What is the most effective abdominal exercise?

angelicdisgrace

I usually do flutter kicks or scissor lifts and crunches but does anyone know what ab exercise is the most effective.

Pam3

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shelld70

Doing a lot of them! lol I do one where I lift my legs all the way up and then lower them almost to the ground and hold for 10-20 seconds. Do 2 or 3 reps. Great for the lower abs, a very hard to reach spot. Works on the c-section area.

CodyD18

I do what p90x calls "Mason Twists" while holding a 35lb weight. That works pretty good. Actually, p90x Ab Ripper has a lot of good ones.

laurenlei

I agree with shell - you need to do a mixture of a lot!!! I usually do at least 6-8 different types (e.g. bicycle crunches, standing twists with weights, as shell said where you lift you legs up then lower them, reverse crunches, the weight crunch machine...)
I usually do as many reps as possible until fail - i try to do at least 3 sets of 20 - you can never do too many ab exercises!!! Just listen to your body, when it hurts, stop!!!!! the great thing with abs too is that you can work them every day/every other day. They arent like other muscles where you need a good time to rest after triaining them. If you get a spare 5mins, do some crunches, thats what i do!

jkleman79

I do what p90x calls "Mason Twists" while holding a 35lb weight. That works pretty good. Actually, p90x Ab Ripper has a lot of good ones.

Definitely agree with you on this one!!! Love Ab Ripper!!! Kicks some serious tail. I love climbing the leg and v up roll up. That one rocks as well.

alienblonde1

I did an ab workout with a trainer and he had us do a series of things

Ab workout 1) superman, 2) crunches, 3) hand to opposite foot, 4) scissors up & down and 5) side to side

All of these we did 3 sets of each and my stomach didn't hurt the next day but the day after it did just as he said.

For the crunches, I avoided since they always made my neck hurt he had us do a "Y" in sign language (thumb and pinkie out). Place each thumb on upper stomach and pinkies on lower abs. My neck didn't hurt a bit. He said when you touch a certain part of your body your brain tends to focus there.

kelseyk14

I dont know the name of it but in all my exercise science classes the best one we were taught is you go into plank and put the tops of your feet on a big medicine(yoga) ball. The large inflatable one. Then you draw your knees into your chest and back into plank. It works the majority of your ab muscles all at once and forces you to balance! Hope that makes sense.

cspence2270

i did this one in a class and also recently saw it on the internet as one of best ab exercises. You use an exercise ball and lay face down on the ball with your hands on the floor and the ball under you legs like you were going to do a push up, you then pull your legs in toward your abdomen . The lower the ball is on your legs the harder it is to do. They said it works because you don't use any of your back muscles. I don't know if I explained it well but you could google it. It really is very hard to do.

kelseyk14

i did this one in a class and also recently saw it on the internet as one of best ab exercises. You use an exercise ball and lay face down on the ball with your hands on the floor and the ball under you legs like you were going to do a push up, you then pull your legs in toward your abdomen . The lower the ball is on your legs the harder it is to do. They said it works because you don't use any of your back muscles. I don't know if I explained it well but you could google it. It really is very hard to do.

This is the exercise I was talking about too!!

baconsteak

I agree with those above about P90x ab ripper as being really good and of course variety is great. However, why are you asking this question? Most effective ab excersie for what? Most people want to get a six pack and the only way to do this is to lose enough fat to see your muscle. Should you be asking how to lose fat in order to see your abs? If so no amount of ab exercise is going to get you to lose that layer of fat. You just need a healthy diet and a good exercise program to develop a lean body.

BJPCraig

The Power90/P90X Ab Ripper is a pretty good overall workout that hits all the groups of muscles in the abs.

A nifty single exercise I've recently discovered: Do 5 crunches. Lay out flat on the floor, arms above your head, with your hands and feet lifted above the floor. Keeping your hands and feet elevated, roll over onto your stomach, pause, and then roll the rest of the way onto your back. Do five more crunches and repeat, rolling back in the other direction. My workout does this in 3 sets of about a minute each.

weeze_h

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funfitfoodie

Also: Jillian Michaels 6 Week 6 Pack = godsend

ktbug82

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RangerSteve

I do what p90x calls "Mason Twists" while holding a 35lb weight. That works pretty good. Actually, p90x Ab Ripper has a lot of good ones.

No one can argue that this exercise is effective for working the abs but it should also be said that no one can argue how terrible this exercise is for your spine. It takes every possible wrong movement (spinal flexion, rotation, weight not aligned with center of gravity) and then combines them. If you value your cartilage in your spine, you should probably limit the amount of days you do this exercise.

karlz87

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samb

I love ab ripper x as well

NewVonnie

i did this one in a class and also recently saw it on the internet as one of best ab exercises. You use an exercise ball and lay face down on the ball with your hands on the floor and the ball under you legs like you were going to do a push up, you then pull your legs in toward your abdomen . The lower the ball is on your legs the harder it is to do. They said it works because you don't use any of your back muscles. I don't know if I explained it well but you could google it. It really is very hard to do.

This is the exercise I was talking about too!!

OMG..have to try this..sounds so hard though..but I saw a video of it on youtube..looks so effective!!

Smittyinthesun2

The most effective ab workout is to push away from the table before you have the 2nd and 3rd helping !

koosdel

Defnatly coughing.. Uncontrollable laughter is pretty good too. Sneezing is ok, but it gives me a head ache.