Ab Crunches are a Great Abdominal Muscle Exercise to Flatten the Stomach!…Learn the Best Abdominal Muscle Exercise Crunches to Flatten Your Stomach! These ab crunches below flatten the stomach by drawing the pelvis and ribcage together to better target your ab muscles. Follow the instructions to properly do these abdominal muscle exercise crunches:
Basic Stomach Crunch: Difficulty, 1; lower back, 1. Lie on the floor. Raise your legs, bending your knees at a 90-degree angle so your thighs are perpendicular to the floor, but your calves are parallel to the floor. Imagine you were sitting in a chair, and someone gently tipped you all the way over backward. Keeping your legs in this position makes your abdominal crunches more effective, and presses your lower back into the floor to help prevent discomfort and injury. Clasp your hands behind your head to hold it lightly, elbows pointing to the sides. Slowly crunch your torso upward toward your thighs. Keep your knees bent at a 90-degree angle. Remember, lift with your abs, not your neck. When you lower, only come back down to just above your shoulder blades. You may have seen the Basic Stomach Crunch done with the arms criss-crossed across the chest -- that’s not as effective to flatten the stomach. Some exercise aficionados say you can extend your arms above your head for more of a challenge while doing this abdominal muscle exercise, but that just strains the neck. 
Criss-Cross Ab Crunches: Difficulty, 1; lower back, 2. Lie on the floor and bend your knees at a 90-degree angle, just as with the Basic Stomach Crunch. Clasp your hands behind your head to hold it lightly, elbows pointing to the sides. Now rise and try to touch your left elbow to your right knee. Be sure you’re twisting with your torso, not your neck. Return to center and repeat on opposite side. When you lift to each side, make sure each lift is clean and distinct -- don’t let it become a lazy rocking motion to each side, and don’t let your shoulder blades touch the floor. Think up and down, not side to side. Each alternating side equals one rep.
Crossovers Abdominal Crunches: Difficulty, 2; lower back, 3. Lie on your left side and bend your knees. Clasp your hands behind your head to hold it lightly. Your left elbow will be near the floor, and your right elbow will point upward. Lift your torso, and try to touch your left elbow to your right hip. Slowly lower and repeat. Perform the same number of reps on the other side. To make this abdominal muscle exercise more challenging, don’t lower your elbow all the way to the floor when you come down. Criss-Cross Ab Crunches and Crossovers Abdominal Crunches also work the obliques.
Vertical Leg Ab Crunches: Difficulty, 1; lower back, 1. Lie on your back. Raise your legs so they’re perpendicular to your torso. Clasp your hands behind your head to hold it lightly, elbows pointing to the sides. Crunch upward toward your thighs as far as you can. Slowly lower, but don’t let your shoulder blades touch the floor while doing this abdominal muscle exercise. Repeat.
Vertical Leg Stomach Crunch Press: Difficulty, 2; lower back, 1. Perform a Vertical Leg Abdominal Crunch. When you’re at the height of the stomach crunch, also press the soles of your feet toward the ceiling to make this abdominal muscle exercise more effective to flatten the stomach. Looking for the Best Ab Crunches to Flatten Your Lower Abs? Click Here to go to Lower Abdominal Crunches Page! Want More of the Best Abdominal Crunches to Tone Your Obliques and Love Handles? Click Here to go to the Oblique Crunch Page!
Return from Ab Crunches to Flatten the Stomach to Upper Ab Exercise Return from Ab Crunches to Flatten the Stomach to Best-Abs-Exercises.com
|
