Try and only use three minutes to make sure your abdominal muscles are still feeling by the time you start the next round. As I mentioned earlier you will complete this circuit three times and after that, your workout will be over. You should try and make this circuit the last thing you do in your workout that involves weights. You can always run or box after this and you will feel those in your abdominal muscles as well because of this circuit. Hopefully, you are feeling a burn in your abdominal muscles after completing this. If not, you can always add your own personal ab exercises along with this or just complete the circuit a few more times, or decrease the amount of time you rest for. Some other great exercises that you could add to this circuit are sit-ups, mountain climbers, abs roll-outs, and many others. I would recommend starting with the four mentioned above and continuing to either decrease the time of rest or add more exercises to this circuit.
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