Abs Week: Steam Engine

It's the final day of abs week, and so I thought I'd give you a standing exercise. We tend to think of abs exercises as crunches or some other exercise where we sit or lie on the floor. Well, not always. There are some everyday exercises that help work your abs better than others. One of those is the steam engine.

You may know it as High Knees with a Twist, Standing Alternating Crunches, or some other name. The premise of all these is the same: Use your abs to lift your knees off the floor as you stand. Here is what you need to do:

Start in a standing position with your hands behind your head to give you a little resistance and make your body not move around so much in the pose. If this is too difficult during the move, you can bring your arms down and keep your fists clenched below your chin in a boxing stance.

Lift your right knee and try to bring your left elbow to meet your knee. You should be tightening your abs and using your ab strength to lift your knee, so your upper body shouldn't be moving down so your elbow can meet your knee. Rather you should be staying as straight as possible and lifting your knee as high as possible without bringing your upper body down.

Bring your right knee down and repeat on the other side. This time, bring your right elbow to meet your left knee. Repeat.

You should feel it on both sides of your abs because you are working diagonally. To see the fluid motion, watch the video below as a tool:

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: Maintainbodyshape.blogspot.com, Exercise.com, Fitstudio.com

Abs Week: Lower Body Russian Twist

We've tried different types of ab exercises this week focusing on the upper and lower abs and the obliques. So many complex exercises went through my head when I was thinking of which one I should put up today. But I settled on somthing simple (Yes, thank your God).

Today's exercise should be pretty familiar if you have tried yoga. It is called the Lower Body Russian Twist or the Lower Body Torso Twist. Typically, people tend to do it slowly as a stretch and maintain the position for a while. If you do it continuously though, you can work your abs, especially your obliques.

Lay flat on your back with your knees up in the air at about a 90 degree angle. Extend your arms straight to the sides with your palms down or up to hold down your upper body. Palms down seem to be easier to hold without slipping.

Rotate your lower body to the right using your waist. Be sure to keep your upper body firm on the floor, and try to keep your lower back planted as much as possible. As your knees are right, look to the left to create more of a twist at your waist.

Raise your knees back to the starting position, and then rotate to the other side. Repeat.

To make it more intense, you may straighten your knees. That makes your core work more to twist your lower body.

Here is a great video to guide you!

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: Rawfoodswitch.com, banyanbotanicals.com, houstonhealthychoices.com

Abs Week: Leg Raises

You may be asking what leg raises have to do with your abs. Well, the core is required in a lot of exercises where you need balance. For leg raises, you work your abs by using ab strength to hold your legs up, and as you lower closer to the floor, you need more strength to keep your legs up.

How to do the exercise:

Start in a lying position on your back. Place your palms under your butt with each palm under each butt cheek (left palm under left and right palm under right) facing the floor. Alternatively, you can just place your palms face down straight at your sides. Under the butt gives a little more support.

Lift your legs up to about a 90 degree angle to your upper body, so your heels are facing the ceiling.

Slowly lower your legs towards the floor keeping them as straight as possible without locking out your knees. Do not lower all the way to the floor but hover right above the floor keeping your abs tight and your head on the floor. Notice how you need a lot of ab strength to hold this position.

Raise your legs back to the starting position and repeat. Try to keep your knees together throughout the exercise so you are not lifting and lowering one leg at a time.

As always, here is a great video showing how this works:

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: Seventeen.com

Abs Week: The Ab Pike

Let's make it a little harder today, shall we? There is a little misconception about the way the abs are structured (we'll talk about this in more detail another day), but the ab muscles go from top to bottom not left to right as most people imagine. So when people talk about just working their lower abs, I don't agree with that level of focus. You should be working your whole ab region to get that beautiful definition all round. So it's a good thing we're focused on our abs this week, isn't it?

Today, we're trying out an exercise called the ab pike. This requires a bit of stability, and helps you build a strong core and build your balance as well. How does it work?

Start in the upper pushup position with your palms underneath your shoulders and your shins or toes on an exercise ball with your heels facing the back of the room. Make sure your body is straight and your abs are tight to support your back.

Slowly begin lifting your hips towards the ceiling into a downward facing dog position. As your hips lift, use your feet to roll the ball towards you until your body is in an upside down "V" position.

Roll back to your starting position and repeat. Alternatively, you can use a medicine ball instead of a regular stability ball. It may be a little harder for you though.

This really works your abs and you feel it when you're done. Here is a video to help guide you:

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: Exercise.com, Jesreynolds.com, Jennfit.ca

Abs Week: Russian Twist

Sometimes when we do crunches, we forget the obliques. The obliques are really on the sides of the abs, and give that definition that we all desire. I found a detailed video that shows how to do this great oblique workout called the Russian Twist. You may know it, but just may not know what it is called.

So before you watch the video, how do you do it? Here are a few easy steps:

Sit on your butt (like there is some other way to sit, right?) with your knees bent at an angle in front of you. You can either have your heels on the floor or your feet off the floor.

Your upper body should be at a 45 degree angle with your shoulders down, your abs tight, and your chest out. Make sure you are not putting pressure on your shoulders because the body innately wants to crunch forward as you do uncomfortable positions.

Hold your hands in front of you and twist your torso to one side. As you twist, try to touch the floor beside your butt on that side.

Rotate and twist to the other side. Keep going with this motion. You can do this with weights or a ball to increase the intensity.

Here is the video that describes each step of the movement:

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: Wholeliving.com, Guardian.co.uk, Gabbyandlaird.com

Abs Week: Plank Oblique

Yes, I've ordained it abs week! Women and men alike both struggle with getting firmer flatter abs. This week, I thought it would benefit us all to introduce some new abs routines that you may not have tried before. Sick of crunches? Try these out. There will be a new one every day.

Today, we're looking at the plank oblique. Here are a few steps to guide you:

Get into a plank position with your elbows on the floor beneath your shoulders. Keep your whole body as straight as possible from crown to heel.

Slowly lift your left foot off the floor and bring that knee towards your left elbow, keeping your left foot off the floor.

Bring your foot back to the starting position and repeat with the opposite knee.

Here is a great video to help:

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: Exercise.com