Warm Up Stretches for Abdominal Exercises

Series Summary

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 abdominus, the rectus abdominis, and the pyramidalis muscle. The external and internal obliques are located on the sides of the abdomen; the internal oblique lies just underneath the external. The transverses abdominis is just a little deeper in the abdominal cavity than the internal oblique. The rectus abdominis 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, bicycle 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 wood chop exercise and the weighted ball toss. Get a flatter tummy by performing the exercises you see in these videos!

Video Transcript

"Hello, I’m Jacob Garcia with JGG Fitness Denver. On behalf of ExpertVillage.com, I want to show you some basic abdominal exercises. The abdominal muscles are an important group of muscles to support the lower back and protect the internal organs. Now before any exercise it’s always really important to make sure you get a good stretch. And right now I want to show you my favorite abdominal stretch called the seal. What I’m going to do is go ahead and get on my mat, have my knees about shoulder width apart and I’m going to walk my hands out just above my shoulders and keep them a little further than shoulder width apart. Now as I walk my hands out a little further I’m going to drop my hips and just sink my head and my shoulders and feel that good stretch right there in your abdominals and breathe. Okay, now you’re going to go ahead and bring your hips back up and keep your hands where they are and we’re going to go ahead and round out your back, get that good hollowness in your stomach, walk your hands out a little bit more and stick your fanny up right toward the ceiling and drop your armpits right towards the mat. Make sure you keep your back as round as possible. Okay now we’re going to go ahead and get back up, walk your hands back up, and you can sit back and now you’re ready for some great abdominal exercises. "