Crunches and sit-ups are easily associated with discomfort and boredom. The key to avoiding this boredom is switching up your abdominal targeted exercises and finding moves you don’t absolutely hate.
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There are plenty of variations you could incorporate into your fitness routine, listed below are just a few!
1. Ankle Taps
Performed correctly, ankle taps target the obliques. Be sure to contract the abdominal muscles, drawing the navel down to the spine.
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Avoid curling your shoulders forward, using momentum, and relying on your back and neck to perform the motion.
2. Sit-Ups
One of the most common, and basic, is supine abdominal exercises, sit-ups are often done wrong.
When positioning your hands behind your head, it is best to consider them your support, not the force pulling you up.
The point is to engage your abs to pull yourself up, not your arms and hands, so place your hands behind your ears instead, or when you begin to feel yourself losing form.
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The version you see in the video is one that is often seen in CrossFit gyms.
3. Butterfly Sit Ups
The range of motion actually increases with the external rotation of the legs, allowing you to actually
touch the floor in front of your feet.
This may not seem like much of a difference, but it does have you work a little harder!
4. Sit-Up with Cross Punch
Rotation! Rotation! Rotation! You get a two-for-one with this abdominal exercise, combining a complete sit-up with two cross-body punches.
With the position of the body, you create resistance for yourself at rotation, adding a greater challenge to your average sit-up!
5. Modified V-Ups
Your Hip Flexors are working hard for this one, so if you have any issues with yours, it’s best to opt for a different exercise.
This Modified v-up can be done with the hands planted behind the hips or with arms extended overhead or forward. Try to maintain a neutral spine, keeping the chest open, and shoulders braced.
6. Single Leg Modified V-Ups
Similar to the modified v-ups listed above, maintain good form. This one is for those who experience back pain when lifting both feet from the floor.
There are so many other abdominal variations you could try, so keep it fresh. No matter what you choose to do to work on your abdominal muscles, make it dynamic, safe and fun!
Jasmine Danielle is a Los Angeles-based dancer and fitness trainer. She received her BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has studied with FiTour, the National Federation of Personal Trainers, and the Equinox Group Fitness Training Institute.
Jasmine is currently a Group Fitness Instructor for Equinox, Everybody Los Angeles, and Sandbox Fitness. Her fitness modalities include ballet, dance cardio, barre fitness, TRX, treadmill interval training, cardio kickboxing, jump rope, indoor cycling, and metabolic conditioning.
