5 Belly Busting Ab Workouts You Didn’t Know About
Ab workouts are so crucial to working your way to a nice figure. We all seem to automatically go for a million crunches in hopes that we’ll stand up with a rippling six pack, but that’s just not the case. We’ve done some research to unveil 5 belly busting ab workouts you didn’t know about to help you get that flat tummy you’ve been dying for.
1. Hanging Leg or Knee Raise
The Hanging Leg Raise or Hanging Knee Raise is a powerful ab workout most people will overlook. What’s great about this is that you can really do it anywhere, as long as you have a bar to grab onto and hang from. Workouts where you use your own body weight against yourself are more efficient than weights. For this, grab onto a pull-up bar (or whatever you are using) and hang from it. Then, all you do is lift either your knees to your chest or your legs without bending them so you form an “L” shape. Slowly lower your legs back down to a hanging position and that’s one rep. Do 1-3 sets of 10-15.
2. Kneeling Cable Crunch
The Kneeling Cable Crunch is an exercise that you will need equipment for, but this machine is almost always found at every gym. Find the weighted pull cables, and set them at a low weight you think you can tolerate. It’s not good to go totally overboard at first. Kneel on the ground pulling the cables down with you enough so that your arms are straight up above your head. Now do a crunch bringing the cables to the floor. Allow your back to round so you hit the upper abs; a flat back can prevent that. Keep your hands in the same position on the cables and don’t let them slip down. When you return back to the upright position, that’s one rep! Try 1-3 Sets of 12-15.
3. Squats
That’s right! Squats are not only an amazing leg exercise. Whether you are doing front or back squats, the core get’s blasted. Keeping the upright position so you don’t fold over or collapse works out the abdominals and back muscles. If you really want to fire it up, go heavy on the weights and you are guaranteed to feel the burn.
4. Planks
If you haven’t seen planks done at the gym or wherever you work out, you might not know what we’re talking about. However, you HAD to have seen the planking trend all over YouTube. It’s pretty similar to that! Get on a mat, rest your upper body on your forearms and your lower body on your tip toes. You’ll resemble a push-up position. Now all you have to do is hold this position for as long as possible. Keep your back as straight as possible and make sure you do not fall back on the balls of your feet, otherwise you’ll lose the tension on your abs. You should be able to feel them quiver just before you feel like you can’t hold the position any longer. This is one of the ab workouts where you just keep trying to hold it as long as you can as many times as you can.
5. Exercise Ball Pike
This is one of the ab workouts I have personally never heard of. I always thought exercise balls were strictly used for crunches and pregnant women. Turns out I was wrong! The Exercise Ball Pike is definitely a fat-burner. I was surprised at how sore I was the next day after trying this out. All you need to do is keep your hands flat on the floor, head down, and have the ball resting under your upper thighs. Then, roll the ball down to your calves (or all the way down to your toes if possible) while lifting your butt in the air as if doing a form of a crunch. Slowly go back down to the start position for one rep. Do 1-3 sets of 10 reps.
