Finding a good ab exercise to do that helps concentrate all your attention on your abs and not other areas is tough to find. Every exercise that you do should focus on engaging or activating the muscles in the msucles you are trying to work on . The sitting twist is a great ab exercise, if done properly, to help strengthen the muscles around the abs.
· Grab a light weight and begin by sitting on the floor or fitness mat. Bend knees and sit up nice and tall pulling your shoulders back and down your back while expanding your chest.
· Move your upper body until you can feel your abs keeping your upper body up. Meaning your back stays straight and the only part of you upper body you feel working are your abs.
· With your arms holding your weight close to your chest, move your torso and twist to one side while keeping all your weight in your abs. Do not reach with your arms but move your with your upper body.
· Return to middle and twist towards the other side.
Key Points –
–Keep your shoulder blades pulled back and pressed down your back with your chest expanded
–You should focus on your abs being engaged the entire movement.
-Angle your upper body so that you DO feel the abs engaged. For most people this is sitting up nice an tall and moving at an angle until you feel your abs working.
Variations –
–Once you gain strength in your abs, you can add weight to the exercise to make it more difficult always focusing on your form.
-You can also lift up your feet off the ground to add more difficulty to the exercise
How many to do – Shoot for form first, many people start this and just want to get 20 reps, try doing it correctly first and go until it gets tough.
Try starting with 30 seconds, then 45, then 1 minute
