Incline & Decline Abdominal Exercises

A bench that adds incline and decline to your abdominal workout also adds resistance to your exercises. Target your abs with these exercises from a certified personal trainer in this free video on abdominal workouts.

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Video transcription

Hi, I'm Melody Schoenfeld with Flawless Fitness in Pasadena, California, and I'm here to talk to you about incline and decline abdominal exercises. Now, doing a decline abdominal exercise does not mean that you get to decline to do the exercise. But, what it does mean, is that you're going to be on the bench, kind of like this. The lower it is, the harder the exercise is going to be. Until you get to put some gravity boots on a bar, and you can just hang totally upside-down. And that's kind of, the ultimate decline. So, I'm just going to show you the basic decline sit-up. You've all seen it before, but I'm going o show it, I'm going to show it anyways. Okay, so, you're just going to go ahead and lay down on your bench, all the way down. And you're just going to try to sit up from there. Now the way you'll see it done in the gym, is you'll see it done like this. Alright, you might even see it like this, alight. I had problems with both of those, the first one is momentum based and the second one is hip flexor based. Momentum, you're not going to get any benefit form the exercise. Hip flexor based, these are already tight all day long, you're trying to work your abs, not your hip flexors. So, hip flexors are what brings your knees towards your chest. And if they're already super tight, you don't want to make them a whole lot tighter. So, use your abdominals to do the abdominal exercise, there is an idea. So, you're going to come all the way down, right and come all the way up. Basic hand position is the easiest way, hands out, in front of you. Alright, the next easiest would probably be the hands across the chest, like this. Alright, and the next easiest would be the hands at the ears. Don't yank on your neck, just keep your hands at your ears, alright. And then, the next easiest would be your arms up over your head. Keep your elbows by your ears, the whole time, alright. Otherwise, you're using them to come up, and there's no point, keeping them up there, if you can keep them up there. And then, after that, you start adding weight, you start increasing the decline, you make them even harder. So, for an incline exercise, I've actually attached some rope to here. Because there's nothing a whole lot of hold on to this bench, here. So,most benches aren't going to look like this, o.k. But what you're going to do is, you're going to lay on your back, you're going to hold on to whatever you have to hold on to, on your bench. You're going to keep your legs straight, if it's really easy for you or bent, if it's a little harder for you. And you're going to just try to bring your knees up. I mean, you're just going to lower, very, very slowly, all the way down. Now, for a harder version, you straighten out your legs, same idea. And then, you just lower very, very slowly. I'm Melody and this has been incline and decline exercises for the abs.