Ab exercise suggestions?

[LVGirl 4]

I am 4 weeks out and ready to start working on my abs but don't know what I should start out with. What did you do?

[Acadia 20]

Pure body weight - the plank (probably the best), crunches (you only move up a bit not fully to your knees), bicycle crunches (legs in the air moving while crunching), reach crunches (legs straight in the air, crunch up to touch toward your toes), jack knives (butt on a bench, arms holding the bench, legs straight out in the air at a 4 o'clock angle, pull them bending up to your chest and return), squats (they hold your core in), boxing (holding your core in), they're all safe.

[Jachut 487]

Planks are the BEST ab exercise.

i found that running really strengthened my core up too. As does stuff like Body Pump because if you do it right, you need to brace from your core. Its really not necessary to do a lot of crunches and sit ups.

[CheckYes 46]

I was terrified to do ab exercises but now I'm doing them I can't remember being scared!

My trainer has me doing a million different things Like Acadia and Jachut have suggested. You'll get a good ab workout with plank for sure!

[Debora Anne 3]

I need ab excercises as well and at a loss (I had back surgery so limited on floor excercises) have tried crunches on ball but I quess I am not coordinated enough yet because I slip off the ball or rather roll ......hubby finds it funny ..i find it annoying

What is Plank? And Body Pump? Any suggestions would be great -- I have a pool does anyone know of pool excercises for the abs?

[Jachut 487]

A plank is where you get in a pushup position on your toes and elbows (rather than hands if you were actually doing a push up) and just hold it - its also called a hover. You need to keep your body in line, no bum up in the air or sagging back. You can modify it by going on your knees rather than your toes if you cant hold it yet (its pretty difficult). Though saying that, proper pushups are a darn good ab exercise too if you do them right.

Body Pump is a Les Mills class at the gym - its with a barbell and you get a squat track, back track, chest track, triceps track, biceps track, lunges track and shoulders track where you do various strength training with the barbell to music. It takes about an hour - good for muscle endurance and lean muscle rather than building huge muscles.

[roziecakes 20]

I am just starting to get back into ab exercises after surgery, at first they were hurting my port, so I didn't do them; I will try the 'plank' that sounds like a great idea! Thanks