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Do you focus on improving your waistline by attempting new exercise routines? The ‘ripped’ abs look appeals to you. Your waistline is perhaps not in the best viewing stage, however. A common beginner exercise to strengthen the waist is to perform a regular sit-up This type of ab training is common knowledge and would be one of the first exercises people would name for strengthening the core. I will, in a minute, talk about some types of sit ups that can be performed. When the ab exercises did not give you the waistline you desired, you might have looked for other things to incorporate into your schedule. The question is how to gain muscles while getting the top outcome desired. Your research may have led you to crunches and even to planks. Which exercise gives the best results is what we will talk about next. Let’s talk abdominal exercises and give you the answers on how to gain muscles fast. Sit-Ups I have said before that many have done this workout to slim their waistline. So as we have alluded to there are other ab exercises out there but before we discuss those let's do a bit of a summary of the common sit-up. As the name implies, the starting position for this exercise is in a sitting position, usually with your knees bent up towards your chest. There are few common arm placements for this exercise. Most people will tend to place their arms behind their heads so that their wrists are supporting their necks. Others like to have their arms folded across their bellies. Each one gives a bit of a different workout so choose whichever one feels the most comfortable. From this sitting position, start to slowly lower your back down towards the ground. To get the most from this exercise, go slowly, keep your back straight and try and use only your ab muscles. Now that you have your back on the ground, reverse what you just did and slowly raise your upper body back up towards your knees. Repeat this sequence for as many repetitions as you possibly can. One common variation that many people use is to keep their legs extended straight out instead of having them bent. Another benefit of the straight leg variation is that it makes the sit-up a bit simpler to perform. You now have more weight in front of the body so that when you are lifting your back, your legs will stay on the ground. If you are anything like me, you have probably been doing sit-ups for a long time but the results that you expected never showed up. Why you may ask? It's actually a pretty simple explanation. The process of performing a sit-up uses the muscle known as the Psoas muscle. The Psoas muscle spans from the front of the upper legs to the pelvis and then upwards to each of the vertebrae. These muscles combine to form what most people know of as the hip flexors. Knowing what you know now, try remembering all those sit-ups that you used to do during your workouts. How many times were you able to get that "burn" feeling in your muscles? I will hazard a guess here and say that it wasn't all that often. If not sit-ups, what else? Crunches All you need to do is vary how you do your sit-up and you are on to crunches. You can still keep your knees up but the difference with this exercise is the range of movement of your upper torso. To do a crunch, lie on your back and curl your upper body towards your knees. The key here is to have your lower body remain on the ground (unlike the sit-up). This is important because by keeping your lower back stationary, you now isolate and work only the abs. In most cases you are not going to be able to get your upper torso all the way to your knees. Just bend up as much as you can and then slowly let yourself down. Replace your sit-ups with crunches and you will surely feel the difference in your abs. New School Of Thought There are some experts in the industry that still feel that both sit-ups and crunches are hard on the body. The reasons are that they feel these lead to poor posture and potential lower back injuries. Since both of these exercises involve bending or curving your spine, these individuals argue that you are putting your back at risk of injury. With these arguments put forth, what other options do you have to exercise your ab muscles? Try planks. Planks Plank exercises give you the benefit of exercising your abdominal muscles, your back muscles as well as your core muscles. These are also great strength building exercises for push-ups. Performing a plank is very similar to performing a push-up. Start in a downward position with your belly on the ground and your elbows bent. Press your body upwards like a push-up, however stay resting on your elbows and forearms. It is critical that you maintain a straight back while in this position. Hold the position for 10 seconds to 1 minute and then slowly let yourself down. Slowly let yourself down, breathe and then repeat this same sequence as many times as you can. You will be guaranteed to feel your abs burning after these ones. So now you have a few options in your abdominal strengthening tool belt. The handy thing is that you do not need any fancy equipment; you just need a bit of space and some motivation. While many people have and still use sit-ups as their exercise of choice, I recommend challenging yourself to either crunches or planks. Both planks and crunches deliver the "how" in how to gain muscles and will deliver you far greater benefits. Try these new exercises and monitor how your body reacts to them. By doing this you are able to determine which exercises work best for your body. Want your body to stay healthy and injury free, just use these core strengthening exercises on a regular basis. To learn more about how to gain muscles you can check out his website here: http://www.howtogainmusclesinfo.com
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