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Core exercises are an important part of workout routine. These exercises enable you to attain better stability and balance along with making you stronger.
It’s well known that core muscles get engaged in several compound exercises, such as squats, deadlifts, bench press, etc. That provides the body with the stability needed to complete the exercises.
Developing core muscles is an important part of overall physical appearance. A toned and developed set of abdominal muscles is a sign of effort and discipline.
Core Exercises for Solid Abs
The following are five core exercises men should incorporate in their workout routine to tone and pop their abdominal muscles:
1) Crunch
The most common core exercise is crunches. You can use the machine for crunches (if you have access to one), or do simple floor crunches.
Be careful not to use your momentum to move the upper body towards your thighs. It’s important to use the abdominal muscles to pull the torso and hold the position.
You can find a guide for doing crunches here.
2) Sit-up
The next most common core exercise is sit-ups. When you’re doing sit-ups. keep your hands behind your head.
It’s absolutely important to ensure you’re not using your hands to push your head for the exercise. Each rep needs to be completed using the core muscles. Otherwise, you will not be able to reap the full benefits of the exercise in any shape or form.
Here is a guide for doing sit-ups.
3) Hanging Knee Raise
As you become stronger, the idea is to move to advanced movements. The hanging knee raise is one such advanced movement you can try when your core muscles become stronger.
It’s important to understand that for hanging knee raises, you need core strength and grip strength. You need to be able to support your bodyweight when you grip the bars and let your body hang.
You also need to ensure that the body doesn’t sway back and forth by keeping your back as stable as possible. If you find it difficult to keep your body stable, you may need to focus on back strengthening exercises.
You can find a guide for doing hanging knee exercises here.
4) Rope Crunch
If you’re not keen on doing advanced core exercises, you can focus on variations for crunches. One of the top crunch variations are rope crunches, which add additional resistance to the exercise apart from your bodyweight.
When doing rope crunches, you cannot allow your hands to take over. If so, your arms will pull the weight instead of the abdominal muscles. It’s essential to maintain a strong muscle-mind connection with your core muscles in such exercises.
You can find a guide for doing rope crunches here
5) Plank
Planks are recommended if worked on your core muscles with basic exercises, such as crunches, sit-ups, leg raises, etc.
You can begin with shoulder planks where only your toes and palms are on the floor and your core muscles are engaged. As you begin to feel comfortable with the exercise, you can move to elbow planks, whre your forearms and toes are on the floor.
It’s better to ease yourself into the exercise rather than forcing yourself into it. You can try these plank variations as well.
Bottom Line
Your only aim should not be to build rock-hard abs. You need to focus on strengthening your core first before trying to pop the abdominal muscles.
Abs are built in the kitchen. So, you must focus on your nutrition by providing yourself with the essential macronutrients - fat, carbohydrates, and protein.
