Upper Abdominal Exercises: Advanced Roll-Ups

Series Summary

Abdominal muscles are the muscles that protect the abdomen and allow much of upper torso movement. This muscle group is made up of the external oblique, the internal oblique, the transverses abdominals, the rectus abdominals, and the pyramidal muscle. The external and internal obliques are located on the sides of the abdomen; the internal oblique lies just underneath the external. The transverses abdominals is just a little deeper in the abdominal cavity than the internal oblique. The rectus abdominals muscle is the paired muscle that lines the outside of the abdomen. This is the muscle that is often referred to as the “six pack.” A "six pack" is formed after steady and persistent abdominal exercise. Learn abdominal exercises in this free ab workout video series featuring personal trainer Belle Badell. Badell demonstrates how to do abdominal exercises such as roll-ups, advanced roll-ups, ab crunches, advanced ab crunches and kneeling ab crunches to work out the abdominal muscles.

Video Transcript

"The advanced roll ups. It is another great version of the roll ups. A little more challenging for the abdominal area. I am going to show you this is a rolled up pair of pants but you can use a towel or a big sweat shirt or something just big enough to support the back of your neck so there is no gap as you are laying on the back. You want to support the neck so there is no tilting of the head not as a pillow but just as a comfortable gap filler. Now the advanced version of this exercise is going to require that you extend the legs completely. So if you haven't watched the roll ups, the previous clip maybe you want to watch that first or maybe you want to try that first if this is a little too much for you. Now in here you want to make sure that there is not much of a gap. I am going to try to tilt as much as possible, keeping that gap almost nonexistent on my lower back. The roll up means that you are going to roll instead of lifting to do a crunch. You are going to roll your chin into your chest and as you are rolling in you want to keep eye contact with the belly button. I want to keep my tongue in the roof of my mouth so I just swallow and just let the tongue be where it naturally falls. You are going to exhale up and inhale down. Now I am going to be quiet for this because I need to get my tongue where it belongs so I'm going to inhale. A couple of things are happening here. I am rolling in and then I am lifting and then I am lowering the shoulders and then I am unrolling. I am going to keep that tuck in there and I am going to take the belly button and pull it towards the mat and just go with the breath, exhale going up and inhale going up. Make sure that you don't fall into this position right here, that you roll, look at your belly button, keep the proper form and before you know it you are on your way to a happy healthy core."