Standing Ab Exercises
Flickr Photo by eyesplash Mikul
Whether you’re pregnant, have a back injury, or just want to add a little variety into your ab routine, standing ab exercises can be a great way to go. I’ve been doing them exclusively since my 2nd trimester of this pregnancy, particularly in my 30 Day Shred for Pregnancy workout, but you can even find them incorporated in some of our favorite workouts like Jillian Michaels’ Banish Fat Boost Metabolism.
My midwife keeps telling me that it’s actually hard to feel the baby’s position due to my tight abs. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anything like that in my life, but it’s motivation to keep up my ab routine throughout my pregnancy.
The other great benefit to doing standing ab exercises is that you actually get a bit of cardio while you’re doing them. It’s debatable as to whether they’re as effective (or more effective) than doing abs on your back, however, I think doing them is better than doing nothing, and they can’t hurt.
Also, if you add a little weight, you can add some resistance and get an even better burn.
Here are some ways to do standing ab exercises:
1. Pike kicks: Stand with your feet together and hands over your head. Alternate kicking each leg up to your waist and touching your toes.
2. Overhead knee lifts: Stand with your feet together and hands over your head. Alternative bringing your knee up and pulling (crunching) your arms down so that your elbows meet each knee.
3. Side crunches: Stand with one leg out to the side and the same hand behind your head. Lift your knee up to the side and bring your elbow down to attempt to meet it – basically doing a side bend and crunching yourself over in a 45 degree angle.
You can also find some great standing ab exercises on Livestrong, as well as doing a quick search on YouTube.com.
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I am always in search of good ab workouts and the standing abs exercise is a great one that can be used whenever and wherever. Thanks so much for sharing this!
Hi Kristen
I have been doing the 30 day shred for about 6 months now and recently found out I was pregnant. I am terrified of gaining as much weight as I did in previous pregnancies (around 15 kilos) and want to continue with my exercise routine as long as possible. I haven’t gotten the OK from my caregiver yet, but, until then, a few questions: I read somewhere that squats cause the placenta to “disconnect” from the uterus — have you ever heard of this or felt any such thing while squatting like a mad woman in all three levels of the 30 day shred? The advice I continue to come across when googling “exercising during pregnancy” is: make sure you’re not exercising to the point that you can’t comfortably carry a conversation with someone nearby. Now I don’t know about you but I sure as heck can’t comfortably chit chat with anyone while squatting, lunging and doing push ups. Heck I can hardly even fit in breathing, let alone trying to TALK. Just your thoughts on that. Thanks a lot! Oh, and thanks for your 30 day shred for pregnancy posts!
[...] Standing Ab Exercises | Shredheads [...]
[...] Standing Ab Exercises | Shredheads [...]