The Three Top Abdominal Exercises for Women

The Three Top Abdominal Exercises for Women

Everyone admires beautiful abs. Women and men alike consider ab exercises to be some of the toughest exercises of all. However, this is not true. Abdominal exercise can be easier than you think. Both the upper and lower abdominal muscles need to be worked to get the best overall look and strength. There are a variety of crunch positions that will work but here are three of the best ab exercises for women who want to get great results.
Exercise Ball Crunches - This is a good one if you are just starting to exercise.
- Step 1 - Sit on the ball and place your hands on the back of your head and walk your legs out lowering your body on to the ball until your upper back and shoulders are all that remain on top of the ball. Legs should be shoulder width apart.
- Step 2 - Lift your pelvic to straighten your lower back and tighten your buttocks and contract the abdomen muscles.
- Steps 3 - Keeping your elbows pointing out to the side slowly raise the shoulders slightly being careful not to pull the neck. You should feel the crunch in the abdominals; the thighs and buttock muscles will be working too.
- Step 4 - Hold the position for a moment then slowly lower the shoulders to the ball and repeat for as many times as you can perform the exercise without straining.
Rest for 30 seconds between sets. Do 2 or 3 sets of 12 to 15 repetitions every other day.
Floor Bicycle Movement – This exercise does not require any equipment.
- Step 1 - Lie on your back with your hands behind your head and legs straight out.
- Step 2 - Contract your abdomen muscles and lift one leg bending your knee while raising your shoulders slightly off the floor without pulling your neck.
- Step 3 - Bring your elbow and knee together bending so that the elbow and knee just touch.
- Step 4 - Lower and then change sides so the alternate legs in a bicycle movement touching knee to elbow. Repeat .
Move through the positions slowly. You can vary this ab exercise by bringing the knee and elbow of the opposite sides together requiring the upper body to turn slightly from side to side. This maneuver is very effective and works the oblique as well as both the upper and lower abdominals.
Hanging Knee Raises – This is a most effective exercise but needs gym equipment (Captain’s Chair. )
- Step 1 - The body is held upright by the arms resting on padded arm bars with the feet handing down. The lower back is straight and supported by a back rest.
- Step 2 - Contract the abdominal muscles and lift both knees slowly up toward the chest,
- Step 3 - Pause and then slowly lower the legs back down to the starting position. The muscles are constantly contracted throughout the exercise.
This abdominal workout is the most effective because it works both the upper and lower abs, back and arm muscles for an overall core strengthening exercise.
The Best Results It's not enough to just focus on doing abdominal exercises. For women especially, - you can have rock hard abdominal muscles, but if there is body fat covering them you won’t be able to see them. To make these exercises not only pay off but really show off you need to consider the following;
- Eating a well balanced diet low in saturated fats
- Doing a cardio or Aerobic warm-up before a workout
- Stretching both before and after exercise for increased flexibility
- Making regular exercise part of your lifestyle
Conclusion Pay attention to what you eat and when you eat. It is as important as exercising if you want to lose weight or maintain an ideal body weight. If you want results you have to do the things that are needed to get the results. It is as simple as that. Once you get started in any exercise program it will become second nature and a part of your everyday routine. So suck in that stomach and get the beautiful abs you always wanted.

by DEBORAH PROSSER

The Three Top Abdominal Exercises for Women

The Nintendo Wii gets the thumbs up from women

The Nintendo Wii gets the thumbs up from women

Video games publishers have been working hard to target their games towards women but this has been no easy task. Many women are not interested in shoot-em-ups or violent games and playing meaningless games for hours is not something they have time for. It is said that women play to achieve something and games like sudoku, brain training games and general knowledge games that are easy to pick up and put down do just this by exercising the brain.
The revolutionary Nintendo Wii launched in late 2006 has introduced an new concept in video gaming and has seen more and more women getting involved. The physical nature of the game play with the Nintendo Wii has the added appeal of ‘achieving something’ – maybe the thinking is that you can get fit and lose calories while having fun, and all from the comfort of your front room! It would certainly be more cost effective than going to the gym. The social side of gameplay with the Nintendo Wii creates another plus point also, as the whole family can get involved, removing the ‘isolation’ factor of other video games consoles.
The newly announced Nintendo Wii game Wii Fit, is set to be a hot seller and could have women reaching for their purse strings. Wii Fit is a full on exercise game set to give you more of a workout than Wii Sports. The game features over 40 different activities and is designed to keep you physically fit via a dedicated peripheral, the wireless Wii Balance board which comes with the game. Training falls into 4 different categories: aerobics, yoga, muscle conditioning and balance games. The calorie busting fun of Wii Fit could be used as a slimming tool which would be a move into the lifestyle category, so men, women, children and grandparents alike could all benefit while still retaining all the fun of video gaming. It is thought that Wii Fit will hit our stores in early 2008 although Nintendo haven’t given a released date yet.
The Nintendo Wii obviously reaches areas of the market that other video gaming consoles do not, so its no wonder that the Nintendo Wii console has created such a buzz since its launch and flown off the shelves for months after!


by KAREN BENNETT

The Nintendo Wii gets the thumbs up from women