Welcome to the beginner Abs workout page. Abdominal workouts are highly sought after, almost everybody is looking for a flat stomach or a six pack. What is the best way to achieve this? should you perform loads of stomach exercises?
Misconception with stomach exercises
Whenever losing belly fat is mentioned or getting a flat stomach or six pact. Most people naturally assume that performing workouts with many stomach exercises is the way to go.
This assumption is a very common one and it’s known as the spot training myth, which is trying to lose body fat from a particular area of your body by targeting that area with direct exercises for that body part. There is a problem with this idea of direct training, and that problem is that it doesn’t work for losing belly fat.
Benefits of stomach exercises
Stomach exercises might not be great for burning belly fat but they still have many benefits and reasons to perform them. For example strengthening your abdominals and oblique’s offers many health and fitness benefits as they are major core muscles, benefits such as improved posture and a reduced chance of injury.
Also having well muscled abdominals will make your abdominals more prominent even if there is some excess body fat covering them. So they will become more visible sooner than if you never developed your abs.
The Workouts
I will include one workout that includes multiple abdominal exercises which will strengthen those abs and help them to become more prominent.
The other workout will include an abdominal exercise plus other exercises to burn off energy/fat to try and reduce belly fat and your overall body fat percentage.
The first workout is aimed at those who already have a low body fat percentage, your abs may already be visible however you may want them to stand out more and become more visible.
You can also add weight/resistance to some of these exercises to increase the difficultly.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Abdominal Crunches | 4 | 10 - 20 |
| Leg/Knee Raises | 4 | 10 - 12 |
| Sit ups | 4 | 10 - 20 |
This second workout is for those that wish to reduce overall body fat and help to achieve that much sought after flat stomach. The main difference between this workout and the first one, apart from the exercises, is to burn calories, ideally stored energy (body fat).
| Exercise | Sets | Reps/Time |
|---|---|---|
| Running - steady pace | 5 - 10 minutes | |
| Rowing - medium effort | 10 minutes | |
| Cycling - medium effort | 10 minutes | |
| Sit ups | 4 | 10 - 20 reps |
These workouts are just example workouts, you may wish to change some of the exercises, sets and time scales depending on personal ability and access to equipment.
