Easy Ab Workouts – Get Results Fast From The Top 4 Easy Ab Workouts

If your goal is to get flat and firm abs, you need the proper exercises to achieve it, easy ab workouts.  If your current ab workout consists of 100 front crunches along with 50 crunches to either side, there’s no question you’re in need of a change.

Your abs are very fast to adapt to any exercise that you’re doing, which is why constantly changing it up so critical to success. And, the following easy ab workouts will make doing so simple.

Simply pick one or two of the following exercises and do them each time you decide to give your abs a workout.  Alternate between them as time goes on and in a short time, you’ll be seeing great changes in your midsection.

Here are some of the best easy ab workouts to consider.

Bicycle

The first exercise that’s a must for every program is the bicycle. This is a very basic ab move that doesn’t require any equipment, so can be performed anywhere.  It’ll be targeting both the rectus abdominis (the front of your ab region) as well as the oblique muscles, which run along the sides of your stomach area and are commonly known as the love handles.

How To Perform: 

1. Lay flat down on the ground, legs extended and arms down by your side.
2. Bring the arms up so that the elbows are bent, hands touching the side of the head.
3. Slowly lift one leg up towards the body, bending the knee.  While doing so, simultaneously begin to bring the opposing elbow towards that knee, twisting the body as you do.
4. Come up as high as possible, pause and then lower back down until the leg is almost touching the ground.
5. At this point, reverse the legs and repeat to the other side.
6. Continue alternating sides until all reps are completed.

Points To Remember:

In order to see optimal results from this exercise, you’ll want to ensure that you never let the feet ‘drop’ to the ground and that you maintain constant tension in the abs at all times.

Also never pull the head upwards using the arm muscles. Instead, place the arms by the head but use them simply for positioning, not for support.

Front Plank Hold 

The next great exercise to add to your routine is the front plank hold. This move is an isometric exercise, meaning rather than moving through a certain pattern of movement, you’ll instead hold the position for a set period of time.

The front plank hold is great for building core muscle endurance and improving strength all throughout the entire mid section. It’ll even strengthen the muscles running up and down the spinal column as well, making it a very compound exercise.

How To Perform: 

1. Get down on the ground, stomach down.
2. Bend the elbows and place the forearms on the ground, lifting up the chest as you do this.
3. Continue to lift up the remainder of your body, balancing on your toes so that your body looks flat like a table top.
4. Hold this position for as long as possible (up to 60 seconds).  Keep the head looking downward as you do.
5. Once the time is up, come out of the exercise, rest and then repeat.

Points To Remember:

The biggest thing to remember when performing one of the easy ab workouts is to keep your core muscles tight at all times and never let the hips begin to sway downwards or rise up. The minute you feel them doing this, stop the exercise and only pick back up when you can continue using good form.

Lying Leg Raise 

If the lower abs are your target, this should be a go-to move for you.  This lying leg raise is going to hit all the core muscles, but will put a special emphasis on those lower abs.

How To Perform: 

1. Lay flat down on the ground, legs extended and arms by your sides.
2. Pressing the lower back into the ground, slowly bring the legs up until they’re at a 90 degree angle with the body.
3. Pause here and then lower back down until they are almost touching the ground, but not quite.
4. Lift back up to complete the next rep.

Points To Remember:

When doing this move, the key point to remember is to always keep the lower back pressed down into the ground. The minute it lifts off, you’ve moved out of good form and are placing yourself at risk for developing back pain.

Prone Ball Roll-In 

Moving along, the prone ball roll-in is different from most standard ab moves as it has you in the prone position rather than the supine position.  It’s great for working the entire set of core muscles and will also strengthen the hips flexors and shoulders as well.

How To Perform: 

1. Bring an exercise ball in front of the body.
2. Place the hands down on the ground in front of the ball, walk them out and then place the feet on top of the ball so that you’re balancing the body on it. Your entire body should be flat at this point.
3. Once in position, bend the knees as you bring the ball into the chest.
4. Once fully contracted in, pause and then extend the legs out to complete the next rep.
5. Continue on until all reps are completed.

Points To Remember:

The main point to remember while doing this move is to keep the core tight at all times and to perform it in a slow and controlled manner. This will help to reduce the chance that momentum carries you through the exercise, doing much of the work for you.

So there you have four great easy ab workouts to do during your next workout session.  Give these a try and watch how quickly you start noticing your stomach firming up.

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Weight Training For Women – Strong Is The New Skinny

Looking to improve your physique? If so, you might want to consider stepping away from the cardio machines and over into the free weight section.  The research is in and weight lifting is the best way to build a dream bod that you can feel proud of.

Many women fear picking up free weights because they think they’ll just get big and bulky – like the male ‘bodybuilder’ types in the gym.  This isn’t the case though. Realize as a woman, you simply don’t possess the hormones to develop large bulky muscles, nor are you consuming the calorie level required to do so.

Instead, weight training for women will simply help you burn fat faster, reshape your body, and help you gain functional strength that will make everyday activities feel that much easier. It’s also one of the best ways to foster stronger bones, which every woman should be concerned about.

All of this said, you do need to perform your workouts correctly.  Let’s go over a few key concepts related to strength training for women that you should know about.

The Overload Requirement 

First, you must challenge yourself during your workout session. Don’t be one of those women who hits the gym and performs a series of bicep curls, tricep extensions and lateral raises all with the 5 pound dumbbell.

You can do much more than this.  If you want to really see results, you must push yourself.  Most women can easily lift 10 pounds for these moves, if not more.  Remember that you should be reaching a point of fatigue within about 10-12 reps. If you get to that point and can do more, increase the weight. It’s simply not challenging enough.

Remember heavy weight doesn’t mean bulky muscles – heavy weight means superior fat burning and enhanced muscle definition.

Proper Exercise Selection 

Next, you also need to choose the right exercises.  Going back to the above example, while bicep curls, tricep extensions, and lateral raises can be great for shaping your muscles, you want the foundation of your program to contain compound exercises, which are moves that target more than one large muscle group at once.

These are the exercises that will really boost your metabolic rate, enhancing fat burning, while giving you great functional strength gains.

Exercises like squats, deadlifts, lunges, step ups, push ups, bench press, bent over rows, shoulder presses, and pull-ups should all be a big part of your program.

Do these first and foremost, and then at the end of your workout you can add in the more isolated moves such as bicep curls and lateral raises.

Ideally 80% of your program would be compound exercises and just 20% would be isolation exercises. This is what will help you create a complete body transformation.

Focus On Recovery 

It’s also very important that you are putting a high focus on your recovery capacity.  Remember, if you are exercising with intensity, your body needs time to rebuild itself so it’s stronger than it was before.

If you hit the gym five days a week, you aren’t giving your body that time off to recover.  If you choose to do a full body workout program, this would mean that you take one day off between each and every strength training session.

You can perform cardio on those off days – but stick to interval training if you do. This will be far more beneficial than hours spent going at one pace on a piece of cardio equipment.

And in addition to that, do make sure that you still have at least two full days off each week for maximum recovery. This will ensure you keep coming back to your workouts feeling stronger than you were before.

Add Variety

Finally, don’t forget to have fun and add in plenty of variety.  Avoid doing the same workout for weeks on end or your body will hit a plateau and you’ll just grow frustrated when you aren’t seeing results.

Try and change something about your workout every week – whether it’s adding a new exercise, using a new type of equipment, changing your grip pattern, or otherwise.  Change to your workout means change to your body.  Always remember that.

So don’t fear weight training. If you want to build a great body that turns heads wherever you go and is as healthy as possible, it’s the type of exercise you want to be doing.

Recommended:
1. Diamond-Cut Abs: How to Engineer The Ultimate Six-Pack–Minimalist Methods for Maximal Results [Kindle Edition]
2. Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body (The Build Muscle, Get Lean, and Stay Healthy Series
3. The Men’s Health Big Book: Getting Abs: Four Weeks to a Flat, Ripped Stomach! 
4. The New Abs Diet for Women: The 6-Week Plan to Flatten Your Stomach and Keep You Lean for Life (The Abs Diet) 

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