Best Free Ab Exercises

If you think that having great abs means joining a gym, hiring a personal trainer and buying something called the “Ab Mutilator 9000”, then think again! There are a lot of exercises you can do in the comfort of your own home without laying out a dime. Here are some of the best free ab exercises you can do and some tips on getting the abs you’ve always wanted!

The first thing you need to do is set aside a time in your day that is reserved exclusively for exercise. Don’t make it straight after work or after dinner, or after anything! Putting it after something that you are likely to feel tired after doing is a sure fire way to fail in your exercise ambitions. Another thing you should try to do is find a place that is perfect for exercising, and use it each time you exercise. This way when you enter this space, you will automatically feel like exercising!

Many of the best free ab exercises you can do in the comfort of your own home or office are not the ones you have been taught to expect. Forget about sit ups and crunches and try the bicycle crunch! Lie on your back on the floor and clasp your hands behind your head. Alternately pull each knee up to your chest while lifting your shoulders off the floor to meet it. Avoid pulling on your neck, and stop when you get as far as you can. This is one of the best free ab exercises you can do to work both your six-pack and your obliques (the muscles on the sides of your stomach that give your abs definition)

Another effective exercise you can do that works both your abdominus muscles (six pack) and your obliques is the vertical leg crunch. This is one of the best free ab exercises you can do in your home or your office without any equipment, and you can use it to burn fat or build muscle. Lie on your back with your arms straight down your sides, palms flat on the floor. Lift your legs ninety degrees to the floor and cross them at the ankles. Then use your stomach, not your arms, to lift your shoulder blades off the ground whilst keeping your legs stationary.

This exercise is great because it is one of the few that is just as effective in high-rep quick sets as it is in low-rep slow sets. For really defined abs, however, you will want to do slow sets of 10, 8, 6 to build a good, solid muscle foundation. This is one of the best free ab exercises you can do by yourself, because it is one of the few that targets the lower abdominals really well. Many people struggle to define their lower abs, but with this technique you will soon build a rock hard waist line.

To focus on the upper abs you will probably want to try long-arm crunches. Of all the best free ab exercises you can do, this targets the upper abs best. Lie in sit-up position and extend your arms out behind your head. Keeping them stiff, use your stomach muscles to raise your shoulder blades slightly off the ground. The resistance from your arms makes this exercise really effective, without risking harm to you back.

These are three of the best free ab exercises you can do in your home or in your office, and they take almost no time. Don’t waste your time doing sit ups and crunches – rather use your exercise time as effectively as possible by using these three techniques daily.