Abdominal Exercises

Burn Belly Fat And Strengthen Your Core

Abdominal exercises, aside from the obvious visual benefits, provide the benefits of a strong and firm core (or trunk) muscle group.

All movement begins in your core - your abs and back muscles.

Well-toned abdominals contribute to good posture and assist your overworked back muscles when you are lifting, twisting or moving.

Strong abs facilitate proper breathing and actually help protect your internal organs from damage or bruising.

Specific Muscles Worked In Abdominal Exercises

To see and feel the benefits of your efforts, each of the four parts of the abdominal group must be worked...

» Rectus Abdominus

The most obvious muscle in the abdominal group, this one is responsible for the coveted six pack! The rectus abdominus runs from your pubis bone to your upper rib cage. To visualize simply, it is the muscle that is used when you bend at the middle, say, to touch your toes. The most common abdominal exercises, "crunches," work this muscle.

» Internal and External Obliques

Although they are separate muscles, these two are often grouped together as how they work and what they do is similar. Put very simply, they crisscross your abdomen and work to twist your torso from side to side or diagonally.

The exercise that works these muscles the best is the "bicycle crunch." While lying on your back in a crunch position (hands behind your head), bring your right shoulder across and down your body to toward your left knee. Reverse for the other side (i.e., left shoulder toward right knee). There are many variations of this exercise. Increase the difficulty by straightening the opposite leg when crunching.

» Transverse Abdominus

Picture a girdle and you have a pretty good idea of what the transverse abdominus looks like. It lies under all the other muscles and supports our organs. Whether or not we're actively performing abdominal exercises, this muscle is always working. Here's a rundown of what the transverse abdominus does...

• contracts to "suck the gut in"
• helps the diaphragm during inhalation and exhalation
• supports our spine while upright, and
• after the heart, works harder than any other muscle in the body because we never give it a break.

There are no specific abdominal exercises to work this muscle except contracting it and holding your tummy in - I bet you never knew you were exercising while wearing that slinky, body hugging dress, did you?

Frequency of Abdominal Exercises

A hot topic for discussion amongst fitness pros has is, how frequently you should work your abs? One school of thought is they are the same as other muscle groups and there should be a 48 hour rest between ab workouts.

The other opinion is that because your abs never get a rest, you are essentially doing abdominal exercises daily anyways, so they are conditioned for more frequent workouts. It is nice to have a muscle group that is that adaptable!

Whether you work your abs lightly on a daily basis or give them a hard workout every other day, the point is to get them strong and toned - your back, and your waistline will thank you!

How To Melt the Fat Learn more about burning belly fat and performing correct abdominal exercises from Master Fitness Trainer, Lynn VanDyke.

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