Standing Abdominal Exercises
To Get A Flat Stomach

Standing abdominal exercises are one of the most natural and effective ways to keep this muscle in top shape.

If you're sick of performing crunch after crunch after crunch during your ab workouts, it may be time to try some new exercises to not only shake up your workouts so you're less bored, but also wake those muscles up so that you're experiencing results again. One of the biggest reasons why people fail to move closer to their goal of getting a six pack is because they are never challenging the muscles in innovative ways.

You must remember that your ab muscles quickly learn any type of exercise you throw at them so if there's no enough variety in your workout program, they're going to stop responding.

Standing abdominal exercises can be the perfect way to solve this problem and get you right back on track with your program again.

Let's take a quick look at some of the best exercises that you can perform and what they entail.

Why Standing Abdominal Exercises
Work So Well

Before we get into the specific exercises you can include, first let's cover why these exercises tend to be far superior compared to some of their lying counterparts. The biggest reason you're going to see top notch benefits is because not only will you be working the abs to execute the movement pattern but since you're also going to require the abs to maintain your balance, they will be worked for that reason as well.

Always remember when performing any of these exercises to maintain as upright of position with the spinal column as possible as that's what will ensure that you're executing them correctly.

Captains Chair Exercise With Variations

Moving on to our main standing abdominal exercises, the first one you'll want to do is the captains chair exercise. This one is great because since the upper body is entirely stationary, you can be sure that you're putting the full amount of stress just on those ab muscles.

In addition to that, there's no way that you can begin to sway with the upper body backwards or forwards to help generate momentum and use that to help with the movement, so once again, the intensity on the abs is very high in this exercise.

Make sure that you consider performing all the different variations you can do with this exercise including with bent legs, rotating the legs around in a circle, or simply holding them in the fully stretched out position.

Wall Contractions

Moving on, the second of the standing abdominal exercises are wall contractions. For these you'll simply stand with your feet and back against a wall and then press the small of your lower back directly into that wall as hard as possible.

This is a great movement for anyone who tends to maintain a sway back position in their daily life as typically their abs are on the weaker side which is the reason they adopt this stance.

By pressing the back into the wall however they become that much more aware of the issue and can make the necessary corrections to their form. Aim to do this for ten reps four or five times a day holding each rep for a good 10 seconds.

Side Cable Pulls

If you'd like to apply some weight to your standing abdominal exercises, nothing works better than side cable pulls. These are also great for strengthening the oblique muscles which run along the side of the body.

What you'll do is attach a cable pulley to the system so it's just above hip height. From there, with your side to the pulley you'll grasp it with both hands and then slowly twist away to the other side while thinking of only contracting the abs.

Aim to perform 10-15 reps per side and then switch sides to work both equally. This is a very challenging movement and is a great way for anyone looking to really boost their strength to go about accomplishing that goal.

Bosu Ball Balances

Finally, the last exercise to add is bosu ball balances. What you'll do for this movement is simply stand on top of a bosu ball until you've found your balance. From there, lift one leg off the ball and try and maintain the upright standing position for as long as you can.

Since you are so off balanced while doing this exercise your abs are going to have to contract harder than ever to maintain your stance, which is what makes this such a good exercise.

So keep all of these in mind. Having enough variety is what will get you to your end goal so every workout should have at least a couple standing abdominal exercises added in.