Helga’s Fall Workout . by Augarten Hotel Neustift:

Effective abdominal workout for autumn …

The best fitness tips on abdominal muscle training from Berg Genuss Hotel Neustift.
In Helga’s last article, she went into depth about endurance training. In this article Helga shows you the 4 most effective exercises for holistic training of the abdominal muscles.
Uses a soft yoga mat as a base for the abdominal exercises. This way you save your back and your knee joints.

Here are the most effective abdominal exercises:

1. the static forearm support:

To start this exercise, lie flat on your stomach. Now you need to rest your forearms and the tips of your toes on the floor and push your body upwards. Make sure your elbows are directly under your shoulders. Your back is straight and forms a line with your legs.
Helga shows you this exercise in the hotel garden of Berg Genuss Hotel Neustift.
Hold this position for 20 seconds at the beginning, set down for 10 seconds and repeat this exercise another 2x.
Increase the duration of holding this exercise over the next few weeks until you can hold it for 60 seconds.

 

2. crunches

Lie on your back on your mat and bend your legs so that your buttocks and the bottoms of your feet touch the floor. The distance between the legs is hip-width. The fingertips touch the head above the right and left ear. At the same time, the elbows point to the right and left sides (the hands should not be clasped at the neck).
Now lift the chest off the floor and move it towards the knee joint. As you do so, exhale. Now lower the body back again and inhale. However, do not put your upper body completely down, so that you maintain the tension in your abdomen. During the exercise, look up at an angle and make sure your chin is not resting on your chest. Head and arm position should remain unchanged during the exercise. Only the upper body has and lowers (crunch movement).
After you’ve done 20 crunches, set down for 10 seconds and bring your knees in a rolling motion toward your chest and back again to relax. Repeat this procedure another 2x. Increase the frequency of crunches over the course of the next few weeks.
“Instead of the common sit-ups, I much prefer the crunches. Crunches are more effective in my opinion and you are not tempted to do them with momentum, as is often the case with sit-ups,” says hotel manager Helga from Berg Genuss Hotel Neustift.

 

3. criss-cross

Lie flat on your back again. As with the crunches, the fingertips of both hands touch the sides of the head and the elbows point to the side (Attention! Do not clasp the hands behind the head!). Now lift the outstretched legs a few centimeters off the floor. Now alternately lift one shoulder blade and bend the opposite knee. Now bring your elbow toward the opposite bent knee. The other leg remains extended, the upper body curves crosswise. Performs this exercise in a fluid motion and at a steady pace. When doing so, urgently avoid a tearing movement, as this can cause injuries in the area of the cervical vertebrae.
To illustrate this, Helga has demonstrated this exercise for you.

 

4. slow motion leg lift

For this exercise you will also lie flat on your back. The arms are stretched out next to the body with the palm facing down. The legs are closed and stretched out on the floor. Now lift both legs simultaneously until they face the ceiling vertically. Then slowly lower the legs again. However, do not place them on the floor, but repeat the slow lifting and lowering of the legs a total of 20 times before placing them on the floor for 10 seconds. Repeats the exercise for another 2x.
In this exercise, work completely without momentum and use only the pulling force of your abdominal muscles. Make sure that your back rests firmly on the floor and that you do not fall into a hollow back.

 

What should you keep in mind when training your abdominal muscles?

The main rules when training the abdominal muscles:

1. avoid a hollow back!

You can avoid this very easily by pushing your hips forward and pulling your belly button in a bit. You should keep this basic posture throughout the exercise.

2. keep breathing!

Don’t hold your breath during your ab exercise, but like to exhale loudly audibly during strenuous exercises.

3. hold the tension!

If you tense your torso properly during your abdominal workout, you can improve the execution of the exercise.

4. train regularly!

You will achieve the greatest success through consistent abdominal muscle training. In addition, I recommend continuously increasing the load on the abdominal muscles.

5. bring variety to your abdominal workout!

Since your body quickly gets used to loads, you should not only continuously increase the load on the abdominal muscles, but also vary your training somewhat. This way, as many muscle fibers as possible are addressed and you get the best fitness result.

6. strengthen your back muscles too!

It is incredibly important to strengthen not only the abdominal muscles but also the back muscles – its counterpart, so to speak. If you don’t look at balance while exercising, you can quickly end up with bad postures, which you should of course avoid.

7. recovery breaks!

A muscle needs between 48 and 72 hours to regenerate. Afterwards, it can be loaded for the next round.

8. also trains the whole body!

In addition to situps and crunches, make sure you have a healthy balance of cardio and strength training.

9. a no-go: pain during an exercise!

If you feel discomfort or pain during your exercises, it is a warning signal from your body! In this case, an experienced trainer should look at the exercise in question. The instructor can then identify any errors in the execution of the exercise and correct them together with you!

 

“I wish you a lot of fun while training and send you warm greetings from Neustift in the Stubaital!
Your Helga from the mountain pleasure Hotel Neustift”.