Our abdominal muscles, an integral component of the “core” or trunk girdle, serve as a trunk stabilizer (isometrically contract) while we move the rest of our body eg. Moving legs and arms while doing other exercise, dancing, picking up items from the floor, putting a shoe box on a high shelf. Because these muscles don’t actually do heavy lifting, rather they provide a stable foundation for the legs and arms to do the heavy work, they need to be trained to have the endurance to remain contracted while the rest of the body is moving.

The abdominal exercises can be broken down into upper abdominal exercises, lower abdominal exercises, oblique exercises, and core exercises.

Upper-abdominal exercise

Straight-leg Crunch

Start: lie on your back, on a yoga/gym mat, with legs straight up in the air, heels pointed to the ceiling. Then, point fingers to the ceiling and curl up as high as you can, bringing your shoulders off the mat, reaching your fingers to your toes and hold this position for 1-3 seconds, then slowly lower your shoulders to the mat. Repeat continuously for 1 minute, repeat for 3 sets doing as many repetitions each 1-minute set.

To make this exercise less challenging, bend your knees and rest your feet on the floor.

To make this exercise more challenging, you can hold a dumbbell or weight plate in your hands.

Lower-abdominal exercise

Reverse Crunch

Start: lie on your back, on a yoga/gym mat, with arms at your side, legs straight up in the air, and heels pointed to the ceiling. Keeping your knees slightly bent, bring your knees toward your chest, lifting your hips and low back from the mat. Hold this position for 1-3 seconds, then slowly lower your hips and low back to the mat. Repeat continuously for 1 minute, repeat for 3 sets doing as many repetitions as possible each 1-minute set. Rest 30 seconds between each set.

To make this exercise less challenging, bend your knees and allow your feet to remain close to your hips/glutes.

To make this exercise more challenging, lie on a decline bench with your head at the high end and your hips toward the low end.

Oblique Exercise

Oblique Plank Crunch

Start: Begin in a right side-plank position lying on yoga/gym mat, right elbow and forearm supporting your upper body, with left foot resting on right foot and left fingers lightly touching back of your head. Move your left elbow and left knee toward one another, hold 1-3 seconds, then return to starting position. Repeat continuously for 1 minute, repeat for 3 sets doing as many repetitions as possible each 1-minute set. Rest 30 seconds between each set.

Core Exercise

Barbell Roll-out

Start: kneel on yoga/gym mat in front of a lightly loaded barbell (10-lb or 15-lb plates on both sides will suffice). Grip the bar with an overhand grip, hands shoulder-width apart. With arms straight and torso upright, roll the bar forward as far as possible with only knees and toes in contact with the mat/floor until arms and torso are parallel to the floor. Hold for 1-3 seconds, then reverse the movement to return to the starting position. Repeat continuously for 1 minute, repeat for 3 sets doing as many repetitions as possible each 1-minute set. Rest 30 seconds between each set.