Best and Worst ab exercises

Best to worst exercises for strengthening the rectus abdominus:

Bicycle maneuver

Captain’s chair

Crunches on exercise ball

Vertical leg crunch

Torso Track

Long arm crunch

Reverse crunch

Crunch with heel push

Ab Roller

Hover

Traditional crunch

Exercise tubing pull

Ab Rocker


Best to worst exercises for strengthening the obliques:

Captain’s chair

Bicycle maneuver

Reverse crunch

Hover

Vertical leg crunch

Crunch on exercise ball

Torso Track

Crunch with heel push

Long arm crunch

Ab Roller

Traditional crunch

Exercise tubing pull

Ab Rocker

Where are cable crunches, and hanging knee and leg raises? Why are regular crunches towards the "worst" end of things?
I mean come on, the way you have it listed, regular crunches are only slightly better than using the ab rocker- We all know that's not true. And when it comes to the obliques, you don't really have any exercises in there with a twisting motion to them.

yup missin lots of good exercises and i'd disagree with the order...

i loooove leg/knee raises. I do it completely handing either holding onto a pull up bar or on those hings that support your upper arm/triceps. By far my favorite exercises, as well as weighted machines or crunch type movements. Obliques i turn sideways on weighted machines or do twisting crunches on decline bench.

well,,, i am sorry i didnt quite finish my post, i was at school... and bell rang


these are the SCIENTIFICALLY proven best to worst ab exercises.
sorry bout that,,, its not my list

I think he is referring to the study done recently by the "American Council on Exercise"
Abs Study

I read throught it before and it seemed like valid information. I began doing bicycle kicks and have seen a tremendous improvement. But lord... bicycle kicks will make you scream... no pain no gain, I guess. LOL.

If you do enough Bicycle Kicks though... you migh be able to get the Nobel Prize for Abs!

~88~

there was one I saw on the EAS site years back..I think it's called shutterbug or something like that. AMAZING burn, done on the floor. You look ridiculous doing it, but its killer. You basically start in crunch position, and simultaneously bring one bended knee towards your chest and the opposite arm towards your PLANTED knee, (keep the lifted appendages parallel to eachother, this is NOT elbow to knee) then simultaneously lower both appendages back to start position. This excersise feels incredible, but you have to have no shame to do it in a packed gym

I prefer the crunch machine, weighted with plates at the ankle rest and above the shoulders.

machines aside nothing beats the stability ball for my upper abs. You get greater range of motion on a ball as opposed to the floor.
Doesnt really do jacks#it for my lower abs though.

I prefer the ball myself, just because I'm a cat. A 25 lb dumbbell held at the chest and then raised over the head in the up position makes for a great crunch. Superset that with full rotation knee raises and you have yourself a killer ab workout. I have always had very strong abs (even though you can't see them well right now) and these exercises are very tough for me.

I read on some website that a good excersise for results in definition and in fat loss is something called an ab-blaster.

You go up to do a traditonal crunch but you stop just about when your shoulders leave the ground. You hold it for ten seconds and then go back down slowly.

But I cant really say it brings results because I've only done abs twice out of a ten week period.

I suck at this body-building thing.

truly all abdominal workouts suck. Why do i say this? because the isolation of the abdominals is very hard to get because the contraction of the quads engages the hip flexors next door, thank to good ol' Law of Irradation. Sure there are some okay ones but the truly best one is the janda situp. Trust me i have strong abs......or at least i though untill i tried the janda. still dont think its tuff well when a group of scientist challenged the USA olympic gymnastics team to complete one janda situp only 2 could truly do it right and could complete it. The janda isolates your abs punding them into submission. Stick with me here

HOW TO TRULY ISOLATE YOUR ABS

before accepting the solution, you must understand the problem.

The abdominals (rectus abdominis) connect your pubic bone to your breast bone. When this muscle contracts, it pulls your pelvis and rib cage togeather, rounding your back in the process, as in the crunch. This is called 'forward spinal flexion'.

Psoas major originates on the vertibrae of the lower back. and inserts into the top of the thigh bone. When this muscle contracts, it pulls the body into a jacknife position. When you do a situp, you litarally pull yourself up by your lumbar spine, or the lower back whitch can lead to back problems or aggravate the existing ones.

A commom so called 'solution' is to avoid hip flexion, or situps, and do only spinal flexion, or crunches. A number of gizmos were designed to capitalize on teh publc obsession with crunches. All of them were suppose to make crunches stricter. The ab Isolator immobalized the hip joint; the Ab Flex increased the recuitment of the abdominals during the crunch by providing direct pressure on the muscles; the Ab Roller tracked teh crunch mechanically.

There are two problems with these products. First, they are gimmicks. According to John Jakicic, Ph.D.,an exercise physiologist and assistant professor at the university of pittsburgh school of medicine, these devices "offer no physiological advantage over doing crunches with good form."

The second problem is the crunch itself. Contary to teh popular opnion, the crunch does NOT isolate the abs. Ditto for any crunch based device. Because the crunch does not involve hip flexion, it supposedly does not involve the psaos group and stress teh lower back. Wrong.

Well known physical therapists Kendall, Kendall, and Wadsworth determined that it is impossible to completly eliminate the hip flexors recruitment during a crunch.One of the fundametal laws of physiology, the law of Irradiation, dictates taht the contraction of a muscle, the abdominals in this case, will set off a contraction of the adjacent muscles, or the hip flexors. Like a stone dropped in water sends ripples acrosse the surface, tension spreads--irradiates--from the muscle directly responsible for the job at hand wowards its neighbors. To test this phenomenon, make a white knuckle fist. Your biceps will tens up, Although there is no movement in teh elbow joint!

According to John Scaringe, D.C., the president of the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians, a person with weak abdominal relies on his or her stronger hip flexors even during crunches, The trainee cannot get his torso off the floor by rounding his back with his abs, so he yanks on his spine with his hip flexors to gain momentum! It does not take an Einsteinto figure out that such training is worhtless for the abs and dangerous to the spine.


The problem of the hip flexor involvment was radically solved by Vladimir Janda, M.D., from Czechoslovakia, the consultant on rehabilitation for the World of Health Organization and teh world's leading expert on bacl problems, muscle function analysis and evaluation.

Professor Janda relaxed the psoas group using another neurological phenomenon: the Law of Reciprocal Inhibition, When a muscle contracts, its antagonist, or the opposite number, relaxes. It is about efficiency. The alternative would be similar to stepping on the gas and brake simultaneosly.

Dr. Janda had his patient assume the standard bent knee situp/crunch position and placed his hands under the latter's calves. the patient attempted to sit up while steadily pushing against the doctor's hands, This activated the knee flexor abd hip extensor muscles (the hamstrings and glutes). Reciprocal inhibition took place and he hip flexors relaxed. THE RESULT: BACK STRESS WAS ELIMINATED AND THE ABDOMINALS WERE ISOLATED!

How to execute it: Lie on the floor, the way you used to for crunches, have your partner sit at your feet as if he was holding your feet down, but instead have him cup behind your calves about a couple of inches above your ankles. your knees should be at a 90 degree angle. next have your partner pull back on your calves relitavly hard but not hard enough so the person cant keep there feet on the ground. you should pull back and down against your partner and while doing this squeeze your buttocks togeather (flex them)as hard as you can and blow out all your air cross your arms ( like your a mummy) and burrow your chin against your chest adn slowly roll up like a crunch. while doing this think about really going slow and curling up lifting eatch vertibra up one at a time. go as hgh as you can. You should only go up so that your sholder blades are around 7 inches off the ground. slowly go back down and rest and take deep breaths and repeat. If it is to hard you can try declines whitch you start in the up position and slowly decend.

try to do 3 sets of 5 reps. you can stack this with static cores and all other kinds of ab exercises to maximize effects. try to do them everyday or every other day. try to work up to 5 sets of 5. once you reach that point try lifting up on leg about 5 inches and do a side crunch. to really hit the obliques do the janda situp with you arms up and infront of you like your pushing something.

hope this has helped....
peace adn hair grease

oh and the most important part keep your feet and toes on the ground at all times no matter what because once though toes come off or heal or balls of your feet you defeat the purpose...a little can fly


just rember feet and toes down ,exhale ,chin tucked, butt tight and slow

great article, but what does a person do if they don't have a training partner?

*brainstorms for an idea to make him rich*

EXCELLENT post.

if you dont have a partner you can dish out some cash for a machine that alows you to do it by yourself. I bought it and it works wonders. its a little pricy and im sure you could make one wiht a little craftsmanship. but go to www.dragondoor.com good site and has some good books. also doing normal crunches work good to if you concentrate on keeping your feet adn toes on the floor adn really make sure to flatten your back against the ground and do a slow crunch feeling every lumbar come of the ground pushing that lower back into teh ground.

Ok, took me a bit of surfing (about 10 minutes) to actually find the ab thing. So for everyone's immediate gratification and perusal: "The AB Thingy"

I was able to do 'em just by lying at the end of my Universal guy machine and putting my legs behind the attachment you do leg curls (or whatever they are called) with!