The Best Abs Exercise
February 11th, 2008 · Filed Under: Abs Exercise
We are all looking for that best and most effective abs exercise to help you get a flat stomach, or a six-pack and get that nice, sexy looking stomach. I mean, just look at the infomercials that you see on late night telesevision which always seem to promote the latest gizmo or gadget for getting you a flat stomach. Most of those gadgets, I believe, are a waste of money and are not that effective.
What you can use is your own bodyweight. And I believe that one of the best abs exercises out there is the push up. Now you may not be thinking of a push up as an abs exercise, but if you get in a push up position with your knees off the ground, your abs are working extremely hard at supporting your body and helping you maintain that position. So when you go up and down and perform a push up, your abs are contracted and working hard the entire time. If you lay down on your back and do a more tradtional abs exercise, like a crunch, everytime you are on the down portion of the movement, your back is supported by the ground and your abs are relaxed, not working.
Besides being a great abs exercise, the push up is also one of the best exercises to strengthen and develop your upper body, including your chest, shoulders and triceps. You may be thinking there are only a couple of different ways to do a push up, but I made a video that includes 17 different ways to perform a push up, and these don’t require any equipment at all. The push up is also one of my favorite exercises to do in the 4-Minute Circuits that I like to perform. You can check out the 4-Minute Workout DVDs here.
And guess what? You can do a push up anywhere - at home, outside, in your hotel room when you are out of town - anywhere at all.
Anyway, enjoy the push up video below. There are push ups for every level of fitness - from complete beginner to advanced athlete. I would love for you to watch the video and leave your comments. Did I leave any push ups out? Can you think of other types of push ups to do?
Have a great day!
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February 11th, 2008 at 11:43 am
They are all pretty much there, i never knew that the spiderman was elevated. one handed press-ups is the only other one i can think of without equipment, with, i would say swiss ball and medicine ball push ups
February 11th, 2008 at 11:55 am
I used to do push-ups with my hands slightly elevated - as on your bench - but on suspended ropes. The result is that you get more of a flye movement to it as your face can get lower to the support than your hands.
February 11th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Scott,
Awesome stuff!
I will incorporate one of them into my next workout.
Do you also incorporate medicine or stability balls too?
Mike
http://youthsoccer-power.com
February 11th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
great information. I was wondering if the beginner push ups is successful on the lower abs for females. I am 44 and I do quit a bit of Cardio only at this time. I still am fitting with my lower abs.
February 11th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Hey Scot,
I’ve got your Truth About Sic Pack Abs program. Great stuff!
I’d say the most challenging pushup for abs is the full extension pushup. It’s really more about abs than arms or chest. Check out the first video on this page:
http://lookgreatnakedatanyage.com
Robert
February 11th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
just wached the push-ups video i never realised there were so many variations on a theme,going to be trying a couple of those out..thanks man..
February 11th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Sweet video buddy!
Look out Rocky. All you have to do is add in the 1 arm push up.
I agree that push ups and bodyweight movements can be great for the abs. I always feel my abs and obliques tightening up when doing a variety of push ups.
This was quite a collection of push ups. I can’t wait to start incorporating some of them into my routine.
Keep up the great work Scott. Your videos keep getting better and better.
Scott Tousignant
http://www.Unstoppable-FatLoss.com
February 11th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I agree that push-ups are excellent for abs. Thanks for all the variations. I’ll definitely try the ones I’m not familiar with. :o)
February 11th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
great video! I am interested in ordering your 4 minute workout, but would like to know how many of these workouts do you really have to do a week/day to see results and what equipment do you need? i know it says you can do it at your own home, but im assuming you need dumbells for one of the videos at least…
a response would be appreciated since im really interested in ordering both dvds.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
You forgot diamond push-ups, where your thumb and forefinger create a diamond on the ground.
February 11th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Nice array of push up variations. My only concern would be the slight poke neck on the guy demonstrating them. I’d like to see him looking up a little, in more of a posturally correct position.
February 11th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Hi, thanks for all the great comments!
Luke - you can do that spiderman push up with your feet on the ground too. I can add that one.
Tami - yes the standing push ups and push ups with knees on the ground will work your entire abs as well. Get strong with those and then progress to more difficult ones.
Sarah - great idea. I’ve done them with my hands on swings (on a playground) which sounds similar.
Mike - yes I do them also with a medicine and swiss ball. I will make another video with those.
Robert - great website and videos.
Milena - I would string 3-4 of the 4 minute circuits together 3 days a week. You can do interval training 3 days a week and a healthy diet and you will see great results. You do need a pair of dumbbells for the dumbbell video and a resistance band to do some modified pullups for the bodyweight video - but that’s it.
Thanks Katie for the suggestion about diamond push ups.
Scott Colby
February 11th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
I didn’t think that there were that many types of pushup let alone help flatten your stomache I’m interested in trying some of them out. Some I don’t think my body could tolerate maybe once I build up strength. I thought this was a great video!!!
February 11th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
i know about one good ab exercise thet wasn’t in this video….just to hold a push up position..have to be on your tose(if possible) try to hold the position as long as you can..and as time goes by you can try to beat your own time:) it is really harder than it sounds:)
February 11th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Quite a good variety.Velly velly gooood!!!!!!!!!
One type of push up which is a favourite,if not essential exercise,in all the wrestling schools in India is the DAND.However here the abs muscles are not in alignment with the body,but moved repeatedly.The focus is on flexibility.Check it out!!!
February 11th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Awesome information on the push-up. One new variation I’ve incorporated into my routine is to do inclined push-ups with my feet on a large exersize ball. It takes a few seconds to lock your abs and legs to stabilize the ball before you can start doing push-ups. Try it using different hand positions!
February 12th, 2008 at 12:08 am
My boys tae kwon do instructor used to have them do pushups from their knuckles.
February 12th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Hey Scott,
I was quite interested to see a few new variations of pushups that I hadn’t really seen such as the spiderman, but I got a few push ups that expecially after reading some of the responses could help some people at! The first one I is the airborne push up, great for lower abs, extremely difficult but it will work ya, literally a clap or plyo push combined with actually leaping with you feet out of the air so for a brief second, your body is airborne. Second one I would suggest definitely for a more advanced workout and for someone not afraid of being upside down, is the handstand push up, most advanced would literally going into a handstand and lowering your head towards the ground and pushing back up or easier but still hard variation using the wall or fence for stabilization. The last ones that I thought would make a great addition would be the four second count push ups, done with any hand width and counting 4 seconds on the way down and and 4 on the way up and keeping a slow methodical movement all the way down and up. I hope that this helps.
February 12th, 2008 at 10:20 am
hi! you are very creative!!! i didnt know that there could be many styles in push up— while i was watching the your video i thought that the steps were easy but hard to do. but you know i find the t-stabilization push up very interesting and more practical because aside from the push up which is the main exercise, the arms are also being stretched up to the sides of the stomach. i gues if these are called push ups then what if you stand at the back of a chair and put your hands at the back and lift yourself slowly and slowly curl your legs then release slowly while going down?? anyway…thank you for sharing all these.
February 12th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Great stuff!! I can think of several more variations on the push up exercise;
push ups between two chairs, hands wide
push up, knee drop plyo push up, chair
drop plyo push up, speed push up, half
push up, partner added resistance push
up, super slow push up, push up using
2 kettlebells, 1 1/2 push up, pause push
up, wheel barrel push up, staggered push
up, and finally the most advanced form
of push up…ONE ARMED WITH FEET WIDE!
(I can think of about 20 more variations
but you get the point.) I once came up
with 60 different ways of performing
chin ups!! E-mail raymondtrainerironmind
@hotmail.com for FREE INFO!
February 15th, 2008 at 6:54 am
Good stuff! I’ll add 2 things. #1 Keep your head up!!! “Dipping” your head will cause you to not go all the way down, keeping it up (best way is to actually look forward) doesn’t give you the illusion you are closer to the ground than you really are. #2 - The “Hindu” Push-up (or “Superman” Push-up) - Feet spread a little more than shoulder width apart, hands same, butt in the air, “swoop” down face first in an arcing motion and curve your head up and lower body down leaving you in a modified abdominal stretch position (handsdown, upper body almost vertical with pelvis 1-2 inches off ground) then return using the same motion to the start position.
February 16th, 2008 at 7:40 am
Scott,
Love the variations! I like the Hindu Push Up as well. It rolls through the pecs and into the shoulders as well as stretches and flexes the back. It’s a pretty complete exercise for upper body.
Live Awesome!
Kevin
http://www.RenegadeBodyweightExercises.com
February 19th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Scott,
Great Variety of pushups. I never thought there were so many. One type of game me and a friend use to play was something called 10. Everytime we passed each other at work, one of us would call out “10″ which meant we’d have to get down and push out 10 pushups. So by the end of the day we’d both racked up quite a number of pushups. Sometimes we’d send each other emails with the “10″ in it, so down I’d have to get. We’d also phone each other up. He’d say “Steve”, I’d reply “yes”, then he’d say “10″. And down we both would get.
We got so strong doing this that 10 gradually grew into 50. We wouldn’t do any pushups unless they were in steps of 50. And boy, did that hurt by the end of the day. You’d wake up with sore shoulders and at the end of the day you’d go to bed with sore shoulders.
but it was fun .
Cheers Scott and thanks a lot.
Steve
February 24th, 2008 at 1:34 am
Dear Scott,
Hope u doing well, I am really happy and thank full from ur all information’s and guidelines regarding work out.
Every morning and evening before meal I do my work out exercise; I have some Questions regarding losing and exercise.
When I am doing work out i am getting very tired from my waist and after some hours its getting paining even I take medicine coz of my waist paining.
My second Q, I am female and wants how to lose my boobs its getting weight and flabby day by day please advice me,
Thanks
From Afghanistan