Stretch Properly Before Your Ab Workout

Your abdominal muscles are the muscles that protect your abdomen and allow much of your movement. This muscle group is made up of the external oblique, the internal oblique, the transverses abdominals, the rectus abdominals, and the pyramidal muscle. The external and internal obliques are located on the sides of the abdomen; the internal oblique lies just underneath the external. The transverses abdominals is just a little deeper in the abdominal cavity than the internal oblique. The rectus abdominals muscle is the paired muscle that lines the outside of the abdomen. This is the muscle that is often referred to as the “six pack.” The pyramidalis muscle is absent in 20% of normal humans and is considered insignificant; it attaches to the pubic symphysis and pubic crest.

In this series of videos, you will learn more about abdominal exercises from a certified personal trainer. Watch the intro to ab exercises to get warmed up for exercising! Watch as our expert demonstrates different crunch exercises including the bent knee crunch, exercise ball crunch, long arm crunch, resistance ball crunch and the V crunch. Learn how different leg and hip raises can strengthen and condition your abdominal muscles. See fun new exercises like the weighted crunch and get a flatter tummy in no time!

"Hi! I’m Angela on behalf of expertvillage.com. Right now I’m going to show you one of the ways to work out your abs. In this first clip I’m going to show you what to do before you really do any ab exercises, you should stretch them first. What I always do and works out very well is take it onto your stomach and this is also a yoga move, just lay flat and then just push up gradually like this and you can feel your abs stretching, just breath in and out a few times and then to under stretch go forward and then lean down. And these are one of the ways to prepare yourself for doing ab exercises, another ways you can do is stretch out your legs, do walking, work on the treadmill a little bit but this is my favorite way to start out an ab workout."