Bicycle Exercise for the Beach

Video Transcript

"The next exercise I'm going to show you is called the bicycle. The bicycle is an excellent exercise for the entire abdominal area, your rectus abdominis and your obliques. It's a little bit more of an advanced exercise, so I recommend you start with the beginner exercises such as the crunch and the reverse tilt, and then progress to the bicycle. You're on your back to start, and you're going to start with your hands right by your temples as well. Feet are up, bent at 90 degrees. From here what you're going to do is you're going to think about bringing your elbow up toward your opposite knee. You do not have to touch your knee. If you cannot touch your knee it's not a problem. What we want to focus on is bringing the shoulder blade up and rotating the torso. That's more important than actually touching your knee. I'm going to demonstrate slowly. As you come up and as your knee comes in towards your elbow and as you rotate your torso, your other leg is going to stray, you're going to extend your other leg. Okay? So come back to center and switch, all the while keeping your abdominal muscles tight. This is an advanced exercise, but if you feel that you want to try it, I recommend that you start with your feet a little higher in the air, and as you become stronger you lower your feet. I'll show you. So if you're just beginning this exercise, you've never done it before, bring your hands up towards your temples and keep your feet up a little bit higher. That will reduce the strain on your lower back. As you become stronger, you can start to lower your legs down toward the ground. However, I do not recommend doing this exercise with your feet touching the floor or close to touching the floor because it puts excess strain on your lower back."