Exercises with a high degree of difficulty

This concludes the part with the exercises for advanced students. In the following we will deal with exercises that have a high degree of complexity and are therefore more suitable for professionals:

The hanging leg lift is one of the most effective exercises for the abdominal muscles. This exercise requires a good general training condition.

To perform the exercise you need a pull-up bar. The starting position is hanging from the bar, but shoulders and elbows are not fully extended, as this can have a damaging effect on the joints. The legs hang down in the starting position and are slowly lifted to start the exercise until hip and knee form a right angle each.

This position should be kept as short as possible before a controlled descent takes place. The body should not swing too much. To further increase the intensity, the legs can be kept straight when lifting.

The next exercise is the abdominal press. This exercise can only be done in the gym and works like a kind of folding gauge. You sit in the machine and lower a stirrup fastener over your shoulders, similar to a roller coaster.

Now you want to bring your upper body towards your thighs against the resistance of the machine. The good thing about the exercise is that you can adjust the intensity directly through the resistance on the machine. This is much more effective than increasing the number of repetitions.

The floor press is another training exercise for professionals who want to keep their abdominal muscles in shape. Floor pressing is a rather unknown exercise and you need either two dumbbells or one barbell. The starting position is on all fours with both hands on the barbell.

Then you roll on the barbell still in front, with your knees resting, so that hip and shoulders stretch. In the lowest position the tension is held briefly and then rolled back to the starting position. Throughout the entire exercise you should make sure to keep your back straight.

Folding knife is the name of an exercise that is performed in a sitting position. The legs are stretched straight ahead at a 45° angle above the floor. To keep your balance better, your upper body is tilted backwards and your arms are stretched forward.

Now the upper body and legs are simultaneously lifted up so that they move towards each other. The feet do not necessarily have to be touched, more important is that the back is kept straight. At the uppermost position the tension is maintained and then the upper body and legs are brought back into the starting position in a controlled manner.

The so called “L” is an exercise that requires a certain level of training and is therefore the responsibility of the professionals. The starting position is a supine position where the arms are to the side of the upper body and the legs are stretched upwards (90° angle in the hip). For the execution the pelvis is now lifted a few centimetres and then slowly lowered again.

It feels as if someone is pulling the legs up by the feet. It is very important for a correct and effective execution that the exercise should not be executed with momentum. – Another step more difficult is the sideways straightening.

For this you need a partner or a way to fix your feet on the floor so that they can be kept on the ground. The starting position is a stretched lateral position where the legs are fixed by a partner or another way (wall bars). In this position you start to lift the shoulder from the floor without rotation and slide down with the upper hand on the upper side of the thigh.

Three sets of ten repetitions are sufficient for each side. – A complex body stabilisation exercise such as the side support is not a pure abdominal muscle exercise, but the abdominal muscles are also trained to a large extent. For the starting position the body is lifted into the lateral forearm support.

The trunk and the legs are lifted and are in the air. The body is only held by the forearm and the feet. This position can now be held for a certain period of time, for example 30 seconds on each side.

You should try to keep the body straight at all times. To increase the level of difficulty, the upper leg can be raised. This has an effect on the balance as well as the muscle power. More exercises with pictures can be found under washboard stomach exercises. Written and revised by Mario Habersack

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