Flat Stomach Exercises- Do It Right or Quit Trying!

Stomach exercises range from beginners to experts. The range may involve a different exercise or the same exercise with different difficulty level. No matter what the exercise it is, doing it the proper way is always a prime factor. We could find so many people complaining on not getting any result besides their hard work, the only reason I could ever think of would be that they lack the appropriate way of doing it.

Let’s get real and practical enough to say that not everyone could afford to have a personal trainer. The reason is obvious, either it costs money or a personal trainer would not be available. In either case, it requires the need to do the stomach exercises in a right way or what experts like to call it ‘the productive way of exercising’.

Of all the exercises for our body, the stomach exercises are considered to the toughest and the most desired exercise for many people. These days people just don’t expect to have strong abs, they demand to get a six pack. In par with the six pack truth, there are lot of people who thinks six packs are reserved only to the charismatic ones. Apparently it’s not! Any individual who has his/her mind into exercising and trying to reduce their belly fat can get a six pack.

There are no stomach exercises which differentiate to give a six pack abs from a strong abs (which is not necessarily a six pack). If someone does a stomach exercise for a period of time, they are sure to get strong abs, eventually when such stomach exercises are continued for a longer period, they would obviously end up in a six pack. So it’s all about passion towards what we need and what we do to achieve it.

Doing It the Right Way!

Before starting off with any stomach exercise, it is always better to know what are the right and the wrong ways of doing the exercise in an effective way. Nowadays people do the stomach exercises in so many different ways but the ultimate question is whether they are yielding what they are supposed to get? Well, the answer would be ‘not exactly!’ In fact some of the experts are no exceptions in it. Just because they could perform a special workout with the way they wanted, doesn’t mean that they are doing it right. Here are few ways which you could avoid or practise in your routine while doing a stomach exercise:

Wrong Way of Working Out:

Lying straight-legged leg raises
Hanging leg raises with an arched back
Sit- ups with feet supported
Any machine based ab exercise
Torso twists- they provide no resistance nor burn any calories

The Right Way and the Right Exercises:

Hanging leg raise with a hunched back
Hanging knee raises with a hunched back
Reverse crunch
Ab wheel
Ab scissors
Alternating crunches, Bench crunches, stability ball crunches and weighted cable rope crunches with hunched back.

The above stomach exercises have proved to be the best among all the other exercises and have been practised by many experts around the world. Out of the above exercises, the leg raises and the ab scissors are considered to be a cardinal workout for any stomach exercise routine. Leg raises focuses on the lower abs and the ab scissors for the upper and the middle abs. Since the two exercises cover the entire ab portion of the body, it is rightly called as the cardinal workout.

Hanging Leg Raises:

As said earlier, this stomach exercise focuses on the lower abs which is very essential for anyone to avoid a pear shaped body or abdomen. Besides working on the lower abs, this workout provides strengthening of the shoulders and arms as it involves hanging from a pull up bar, which obviously takes a lot of effort from them even just to complete the entire routine.

Start the workout by hanging from a pull up bar with a shoulder width grip. Position your legs in such a way that the knees are bent slightly but almost straight. Raise your legs upward towards the pull up bar by squeezing your abdomen. Curl your pelvis slightly to make your legs touch the pull up bar. This workout must be performed exactly the way it is mentioned otherwise will cause less effect on the abdominal muscles.

Not to forget, this is a stomach exercise rather than a workout for the shoulders, as it may effect on the shoulders initially for a couple of times since the start of the workout. For people with shoulder injuries it is always advised to use hanging elbow straps and perform this exercise as it requires strong shoulders to support the entire body weight.

Stomach Exercise- Ab Scissors:

Start by lying on the floor with your hands and legs stretched outward. Position your legs on the air at an angle of 45° and the same for the hands raised above your head. Now bring your legs and hands close together such that your legs are vertical to the floor and your hands just crossing the legs thereby crunching the abdomen. Ab scissor is a wonderful stomach exercise which gives immediate result even for a beginner just to try it as a part of a stomach exercise routine.