10 Minute, No-Equipment Ab Workout

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Hi, and welcome, guys. We're going to do a 10 minute ab exercise. Five exercises, one minute each, and do two rounds of that. So we're going to get started with a simple crunch.

Lay on your back. Most important thing, always keep your lower back on the floor. And just slowly roll your body up and down. Stop for one second at the top. Now with your hands-- and this goes for all the exercises-- I love putting my hands just lightly behind my ears.

Most important thing-- never pull on your neck. You should be able to fit a tennis ball in between your chin and your chest at all times. All right, we're halfway there on the first exercise.

Nice and slow. And remember, low back always on the floor. And of course, any time anything gets too difficult, take a break.

Just five more seconds, guys. One more.

All right, now we're going to go on to the vertical leg crunch. Same position, but with your legs in the air. Just crunch up nice and slow.

Remember, your hands just slightly behind your ears. Never want to pull on your neck. Keep that back flat on the floor, your lower back. Any time you feel any strain, just bring your legs down. No problem at all.

Remember, nice and slow, no jerking movement. Five more seconds. All right, quick break. Feet on the floor.

Now we're going to go on to the bicycle. Bring those legs back up, lightly behind the ears. Nice and slow. You're not actually pedaling a bicycle, but you're using the same movements.

And again, lower back flat on the floor. That's so important. Any time you feel any strain, remember, put your legs down. Just use your upper body. In this exercise, when your legs are in the air, you're pretty much firing all those ab muscles.

Put your feet down. We're really targeting the oblique muscles on each side. The reason I chose this exercise is there was a study that actually showed the bicycle to be the number one exercise for hitting both the rectus abdominis and those oblique muscles. All right, last one, guys.

Now on to reverse crunch. Same position. Hands, arms beside. Slowly lower up and down. Lower with your leg. But again, very importantly, your lower back, not the small of your back. Nice and flat on the floor. And you just roll it up.

Now on this one, you're targeting more the lower abs. And when you think of somebody with a six pack, six pack abs, you're looking at their muscle group called the rectus abdominis, one long muscle that goes all the way up and down your abs. This one, you're kind of getting the lower part of that. All right, last one.

OK, now we are going to actually flip and do a plank. Now here, elbows under your shoulders. Hands flat on the floor. Most important thing-- kind of squeeze your butt.

Squeeze your butt muscles. And then suck in your belly. Because you want to make sure that your body is a nice straight line. Like, none of this. None of this. Nice and straight.

Now I know that this is quite difficult to hold for a minute. So again, variation. You can do this on your knees. Keep going back and forth from your knees here. See? And over time, you'll be able to do this with no trouble. Five more seconds.

All right, we're going to do that all over again. Back in the crunch position. Now we're going to add a little variation here. Let's just start normal. Your feet should-- your heels on the floor, so that when you come up, you're actually rolling your pelvis a little bit this way.

It's called a crunch with a heel push. Literally, you're kind of pushing on your heels and bringing your upper and lower body together, kind of like an accordion. Not that I've ever played an accordion, but it seems like that's what it would be like.

I often like holding it for a second. And again, with all of them, you can see it's all nice and slow. All right.

We are going to switch now to the vertical leg crunch. Now you can add in a variation here and reach for your toes. When you do that, you'll actually feel it even more in that top part of that rectus abdominis.

Always make sure, though, your lower back is flat on the floor. And to do that, you might have to tilt your pelvis up a little, like that. Now a variation, as you get comfortable doing this, is to reach toward your toes. Last one.

All right, now on to the bicycle. Now you may need to rest this time, remember. You can speed it up just a little bit. But remember, the most important thing is your form. Quality, not quantity. Keeping that low back flat on the floor.

Any time you feel any pain in your back, take a break. Remember, when you need to, feet flat on the floor and side to side.

Now with this one, and when you have your legs in your air, you're pretty much hitting everything. But when you put your feet down, you're hitting the muscles on each side of the obliques. Just a few more seconds.

All righty, now on to the reverse crunch. Again, same position. Arms beside you. Slowly roll your pelvis up. Sort of hold it there for a second. And you're really hitting the lower abs, the rectus abdominis. The lower ones are sometimes a little harder to pop.

Now remember, with ab exercises, this is not going to get rid of belly fat. That's not what the purpose is. To do that, you need to look at your nutrition.

But as you do lose body fat, and you want your abs to look nice and toned, that's where this comes in. All right, just a few more seconds. One more. All right, hold it just-- OK.

We are now going to go on to the plank. I'm going to show you a couple of variations here. Again, only as you get used to this, as it becomes just a little easier, I'll show you what you need to-- again, remember. Use your butt. Suck in your belly. A nice straight line from head to toe.

But as you get a little more used to it, you can raise a foot into the air. And you just hold that for five seconds to begin with. Then you can switch.

The most important thing really, though-- I can't stress enough-- is your form. We're almost there. All right.

Thanks for joining me. Do this a couple of times a week, just like you would work out any other muscle group. And in no time, I promise you, it will get easier each day. And you can mix it up from there on out. Take care. Have a great day.