Building Muscle 101's Beginner Ab Workout

I hope you enjoyed the beginner ab routine with Tori. Tori is one of our in house certified professional trainers who really knows her stuff. Thank you Tori!

You can do this routine once or twice per week.

Remember, if you choose to do this routine twice per week, make sure you give your abs at least 4 days of rest in between each workout.

That way, the abdominal muscles are fully recovered. For example, if you perform this routine on a Monday, the next time you should be using this routine is on Friday.

Before we get started with the ab routine, I strongly suggest you do a 5 minute, general warm up with an aerobic exercise of your choice. That can be an exercise bike, elliptical trainer, treadmill, stair stepper or other aerobic exercises that will warm up your body.

Remember to always plenty of water during exercise. Try and take a small water bottle with you to the gym.

Let’s get started with the routine.

The first thing to do in this ab workout is to warm up. Take 5 to 10 minutes and use the elliptical trainer, exercise bike, or any other warm up exercise you enjoy. Get your body moving and your heart beat up a little.

Once you’ve finished that, let’s head over to our first exercise, the crunch.

Crunches

The ab crunch is a pure ab exercise which effectively stimulates the ab area. First, let’s get into position for the crunch. Lie on the floor with your arms across your chest. Try putting your legs over a nearby bench. The calves should rest on the center of the bench seat. Loosely cross your arms across your chest.

Now that we are in position, tighten your abs and slowly curl your shoulders up off the floor. What you want to do is curl your shoulders up toward your knees until your shoulder blades come one to two inches off the floor. Remember not to lift your lower back from the floor.

When you’ve reached your maximum forward motion, stop and steady your body in the fully contracted position. Pause for a moment and than, slowly lower your torso back to the starting position. Do not allow the shoulders to completely rest before you start the next contraction, nor permit your elbows or arms to swing and add momentum to the motion. The movement should all be caused by the middle to upper abs.

Try doing 2 sets of 20 repetitions for this exercise.

For the rest periods, you want to ensure that your muscle is recovered before attempting another set. Generally, a 30 to 40 second rest will suffice.

Once you’ve finished the crunch, we can go over to our next exercise which is the hanging leg raise. Now that our abs are warmed up, we can tackle our next exercise.

Remember, drink a lot of water while you are exercising.

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Hanging Leg Raise

Let’s get into position for the leg raise. Grasp the handles of the leg raise apparatus to support your body. First, once your arms are in a comfortable position, hang your body straight down. Keep your knees slightly bent throughout the entire movement.

To perform the exercise, raise your legs until they are just past parallel to the floor, lower and repeat. Do not swing your body. For those who are unable to perform this exercise with straight legs, try bending your knees and tucking them into the waist at each repetition. Remember to try and point your toes downward. After a few weeks, you will be able to do this exercise with straight legs.

Keep the movement fluent, slow, and controlled.

Try doing 2 sets of 15 repetitions.

For the rest periods, you want to ensure that your muscle is recovered before attempting another set. Generally, a 30 to 40 second rest will suffice.

Once you’ve finished the leg raise, we can go over to our next exercise which is the standing torso twist.

Standing Torso Twist

This exercise is all about the mind/ab connection. You really have to concentrate on “feeling” the abs work on this exercise to get the most benefit from it. Let’s get into position for this exercise. First, your going to have to use a light bar like a broom stick to perform this exercise.

Place your feet about 2 feet apart, with your arms over a light bar like a broom handle. Allow the bar to rest on your shoulders.

Start the actual motion by tightening the central part of your abdominal muscles. Pulling first, the right side of the abs, deliberately swing your shoulders and arms to the right. Hold the position there while you once more tighten the abdominal muscle. Slowly release to return to the forward facing position. Move to the left using the left side of the abs.

Remember, the entire motion should be slow and with no bounce at the end.

Try doing 2 sets of 15 repetitions.

For the rest periods, you want to ensure that your muscle is recovered before attempting another set. Generally, a 25 to 35 second rest will suffice.

Alright, that’s it for our beginner ab routine. Now, I would suggest doing another 5 to 10 minutes of light cardio to cool your body down from the training routine.

For those of you who don’t yet know what some of the terms are in the video, let’s go over the basic ones:

• What Is A Repetition?

One repetition consists of a series of muscle contractions with a weight or movement such as one sit up or push up. A series of repetitions is called a set. For example, 10 repetitions of push ups is considered one set.

• What Is A Set?

A set is a series of repetitions. For example, 10 repetitions of sit ups for example is considered 1 set. 10 repetitions followed by a brief rest and another series of 10 repetitions is called 2 sets of 10 repetitions for a total of 20 repetitions. Often indicated as: 2 x 10 repetitions, as in the video.

• How Much Water Should I Be Drinking?

You should have at least 2 eight ounce glasses of water 20 to 30 minutes before you workout. Drink one cup of water for every 15 minutes of exercise and more in extreme temperatures. Make regular water breaks a part of your training.

In terms of drinking water after your exercise, you should drink 2 to 3 cups of water within two hours after exercise. Continue to drink and additional 30 to 50 percent more fluid for the next 3 to 4 hours.

• How Should I Be Breathing?

Inhale going up and exhale going down. This is very important! You must practice breathing properly when you are exercising. Really concentrate on your breathing.

Thank you for joining us for our beginner ab training routine.

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