Getting Abs
Most of us want to attain a small and tight midsection with abdominal definition. For many, this will take dieting and exercising to get rid of any body fat that is covering up the waistline. Of course, once you lose that extra fat, you'll wanted the abdominal muscles to be etched out for a six-pack look.
Upper Ab Exercises
This will take workouts for the entire midsection region - including the upper abs, lower abs, and obliques. The focus of this article is on upper ab exercises.
Without a doubt, one of the best upper ab exercises is the crunch. To do them you lie on your back and raise the upper body to "crunch" your abs. When performing crunches, you need to focus on flexing the abdominal muscles on every rep. You can do them slowly - holding the crunch longer on every rep, or quickly to really get the abs burning. One thing you don't want to do while crunching is to put your heads behind your head to help pull your upper body upward as this can lead to a neck injury. Try folding your arms over your chest instead.
As one of the top upper abdominal exercises, the crunch can be done a few different ways. The most common is while lying on a floor or bench. You can also use crunch benches or equipment specifically built with head support - which will help spare the neck muscles. You can even use cables to do crunches with. The best form of the crunch in my eyes is the core ball version of the exercise. Performing crunches on a core ball is a great upper ab exercise because you will be able to lower the upper body beyond parallel to the floor, which will give your ab muscles a nice stretch. Getting a stretch in the muscles is essential to optimal muscular development. You can add resistance when you do core ball crunches by holding a medicine ball.
Another one of the best upper ab exercises is the decline sit-up. To do them you lie on a declined bench and raise the upper body using the muscles of the upper abs. Doing sit-ups in this position allows for more range of motion than normal sit-ups. Twisting to each side on alternating reps will allow you to activate more muscles.
An ab roller will allow you to do another one of the best upper abdominal exercises. Get on your knees and grip the ab roller handles, roll the roller forward until your arms are almost straight out, then use the upper ab muscles to return to the starting position. This exercise is a bit of a different movement than other upper ab exercises, so it may make you really sore if you haven't done it before.
Most gyms will have various machines you can do upper ab exercises on. These will usually have you pushing your upper body against resistance. Ab machines can be useful, but it's best to do the more natural movements that you get from crunches and sit-ups.
For a six-pack look, start doing upper ab exercises regularly now.
