Do not anchor your feet or have someone hold them down. This automatically activates hip flexors. You will get most out of this exercise by minimizing their involvement.

The difficulty of this exercise depends on where you hold your hands. The hardest position is above your head at arms-length, then beside your head, then across your chest, then straight down between your legs or at your sides. Start with easiest first then progress to other positions as you get stronger.

You are now ready to begin.

-Keeping your torso straight and stiff, start sit-up by tightening your lower abs then lifting your upper body off floor.

-As you continue up, imagine trying to push your face up against ceiling (think up, not around).

-When you reach about 25 to 30 degrees above horizontal, hold there for a second or two and squeeze your abs hard.

-Keep your lower back in contact with towel at all times and always maintain tension in abs.

-Lower yourself down slowly and under control. Do not just drop back to ground. The negative portion of this exercise is extremely effective.

-Remember to adjust your arm position depending on strength of your abs (see above).

You can see pictures of how this exercise is done by going to:

http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue9-ab-tip.htm

Incline Ab Sit-Ups

If you are a beginning trainer, this is a good starting variation of Abdominal Sit-up.

Set an incline sit-up board to a slight incline. If you don't have an incline sit-up board, you can use an adjustable incline bench, a decline bench, a Step platform with a riser under one of ends or a flat bench with something under one end. You can even use a propped-up 2 x 6 board!

Your head should be on higher end with your feet placed on floor.

The execution is exactly same. The only difference is that tension on abs is much less due to greatly improved leverage in this position, allowing even people feel that their abs aren’t strong enough to do exercise.

Lying Superman Raises - An Exercise For The Lower Back

Though this exercise has a rather unique name, it is an excellent strengthening exercise for lower back that you can do almost anywhere.

How To Do It:

Lie face down on floor with your arms stretched out directly overhead (like Superman flying, hence name).

Raise your left arm and right leg into air at same time, also raising your chest slightly off floor. Hold there for a second and squeeze muscles of your lower back. Lower your limbs back to ground then raise your right arm and left leg and hold for a second.

You can push down with hand that is on ground to help raise your other arm and chest higher off ground.

This exercise, even though it only uses your limbs as resistance, provides an excellent way to strengthen lower back muscles.

Conclusion:

These two exercises will give you a good place to start with core training. You can begin improving your core strength by doing these exercises 3 times a week for 2 to 3 sets each.

Make core training a priority in your exercise routine and you will rapidly reap benefits of having a stronger, more injury-proof midsection and back.

If you have any questions about core training or exercises described here, go to:

http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Contactus.htm