last comment: 19/03/08

Tummy Exercises

Eventually, here they are: The long promised tummy exercises videos! However, there is one thing I would say before you start - and you may be disappointed:

Tummy exercises won't make you thin around the waist!

For that you will have to cut back on the chocolates, I'm afraid - and do some walking. What these exercises can do, is to improve your health drastically.

Before I give you the first movie which explains this mechanism, I would like to apologise for the poor quality of the movies. It is the first movie I ever made and I didn't skript a thing. So I had to do a lot of cuts to take the 'blahblah' out. On top of that I'm not a personal trainer, so my counting and explaining is a bit dragging on.

Why Tummy Exercises

So here is the first one that explains the benefits of tummy exercises for the posture.

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Basic Exercises

And now to the actual exercises. These are the basic ones which everybody can do.

It starts with a great stretch which softens the lower back which easily gets stressed by tummy exercises. A lot of people - including me for a while - don't do them because they think they will injure their back. Since I do the stretch before and after the exercise this has become much better. And as soon as the exercises kick in, the strain on the back becomes less.

The exercises are crunches for the upper tummy muscles and leg raises for the lower ones. Have a look at the movie and then read on for the number of repetitions and progression.

Crunches

Warm up - Standard Crunch - 1 count up, 1 count down

4 times

  • 4 crunches
  • rest 4 counts

Step 1 - Slow Crunch - 3 counts up, 1 count down

4 times

  • 4 slow crunches
  • rest 4 counts

Step 2 - Dipp Crunches - 4 up, 4 hold, 7 dip, 1 down

4 times

  • 4 dip crunches
  • rest 4 counts

lProgress

  1. Gradually recuce the resting counts to 2
  2. Gradually reduce the resting counts to 0
  3. Increase the number of Dipp Crunches

Leg Raises

Step 3

4 times

  • Chose the version which is suitable for you and do it as long as you can.
  • rest, remember to hold your back flat to the ground.

Progress

If it becomes too easy move to the next level. Do that for as long as you can and then add some time doing the previous level.

If you can do it one legged, but only very little with both bent legs, then start with the bent legs and immediately after you can't hold it anymore without any break do the one legged ones until you can't do those anymore. Then rest.

Session

A session would consist of warm-up and steps 1-3. The aim is to do the last crunch/legraise when you possibly couldn't do one more. What basically means that the last one only is half. Because otherwise you wouldn't really know if you could do one more.

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Recap of Basics and Advanced Exercise

From your feedback I found that the counting and the order in which to to the basic exercises didn't really become clear from the previous video. So in the first part of this one I will try to clarify a few things.

In the second half I'm introducing a new exercise which is very efficient and less time consuming than the basic exercises. However it is an exercise which might need a bit of practice to get it right, and it is definitely worthwhile to get familiar with the stretch shown in the Basic Exercises in order to soften and prepare the muscles of the back. This stretch is very useful as well after the training session is finished. During the session the back has a lot of 'holding' to do and will appreciate to be massaged a bit.

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Articles on Training

Events
Norwich Half Marathon 08
Race for Life 2008
Rowing League 07/08
Imola: MH 10K, 07
Rika: Race for Life 07

General
Ballet for Oldies
Training Plan 2008
Boxing vs. Kickboxing
What Sport to Choose?
Tummy
An Experiment
Good Use for Chocolate

Being Strong
Women and Strength?
Why Muscles?
Lucky Number 12
Shoulders
Legs
Chest
Ladies are Stronger!

Being Fit
Rowing - Fantastic Sport


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Author: Rika