3 of the Best Stomach exercises you may not have seen before.

Published by Frank on September 27, 2010

If you feel ridiculous using your Ab Rocker, and you just can’t bring yourself to do another crunch, there are several exercises that you can perform.  These 3 exercises are among the best stomach exercises you can do to obtain an attractive, firm midsection, both upper and lower, without curving your back.

Exercises that require you to round your back, will not only be less effective than exercises that are done with a flat back, but they can also be responsible for injury by placing excess strain on your back.

You can ensure that your entire abdominal area gets a fabulous workout and you optimize your ability to burn extra fat, by employing a circuit method when you do these stomach exercises. To continue burning fat after my interval workout and to help my metabolism stay up, I like to incorporate these exercises at the end of my workout.

The ab wheel rollout is the first stomach exercise to perform Place round weights that are 5 kilos each, on each end of a moderate sized barbell to use a substitute for the ab wheel if your gym or home are not equipped with one. Place your hands on the wheel or barbell with your body in a kneeling position and your shoulders above the hands to start.

Now roll the barbell or wheel away from you and, while keeping your back flat, allow your entire body to drop down toward the floor. Go as far as you can making sure your back does not bow and hold for a couple of seconds. To complete the exercise, return to start. Try to do 10 reps.

Stability ball jack-knives should come next with no rest between these exercises. You will find this to be one of the best stomach exercises that can be performed in a number of ways, which you will feel more confident about as you get more accustomed to this effective exercise.

As a novice, you will begin by resting your elbows in a plank type stance, on an exercise bench, while placing your shins atop a stability ball. Be sure to maintain control of the ball as you tighten your ab muscles and pull your knees up as close to your chest as possible, and then release them.

As your fitness level increases, you can enhance these stability ball jack-knives by placing your hands on the ground instead, and doing a push-up after each knee raise. For the advanced trainers you can start to perform the exercise on one leg so that when one leg tucks in, the other kicks out or add in rotation so that rather than bringing your knees straight up and down you take them to one side then alternate to the other side.

Both very challenging but look super cool!

Shoot for 10 to 20 reps no matter which variation you choose to attempt

Your last exercise is going to be a mountain climber with a rotation, and even though you want to rest, don’t do it. You have likely performed the regular mountain climber exercise, where your knees come in to meet your chest, but with the mountain climber with rotation, you will be having your knees come up to meet the opposing elbow. This rotation element will place a little more emphasis on the oblique muscles. Remember to keep your hips flat and abs braced for maximum tension.

10 reps on each side for this exercise at a minimum.

By following the above advice, you will be performing some of the best stomach exercises available, that also provide the advantages of increasing back strength, burning fat, along with a great set of abs.

Kiss those crunches goodbye, they’re history!