Oblique Crossover Crunches

Lie on your back with knees bent, hands behind your head. Keeping lower back pressed into the floor, lift your shoulder blades off the floor and then curl your upper body diagonally across your body towards your right knee. Contract your abs and obliques as hard as you can at the top of the movement. Lower back down and repeat on the same side before switching sides.

Alternating Arm and Leg Extension

Try this Exercise to Improve the Strength in your Lower Back

The aging process can rob the body of strength. A common area of concern for the golfer is the lower back. Statistics show that one out of every two golfers will incur a lower back injury during their playing careers.

The golf swing places a tremendous amount of stress on the lower back. For golfers who are not in top shape, the lower back will fatigue very quickly. For these golfers, stamina in the lower back decreases very quickly as they age if they don't work on reversing the natural muscles loss.

In order to combat the stresses of the golf swing and aging process, I strongly recommended starting a lower back strengthening exercise program. This type of golf-specific exercise program will lower the possibility of a golf-related injury and keep you playing as your body ages.

A great golf-specific lower back strengthening exercise is the Alternating Arm and Leg Extension. This exercise improves the strength and endurance of the muscles in your lower back, hopefully keeping you on the golf course a lot longer.

Here are the steps involved in this lower back exercise. Take this exercise very slow if you have not performed exercises like this in the past. Pay particular attention to your form and performing the movements correctly. Make sure you are in good health and cleared by your physician before starting your golf-training program.

Alternating Arm and Leg Extension

• Golf muscles trained: Lower Back, Deep Stabilizers of the Spine, Mid-Back, Upper Back, Glutes, Abdominals, Hip Flexors, and Hip Extensors
• Exercise benefits: This exercise helps strengthen the muscles of the lower and mid-back. For those golfers whose backs fatigue before the round is over, this exercise should provide some relief.

Step 1: Begin this exercise by placing your hands and knees on the floor.

Step 2: Place your hands directly under your shoulders with your knees directly under your hips.

Step 3: Your back remains flat with eyes focused on the floor. Visualize balancing a glass of water in the middle of your lower back. No spilling!

Step 4: From this position, simultaneously extend your left arm and right leg to positions that are directly out in front and behind the torso, respectively.

Throughout the extension of your arm and leg, maintain a flat back position. Keep balancing that glass of water on your lower back.

Step 5: Once both the arm and leg are extended, hold the position for two seconds and then return to the starting position.

Repeat this sequence with the opposite arm and leg. Alternate back and forth for 10 to 15 repetitions with each arm and leg.

This is one exercise of many you can include in your comprehensive, lower-back strengthening program. By doing so, you will feel much better and perform at your peak longer.

Beginner Abs & Back

The following exercises are basic moves targeting the abs and back. Always avoid any exercises that cause pain and, if you feel lower back strain, modify the move to a comfortable range of motion or place a rolled up towel under your hips to support your lower back.

• Check with your doctor if you have any injuries or medical conditions
• Warm up with some light cardio before this workout
• Perform each exercise for at least 1 set of 10-16 reps.
• Do each exercise slowly and focus on good form for each rep

Crunches
Lie on your back with your hands crossed across your chest or with your fingers on the sides of your head. Place your feet on the floor with legs bent. To begin the exercise, lift your torso, lifting shoulder blades off the floor and crunching your rib cage towards your lower belly. Hold for two counts, then lower slowly to the starting position. Repeat.

Jacknife

Begin lying on the floor with the legs straight up (knees slightly bent if needed) and hold the ball behind the head. Lower the legs a few inches and then bring the ball up as you bring the legs in, touching the ball to the toes in a full crunch. Lower and repeat for 10-12 reps.

Plank Press-Ups on the Ball

On your knees, place you forearms on the ball and roll forward a bit until your back is flat. Straighten the knees and bring the body into a plank position. Hold for 1-2 seconds, lower the knees and repeat for 10-12 reps.

Roll Ups with the Ball

Begin seated on the floor, legs and spine straight and the ball extended out in front of you. Pull the abs in and engage the pelvis as you roll down onto the mat, feeling each vertebrae make contact, taking the ball over the head. Roll back up to start taking the ball up and reaching forward as you come back to sitting. Repeat for 10-12 reps and bend the knees to modify this move if your back is arching off the floor.

Reverse Hyper-Extension on the Ball

This is our forth exercise module in our Total core workout for abs.This intermediate/advanced Total Core Workout targets all the muscles of the torso include the abs, back and pelvis. These are dynamic exercises using an exercise ball and resistance band or tube.Lie face down on the ball and roll forward until you're resting on your forearms, legs straight and toes resting on the floor. Keeping the legs straight, lift them up until the body is in a straight line, concentrating on the lower back. Lower the legs slightly and repeat for 10-12 reps.

Ball Plank with Leg Lift

Get into plank position with the feet/shins resting on the ball, hands under shoulders and abs contracted. Keeping the core tight, lift the right leg off the ball a few inches and lower. Lift the left leg off the ball and lower. Continue alternating legs for 8-10 reps on each side.

Ball Pass

Begin by lying on your back with the legs straight up (bend them if needed) and holding the ball straight up over the body.
(A) Put the ball between the feet, squeezing them to keep the ball in place, and lower both the arms and legs down towards the floor.
(B) Bring them back up and take the ball in your hands.
(C) Lower the arms and legs down towards the floor again and continue, exchanging the ball between the hands and feet for 8-12 reps.

Total Core Workout

This intermediate/advanced Total Core Workout targets all the muscles of the torso include the abs, back and pelvis. These are dynamic exercises using an exercise ball and resistance band or tube. Take care when performing these exercises and avoid arching the back. If you find this difficult, you can place a rolled up towel under the lower back/hips for extra support. As always, avoid any exercise that causes pain and check with your doctor if you have any injuries or medical conditions.

Horizontal Wood Chops
Wrap tube or band around a sturdy object and stand to the left, holding handles in both hands. Keeping the arms straight, swing the arms across the body and rotate towards the left, contracting the abs. Return to start and repeat for 10-12 reps before switching sides.

Principle #2:

To have the best-looking abs, one needs to exercise them correctly and understand abdominal anatomy in addition to following principle #1.

This principle is pretty much self-explanatory and it leads us to the next topic, which is that of abdominal anatomy.

Abdominal Anatomy
There Are Four Main Muscle Groups That Make Up The Full Abdominal Wall:

• The Rectus Abdominis (composed of upper and lower abdominals)
  
• The Oblique Muscles
  
• The Intercostal Muscles
  
• The Serratus Anterior
  

ABSculpting

First of all, everyone in this world is born with abs. Ask any student of college anatomy that has opened up a human body and analyzed what is inside. They will tell you that every human subject had abdominal muscles regardless of training. So if we all have abs, then how come we can't see them? The reason for that is the wall of fat covering them that is preventing them from being visible. This leads to the first rule for getting abs:

Principle #1:
In Order To Get Abs, You Need To Decrease Your Body Fat Percentage.

There is no "if's" or "but's" about this. Too much body fat and you won't be able to see you abs. In order for men to start seeing some of their abs they need to be at 10% or below. Women, on the other hands, start to see lines at 13% since women typically store body fat in other areas such as the hips and glutes.

In order to lower body fat, a good and balanced nutrition program consisting of 40% carbs, 40% proteins and 20% fats, in conjunction with cardio vascular exercise a good weight training program that exercises your whole body and includes abdominal work are the key to long term fat loss.The next principles will be discussed in the next topic.

Tips for Strong, Flat Abs

If you are doing abdominal exercises in the hopes of getting a strong core and a flat stomach, you aren’t alone. Ab exercises are some of the most popular exercises for both novice and elite athletes. However to get a flat belly and defined abs takes more than just crunches. You also need to reduce the layer of body fat covering up your well-defined abs.

Abdominal Exercise
To develop your abs you will perform specific abdominal exercises that work all the abdominal exercises. There are many exercises you can do to work the abs. There are also some great products that you can use at home, such as a large exercise ball. Using the ball for crunches requires that you stabilize your torso while balanced on the ball and you end up using more muscles than when performing standard crunches.

Nutrition
In order to decrease body fat and gain muscle requires proper nutrition. You'll need a balanced diet of carbohydrate, protein and fat. Eating several small meals throughout the day helps many people stay more satisfied and reduces hunger. Other tips for avoiding fat gain include: getting calcium, eating breakfast and eating high fiber foods. Make sure you stay well-hydrated by drinking water throughout the day and be sure not to cut calories too drastically or you could inadvertently lower your metabolism.

Aerobic Exercise
Aerobic exercise is the best way to burn calories and manage (or lose) weight. Reducing your calories without exercise will lead to initial weight loss, but you'll likely reach a plateau and you may also lose muscle. A personal exercise plan will get you past plateaus and can help you maintain muscle.

Giving Up on the 'Ideal'

Now you know the truth: The goal to get flat abs may:

• Require more exercise than your schedule will allow and more than you can mentally handle
• Require more attention to your diet than you're willing/able to expend
• Require more strict adherence to diet/and exercise than you have the time or energy to spare
• Not be in your genetic cards

If that's the case, maybe it's time to get rid of that goal. It may seem foreign to imagine an exercise life without it, but it's possible and tossing that goal may actually be a relief, allowing you to focus on what you CAN change.

Now's the time to ask yourself:

• Do I really want flat abs?
• Am I willing to work as hard as I need to to get them?
• If I will work that hard, am I willing to accept that it still may not happen, even if I do everything right?
• If I did get six-pack abs, what will that change in my life? What will flat abs actually do for me?
• What would happen if I let go of this ideal and focused on other goals?

Accepting that your body works as a whole and not in pieces and parts is the first step towards releasing that ideal body that lurks in your mind and embracing the one you have now--belly flab and all. Maybe it's time to finally let that goal go and realize you aren't a failure for not reaching it.

What You Really Need for Flat Abs

Despite what you think, ab exercises are NOT the number one thing you need to do for flat abs. In fact, getting flat abs requires hard work, commitment and something else you have no control over: cooperative genes.

The only way to get flat abs is to lose body fat and you already know what that requires:

1.Regular cardio exercise
2. Strength training for entire body (treating the abs just like any other muscle in the body)
3. A healthy, low calorie diet

You must get all three of these (especially your diet) right on a consistent basis in order to even get close to flat abs. And, something else important: If you've lost body fat and you still don't have flat abs, don't be terribly surprised. Many of us will never see that six-pack because:

• The body fat level required to get flat abs is lower than you can sustain with your current lifestyle/schedule, or
• The body fat level required is lower than is healthy for your body to function.

So, even if you follow a perfect program and a perfect diet, flat abs still may elude you. Does that mean you should give up? You shouldn't give up on exercise but, maybe, giving up the ideal of six-pack abs is exactly what you need to make your life better.

The Myth That Wouldn't Die

If you've been doing crunches forever and are miffed that you still don't have flat abs, you're no doubt operating under what I consider the biggest myth of weight loss in existence (a.k.a. The Myth That Wouldn't Die): That you can do an exercise for a certain area of your body and get rid of the fat there.

Why else would you spend so much time doing crunches if you didn't believe they would burn the fat off your belly? And it's no wonder we still think this...pick up any popular fitness magazine and you'll find plenty of headlines to feed that belief. For example, in the February issue of Fitness Magazine, the giant title on the front cover? "Banish Belly Fat - Tone, tighten , trim in just 7 moves." 7 moves to flat abs? Who wouldn't want that? But it's these kinds of headlines that keep us stuck in the same place for months and years, trying the same thing over and over and thinking we'll finally get it right.

The truth is, six-pack abs are difficult to get. I've been exercising for 14 years and consider myself in excellent shape. I don't have a six-pack and never have (and not for lack of trying). It took me years to understand that goal wasn't right for me and, when I finally did, my life changed for the better. What about you? Is it time to let go of old goals and set new ones? Maybe it'll help to get a clear idea of what it takes to get flat abs.

Get flat abs

You want flat abs. I know this because of the constant emails, the forum posts and from the fact that the number one search term on my site each and every week is 'Abs.' One post that made me stop and think was this one: "I've been working on my lower belly pooch for about 2.5 years and it still won't go away even though I have a good diet." That's a long time, but I'll bet many of you have been working at it even longer. If that's the case, have you ever wondered why you persist? Is there anything in life you'd stay with for that long when you've failed at it?

Despite the facts, many people still think they can get flat abs if they just keep doing enough ab exercises. In other words, we think we can't reach this goal because we're doing doing something wrong. The truth is, getting six-pack abs is hard and, if you haven't seen yours yet, maybe it's not what you're doing that's the problem.

Plank On Elbows And Toes

The plank exercise ranked number 10 in the ACE study and is a great way to build endurance in both the abs and back, as well as stabilizer muscles. To do it right:
1. Lie face down on mat resting on the forearms, palms flat on the floor.

2. Push off the floor, raising up onto toes and resting on the elbows.

3. Keep your back flat, in a straight line from head to heels.

4. Tilt your pelvis and contract your abdominals to prevent your rear end from sticking up in the air.

5. Hold for 20 to 60 seconds, lower and repeat for 3-5 reps.

Ab Rocker

The Ab Rocker (or roller) is number 9 for targeting the rectus abdominis. To do it right:

1. Sit on the Ab Rocker and grab the bars in each hand.

2. Contract the abs and rock forward, originating the movement from the abs rather than using momentum.

3. Release and repeat for 1-3 sets of 12-16 reps.

4. Go slowly to reduce momentum. Try to focus on the abs rather than pushing with the arms.

Full Vertical Crunch

In a full verticul crunch, you really work the abs by involving both the upper and lower body. To do it right:

1. Lie on your back and extend the legs up towards the ceiling.

2. Place hands behind your head (lightly cupping it) and contract the abs to lift the shoulder blades off the floor.

3. At the same time, press the heels towards the ceiling, creating a 'u' shape with the torso.

4. Lower down and repeat for 12-16 reps.