For pre-designed ab workouts, view EMG’s Ab Workouts.
Ab Bicycles Demonstration
Step 1. Lie on your back with your thighs perpendicular to your torso and calves parallel to the floor and your hands behind your head.
Step 2. Use your abdominal muscles to simultaneously bring your right shoulder and your left knee together, so your elbow meets your knee.
Step 3. Then, extend your left leg to approximately a 45 degree angle as your cross your left shoulder to your right knee. Repeat in a fluid motion. Keep the motion continuous as if you were peddling a bicycle.
Notes
Ab bicycles are a combination abdominal exercise that works the upper and lower abs, as well as secondarily the obliques. The upper abs are worked as the user moves the elbow towards the lower half. This makes the user perform a crunching motion that engages the upper abs and obliques. The lower abs are worked as the user moves his opposite knee towards the elbow. This movement makes the user do part of a leg raise and engages the lower abs. When first performing bicycle abs, the user should start slowly, clearly doing one knee and elbow combination before performing the other. As the user becomes more advanced, he may increase the speed of the exercise, so that one leg is coming up as the other is going down. When performed in this manner, the exercise will resemble peddling a bicycle, hence the name. The user should still not go so fast as to not fully engage and squeeze the muscle. One rep is touching both elbows to both knees.
