The Ultimate Ab Workout - Advance your Abs
Table of Contents
If you’ve been following Infinite Labs for a while then there’s a good chance you saw my previous article about training your abs. If you’re unfamiliar, it can be seen here. While that ab workout can serve you well for a while, eventually you might find that it’s time to step your core training up.
By Roger Lockridge
The bad news is that the exercises are more challenging so you should be ready to do some work. The good news is that you still won’t need much space to do these and they are all based on the floor. You might not be lying for all of them but at least it won’t be too complicated to do.
V Up
Lie on your back with your legs straight and your arms straight on the floor above your head in line with your body. Simultaneously lift your legs and torso. As you go up, take your arms and try to touch your toes. You likely won’t get there but remember that your main focus here is to contract your abs so don’t worry about that. Lower your body back to your starting position. Repeat for the desired number of reps.
Advanced Reverse Crunch
Lie flat on the floor with your arms flat perpendicular to your body. Raise your legs straight up while keeping them as straight as you can. Now with your legs up in the air, raise your butt off the floor. Once your butt comes up, try to lower your legs back to the floor while keeping them straight. Your core will have to work hard to control the speed of your legs falling. Once your legs make it to the floor or your abs give out and your legs fall get back into your starting position. Repeat for the desired number of reps.
Side Plank
You might be familiar with the traditional plank where you are face down supported by your forearms and toes. This version focuses on your obliques. Lie on the floor facing to the side. Support your body by planting a forearm on the floor. Your legs should be straight. While holding this position, straighten your other arm like you’re trying to touch the ceiling. Keeping your core tight, hold this position as long as you can or up to one minute. Once this time passes, repeat with the other side.
Advancing Your Ab Workout
V Up – 3 sets of 10-12 reps.
Advance Reverse Crunch – 3 sets of 10-12 reps.
Side Plank – 3 sets per side to failure or up to 1 minute per set.
Conclusion
If you found these exercises to be too challenging right now, you can refer back to my first ab workout article I mentioned earlier and follow that program until your core strength improves. If you find this ab workout to be too easy to perform, you can add resistance via a weighted ball or hand/ankle weights.
