Staying fit is just fine, but actors, actresses, models, and beauty magazines somehow made having a flat tummy a necessity for truly being ?fit?. To get into the trimmed stomach group, you?re going to need to perform specific exercises to get those abs in shape. But that’s not all there is to it. The abs you?re trying to get in shape is made up of a single muscle called the rectus abdominus. To get that six-pack you always wanted, you?re going to need to target that. When it comes to toning the upper abs, the first word that you can think of will be ?crunches?.
Crunches are the kinds of exercises that target your abdomen more than any other part of your body. When working your retus abdominus, you have to balance your ab workouts by targeting both upper and lower abs. The good thing is that the tricks in doing these crunches are fairly simple. Crunches that require you to move your upper torso will target the upper abs, while those that will have you move your legs and hips will work the lower abs.
If you feel you need to tone your upper abs more than your lower abs, then you can do specific upper ab workouts. Crunches can be performed differently to achieve this. A few variations of the crunches are as follows:
UV Crunch: No, there will be no sunburns of any kind. The UV crunch is a variation of the crunch that will require flexibility on your part since you will need to assume a letter V position, or U if you are more flexible. The starting position is done the same way you would do a basic crunch, only with your legs elevated either at a 45 degree angle or a 90 degree angle for the V and U crunch, respectively. Perform the crunch by lifting your head off the floor.
Frog Leg Crunch: The frog leg crunch?s position is laying face down, heels together, and knees as wide as possible. Perform the crunch by lifting your shoulders off the floor while your hands are behind your head. There are more difficult versions of this kind of crunch ? involving modified positions such as crossing your ankles or extending your arms above your head as opposed to your hands clasped behind your head.
Semi-Crunch: This kind of crunch is difficult but can be done if you have good endurance and physical strength. You can incorporate this to all kinds of crunches; with the basic position be lying on your back with legs together, hands behind your head, knees bent and pointing upwards. Perform the crunch by lifting your head off the floor; when you come back down, your head and shoulders shouldn?t touch the floor.
Crunches are the best exercises to do for working your abs. While you may specifically target your upper abs with various crunches, the whole rectus abdominus is being worked on. With slight modifications to these crunches, you can get the lower or upper ab workout that you need.
