Sports exercises for the abs. Exercises for the abs. Bicycle with legs extended

Almost every modern person dreams of a beautiful and slender figure, a toned tummy and sculpted abs. That is why many guys and girls often look for and select the most suitable ones for themselves. effective abdominal exercises from various sources, turn to experienced trainers for help, visit sports clubs, fitness centers and everything in order to make their dreams come true in the shortest possible time.

In the materials of the presented review, we will take a closer look at which effective exercises can be used at home not only for men, but also for women without the use of additional equipment. It is very important to understand one thing: if the modern rhythm of life and a lot of everyday worries occupy the bulk of the time, then free minutes should not be spent visiting fitness centers, sports grounds, etc. There are a huge number of effective workouts for working out the abs, which you can do independently, and the maximum effective set of such exercises can be done in just 25-30 minutes. Performing such gymnastics is recommended not only for representatives of the stronger half of humanity, but also for girls and women. So, let's take a closer look at the selection of the top 7 effective exercises for the abs at home.

Crunching is a standard type of exercise for working the abdominal muscle fibers and effectively burning subcutaneous fat.

Performing this type of exercise involves:

• the rectus abdominis muscles, which are responsible for the definition of the six-pack in the abdominal area;
• external abdominal muscles;
• oblique internal abdominal muscles;
• a large muscle located in the sternum area;
• transverse abdominal muscles.

To perform this exercise, you must start from a position in which the lumbar and lower back are pressed tightly to the floor, and the stomach is tense. Place your hands near your temples. Perform lifts by contracting the abdominal muscle fibers. While taking the lower position, inhale, and while ascending, exhale. You should perform at least 3 approaches 25-30 times.

Exercise "Scissors"

Performing this type of gymnastics will help work out the lower part of the abs.

During this lesson the work includes:

• iliopsoas muscle;
• sartorius and rectus muscles in the thigh area;
• all types of adductor muscles;
• rectus and oblique abdominal muscles, as well as transverse and cranial muscles;
• quadriceps

To perform the exercise, you need to lie on the floor, place your arms along your torso and, together with your lumbar back, press firmly to the floor. Lift your legs slightly off the floor and begin performing crossing movements, making sure that your knees do not bend. Perform 3 sets of 25-30 seconds.

Exercise "Diver"

Performing this simple type of exercise is also aimed at working out the lower abdominal area, or the abdominal part of the abs.

During training and performing this exercise, the following muscle groups are included in the work:

• muscles responsible for tension in the fascia lata;
• sartorius and iliopsoas muscles;
• adductor long and short muscles;
• quadriceps;
• rectus, transverse and oblique muscles in the abdomen;
• as well as the pectineus muscle.

Take the starting position and lie with your back on the floor. Stretch your arms along the body and press your palms to the floor. The legs, straightened at the knees, should be raised from the floor to a small height and alternately make movements reminiscent of walking with a small amplitude.

Important! So that the socks are pulled towards you, and the lumbar region of the back is pressed tightly to the floor. It is also worth remembering that the smaller the distance between the floor surface and the legs, the greater the load will be on the abdominal muscles.

If a feeling arises indicating that there is space between the lower back and the floor surface, you should raise your legs a little higher and continue the exercise in this position. During the entire workout, your legs should be straight. It is recommended to perform the exercise 3 sets, lasting no more than 30 seconds.

Twisting while lying on your back with your legs raised

“Twisting” involves the thigh and abdominal muscles, quadriceps and external oblique muscles. Using this abdominal exercise at home will help burn excess fat in the abdominal area that has accumulated in the subcutaneous layers. And also twisting will help to work out the relief on the stomach.

Take the starting position and lie back on the floor again. Bend your legs at the knees and lift them off the floor at an angle of 90 degrees, as shown in the photo. Stretch your arms forward. While twisting, you need to lift your upper body towards your knees and reach forward with your arms. When ascending, you should make a deep exit, and in the lower position of the body, inhale.

Important! Do not lift your lumbar back from the surface of the floor and keep your legs in one position without lowering them, and also your chin should not fall towards your neck.

In order to simplify the task, it is recommended to perform the crossing exercise with your arms folded on your chest in a “cross to cross” position, and to make it more difficult, you should put your hands behind your head, or place them near the temporal part of your head. Basic norms for performing the exercise: 3 sets of 9-12 times.

Swing with knees bent

Daily training with this type of exercise will activate and force the following muscle groups to work:

• quadriceps and rectus abdominis;
• thigh muscles and oblique abdominal muscles.

Take the starting position “lying on the floor”, bend your knees, resting the surface of your feet on the floor, and place your hands behind your head. Start performing a twist, during which you need to reach with your right elbow towards your left knee to the level of the mid-thigh, and the knee, in turn, needs to be directed towards the elbow. When performing the exercise, you need to try to completely lift the upper part of your body off the floor surface so that both shoulder blades do not come into contact with the floor, and on the contrary, the lumbar part of your back should be pressed tightly to the floor, as in the picture.

Please note that the chin should not be pressed against the neck and the exercise should be performed by tensing the abdominal muscles, and not with the help of the arms. When taking the starting position, you need to inhale, and while twisting, exhale.

Exercise "Bicycle"

Correct execution of the exercise will activate the following groups of muscle fibers:

• rectus and external oblique abdominal muscles;
• internal oblique muscle fibers in the abdominal area;
• transverse abdominal muscles;
• as well as the gluteus maximus and muscle fibers of the legs.

Take the starting position and lie with your back on the floor, put your hands behind your head. Perform rotating movements with your legs, as when riding a bicycle. It is recommended to lift the upper body slightly from the floor and simultaneously perform twisting, alternately directing the right elbow to the left knee, and the left elbow to the right knee. The training pace is arbitrary. It is recommended to perform at least 3 sets of 20 times.

Performing a saw plank

This powerful physical exercise engages all the gluteal, thigh, calf, and core muscles.

Take the starting position of the plank, resting your forearms on the floor. You need to place your elbows strictly under your shoulders, pull your stomach in and keep your back straight. Having taken the starting position, you should perform small swings. When moving forward, the surface of the shoulders should extend in front of the elbows, and when moving backward, the shoulders should extend beyond the elbows.

Please note: it is important to ensure that your legs and back are at the same level at all times, forming a solid straight line.

The time to complete this exercise is at least 50-60 seconds. You can clearly see how all the best exercises for the abdominal muscles should be performed at home in the following video clip:

Exercises will help you tighten your stomach at home quickly better than anything else.. However, it is important to remember that they need to be selected and executed correctly.

Tightening your stomach at home quickly is not as difficult as it might seem. To achieve the desired effect, you should perform certain exercises.

1. It is better to choose the evening time for exercise, because in the morning the muscles are relaxed and the likelihood of their damage is very high.
2. You can start classes an hour, or better yet two, after eating so that your stomach is not full.
3. During training, muscles should be tense and you need to feel them.
4. Technique and speed must be strictly observed. Hasty execution or sudden jerks are unacceptable.
5. During one approach - no pauses.
6. It is important to control your breathing and not hold it. When you exhale, force is made, and when you inhale, you return back to the starting position.
7. It is recommended to perform each exercise in 3 sets, each 30 times (starting with 10 and gradually increasing).
8. Exercising every other day is much more effective than doing it every day.
9. 9Exercises and their sequence should be changed every 1.5-2 months to prevent the muscles from getting used to the load.

To tighten your stomach at home quickly, it is recommended to alternate exercises with different techniques. this will keep all the necessary muscles toned.

It is important to know! No exercises at home are performed without warming up the muscles, otherwise there is a high probability of injury. A short warm-up prepares the muscles for the load, improves blood flow to them, which will increase the effectiveness of exercise and quickly tighten the stomach.

Tighten your stomach at home (quickly): exercises

Before you start exercising, you need to understand which muscles are responsible for what in the abdomen.

The exercises that give the best results for tightening the abdominal muscles are crunches: straight, reverse or lateral (more about them below). To achieve maximum success, it is recommended to alternate exercises with different techniques; this will keep all the necessary muscles in tone.

Note! When performing any type of twisting, it is correct to not touch the floor when returning to the starting position. This way the muscles will be constantly tense, and, accordingly, the effect will be much better.

First, you need to do a short warm-up (walking in place, bending, jumping), and after completing the workout, stretch to calm the muscles.

Upper abs exercises

The most effective:

Lower abs exercises

Effective:

Exercises for oblique abdominal muscles

The best:

All of these exercises are variations of the side crunch.

Exercises for the abs and waist

Some people mistakenly believe that if you train the oblique abdominal muscles, your waist will be reduced. In fact, it's exactly the opposite. It is by strengthening the oblique muscles that girls develop a waist.

To tighten your stomach at home quickly, it is important to combine exercises with a diet.

Important Before starting classes, during the warm-up, pay more attention to warming up these muscles, that is, in addition to the usual walking, running, jumping, add simple bends (forward, to the sides), turns of the torso and rotation of the pelvis.

Exercises:

1. Lying on your stomach, bring your arms forward and place them straight, straighten your legs too. You need to simultaneously lift the opposite leg and arm, while arching your back. Repeat with each arm and leg in turn.
2. On your back with your hands clasped behind your head and your legs bent, laid on the floor on one of the sides. Raise your torso straight up, do it slowly, stay at the top point and lower smoothly. After completing the approach, place your legs on the other side and repeat the same movements.

Abdominal exercises after childbirth

Very often, after giving birth, women gain excess weight, and in addition to the belly, they also have to get rid of extra pounds. This complicates the task a little and lengthens the process, but if desired, you can achieve excellent results. To tighten your stomach at home quickly, it is important to combine exercises with a diet.

Exercises by themselves will not remove weight, they will only tighten the muscles.

Note! You can start exercising no earlier than a month after giving birth.

Exercises:

In addition, it is very useful to do the vacuum exercise, which will be discussed below, and, if your health condition allows, regular crunches.

Exercises with a chair or on a bench

Exercises with a chair are good because, if you have a free minute, you can do them right at your workplace. And the advantages of the bench are that by adjusting the angle of inclination, you can reduce or increase the load.

Exercises:

1. Sitting on the very edge of a chair, holding the back with your hands, raise your bent legs as much as possible. Holding them a little in this position, smoothly lower them to the starting position.
2. Sitting on the edge of a chair with your hands clasped behind your head and your legs slightly apart. Bend to the sides so that the elbow goes strictly straight to the thigh.
3. Lying on a bench, holding the footrest with your hands. Pull your legs to your chest, bending them, then smoothly return them back.
4. Lying on a bench, legs are fixed with support, hands clasped behind the head. Raise your entire torso to a right angle with your legs. After a short pause, lower yourself.

Exercises for tummy tuck with dumbbells

Exercises with weights (which include dumbbells) should be started after the simpler ones have been mastered. At first the weight should be minimal, then gradually it can be increased.

Exercises:

Exercises with a roller (wheel) for the press

The ab roller allows you to engage a large number of muscles and actually trains your legs and arms in addition to your abs, helping to reduce back pain and improve posture.

Exercises:

1. From a position on all fours, holding the roller with your hands, you need to roll it forward, moving your whole body, and then back.
2. The same thing with a roller clamped with straight legs (“reverse roller”). This option is harder and requires skill.

Vacuum exercise for a quick tummy tuck

The vacuum exercise has many benefits:

• allows you to tighten your stomach at home very quickly;
• reduces the visceral (internal) layer of fat that covers the internal organs;
• helps reduce back pain (in the lower part);
• prevents the descent of internal organs;
• improves waist condition.

It can be performed standing, lying, sitting or on all fours. The exercise from a standing position on all fours is more complex; you can start it after mastering the classic one (standing or lying down).

The ab roller allows you to engage a large number of muscles and actually trains your legs and arms in addition to your abs.

Performance: after a deep breath, you need to exhale sharply, at this time drawing in your stomach as much as possible, trying to stick it to your back. Hold for 20 seconds and slowly straighten your stomach while taking a deep breath. Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. The exercise must be performed on an empty stomach (either in the morning or right before bed).

How to enhance the effect of tummy tuck exercises

In order for the effect of exercise to come faster and last for a long time, it is important to follow the following rules:

• eat a balanced diet;
• train with concentration, concentrating on the muscles being worked;
• in pauses between approaches, stretch the muscles;
• change exercises periodically;
• Always walk with your back straight and your stomach pulled in.

Tighten your stomach at home: an interesting video on the topic

Exercises will help you tighten your stomach at home quickly, provided you do it regularly, have the right approach and eat a balanced diet. In addition, it is important not to forget that in order to maintain shape, you will need to exercise throughout your life.

For information on how to quickly tighten your stomach and whole body at home, see here:

How to easily remove belly fat after childbirth at home - effective exercises here:

It is often believed that the best exercise for the abs is crunches. Peter Francis, professor San Diego State University, set out to answer this question using scientific methods and determine the most effective abdominal exercise.

His study (1) assessed the effects of 13 of the most popular ab exercises on direct abdominal muscle recruitment. Using electromyography equipment, the load in the upper, lower and lateral abdominal muscle groups was measured. In addition, the load in the thigh muscles was measured for all three dozen participants in this scientific experiment to determine whether the movement was performed due to the leg muscles.

Fitseven has already written about that - let us remind you that often abdominal exercises are performed fundamentally incorrectly, and the load from the abdominal muscles is transferred to secondary muscle groups (for example, to the legs or lower back).

Effective abdominal exercises

Each subject in the above-mentioned study performed 10-12 repetitions of a specific abdominal exercise, strictly following a rhythm of two seconds to rise and two seconds to lower the body - recall that an excessively fast pace of exercise definitely reduces the level of involvement of the abdominal muscles. The effect of each exercise on both the rectus abdominis muscles and the lateral and oblique abdominal muscles was determined.

The effect of each exercise on the abdominal muscles was compared with classic crunches. If the exercise score was determined to be, for example, 200 units, this means that the exercise engaged the abdominal muscles twice as effectively as crunches (100 units). If the result was 50 units, then the exercise is twice as bad.

Exercise “Vacuum belly”

Let us make a separate reservation about what was not included in the structure of the study, since it involves muscles, the work of which is quite difficult to measure using the electromyography method. Let us remind you that when performing the “abdominal vacuum” correctly, not only the internal muscles of the abs and core, but also the muscles of the diaphragm are included in the work.

In other words, while this exercise definitely develops your abs and makes your belly much more toned, the effectiveness of the ab vacuum is due more to the development of neuromuscular connections and overall strengthening of muscle tone than to direct muscle fiber hypertrophy.

Press: rating of the best exercises

Below are the results of a comparative study of popular abdominal exercises. It should be noted that although the primary goal was to determine the best exercises for both the rectus abdominis muscles and the lateral abdominal muscles, in the end it turned out that only extremely well-trained people can isolate a certain area - this is almost inaccessible to beginners. That is why it has its own characteristics.

The best exercises for the rectus abdominis muscles

Exercises for the lateral abdominal muscles

7 Best Ab Exercises

1. Exercise “Bicycle”

2. Leg raises

3. Roller crunches

.

6. Exercise "Plank"

7.

Abdominal exercises for men and women

Despite the fact that the structure of the abdominal muscles in men and women is absolutely the same, the strategy for training it is still different, since performing multi-joint basic exercises with serious working weight indirectly develops the abs - as a result, classic crunches seem too easy to most male athletes.

On the other hand, most girls will be completely unable to perform hanging leg raises or even the aforementioned roller crunches. That is why we remind you once again that there is simply no universal “best abdominal exercise”, since each trainee has his own level of physical fitness.

The best abdominal exercises for men

• Hanging Leg Raises
• Roller crunches
• Exercise “Bicycle”

The best abdominal exercises for women

• Lying crunches
• Plank and abdominal vacuum

Are the upper and lower abs separated?

As Fitseven mentioned above, the scientific study also showed that the majority of subjects were unable to separate the involvement of the upper and lower abdominal muscles during exercise. The movements, in fact, were performed due to the participation of all parts of the abdominal muscles and core muscles at the same time.

However, this does not mean that it is impossible to specifically load the lower abdomen. This just goes to show that an average exerciser is not able to concentrate on engaging certain areas of the abs - no matter what exercises they do. At the same time, it requires a special training technique and a high level of sensation of involving the abdominal muscles in the work.

Another myth indirectly refuted by this study is the super-effectiveness of the ab roller. Despite the fact that roller exercises show slightly greater engagement of the abdominal muscles than regular crunches, it is easy to see that there are more effective exercises for the abdominal muscles.

Among other things, it is important to mention that performing abdominal crunches with a roller requires a fairly serious level of development of the abdominal muscles - if the muscles are too weak, then the main load will go to the arms and lower back. The result, in the end, will only be pain in the back and neck, and not at all pumped up six-pack abs.

Abdominal Exercises: Summary

• No abdominal machine or roller will be as effective as a regular hanging leg raise or bicycle exercise performed at a slow pace and with perfect technique.
• For most intermediate-level trainees, it is quite difficult to separate the work of the upper and lower abdominal muscles - especially without the ability to consciously tense certain parts of the abdominal muscles.
• The “abdominal vacuum” exercise, although it makes the abs stronger, is not due to hypertrophy processes.

Scientific sources

1. Peter Francis, Ph.D, Biomechanics Lab at San Diego State University,