Ab Excercises

As we already mentioned, ab excercises are not the most important factor for your six pack abs. However, they are still necessary to build up some muscles. We mainly recommend two excercises here. Both of them can be done with extra equipment that ensures correct motions, etc. Of course doing your ab excercises without any additional sports equipment is also possible, but should be done carefully if you are a beginner.

Leg Raises

This sort of excercise has several variants. For example, it can be done lying, hanging or in sitting position. When done lying (e.g. on a flat bench), starting position is keeping your legs (slightly bended) together and just a few inches off the floor. By using your ab muscles you slowly raise your legs until reaching 90 degrees between legs and upper body. Then you slowly move your legs back to starting position. You can stabilize your body by holding the part of the bench above your head yith your hands.
Leg Raises mainly focus on the lower abs region.

Crunches

You lie flat on your back with your knees bent. Depending on the crunches variant your feet are on the floor,raised into the air or put on some chair, bench, etc. (90 degrees between thighs and upper body).
Hold your hands besides your head (advanced) or on your chest (beginners). If holding your hands besides your head, be sure to never pull on your head/neck while doing crunches! While your lower back stays on the floor your upper back slightly raises by contracting your ab muscles. This is essential. Only use our abdominals to raise your upper body!

How often should you do ab excercises?

For building up some ab muscles, working out 2 to 3 times a week should be enough. When working out, you don’t need to do thousands of repetitions. For example, you could start with two sets of leg raises and do two sets of crunches afterwards (both at a maximum number of repetitions).

Here is part two of our abdominal excercises.