<p>Situps hurt my tailbone (I've injured it a couple of times). ANyone know any other ab workouts that don't involve situp-type motions?</p>
<p>Yeah mostly Fort Putdowns and Table Pushaways.</p>
<p>You can train your abs until you're blue in the face, but until you lose body fat, they'll still be covered with fat. You already HAVE abs: what you need to work on is getting them to show.</p>
<p>Best ab workout: 6 inches. Lie on the ground with your hands under your backside and raise your legs up six inches. Hold that position for 5-10 mins.</p>
<p>5-10 minutes? That's insane.</p>
<p>that also involves the whole tailbone thing.I agree with miss silvestris, you have to go down to below 10% body fat whick means alot of cardio</p>
<p>crunches (if that's how you spell it)</p>
<p>crunches are situps lol</p>
<p>Crunches involve a similar motion, but they aren't the same thing.</p>
<p>How do you all know the OP isn't already in the recommended body fat percentage range (8-14%)?</p>
<p>yea crunches are sort of like situps, but not really. you should run! and lift any kind of weights so you build lean muscle, because your body uses more calories to sustain a pound of muscle than it does to keep a pound of fat.
so, </p>
<p>increased lean muscle = more calories burned = more fat burned (assuming you eat a reasonable amount of calories so that your body can actually get to use the fat) = abs begin to show = happiness for you</p>
<p>If the OP IS already at 8-14% BF then things get tricky.</p>
<p>Abs are like any other muscle. I will tell you now that doing 100 crappy situps will do nothing for you, just like lifting those little plastic barbie weights does squat for your arms. GOOD situps help, where you don't jerk up and down and let gravity do the work. Go up slowly, hold for a second at the top, and go down. 10-15x3 should do it.</p>
<p>People lose and store fat differently. Girls usually have more over the abs (sadly!) to cover <em>ahem</em> some vital stuff. Getting rid of this usually means 'eating clean'. If you don't know what it is, do a google. It's not a diet, just advocating eating whole grains (not whole wheat, which is inferior), fruits, veggies and the like. Basically mostly unprocessed food. </p>
<p>So we come back to the same conclusion would-be Adonises have cried about: getting abs is hard. It means effort, not just a few situps a day. I personally think the results are worth it and that's why I watch my diet and exercise but it's not for everyone.</p>
<p>I don't know if you're trying to lose weight or anything, but you have said your tailbone hurts, so you probably want to do something not sitting down. Depending on what type of equipment you have, you can find lots of stuff to do. One thing I do that gets me off the ground is throwing a medicine ball at a solid wall. I'm talking a hard brick wall, not your bedroom wall. Anyways, you stand about a foot more than arm's length from the wall. Line up so that your feet are like this : | ^ ^, where the line is the wall and the carrots are your feet. Take the medicine ball and hold it with your arms outstretched. Turn your body hard and throw the ball at the wall. Try not to use your arms in the throwing motion. Make all the power come from your torso. BE SURE YOU ARE READY TO CATCH THE BALL. Since you're standing very close to the wall, the ball will bounce off and be coming for you pretty quickly. Repeat as many times as you like and make sure to do it to both sides. This will work your abs, obliques, and your lower back muscles.</p>
<p>Another thing you can do with a medicine ball involves a partner. Stand back to back with your partner and pass the medicine ball to each other by twisting from side to side. Make sure to switch directions so both sides get worked. Again, this will work your abs, obliques, and lower back.</p>
<p>Just get your body fat percentage down around 5%, your abs will show even if you don't have much muscle there if your body fat is low enough...</p>
<p>Dragon Flag</p>
<p>Planks! And other fun yoga/pilates moves!</p>
<p>i second the plank position. that's work.</p>
<p>also- don't know what part of the situp movement particularly doesn't work for your tailbone-- but best ab workout ever is lying on your back, legs perpendicular to the ground, and lowering them, straight out, as slowly as you can to the ground. YOW.</p>
<p>Wow hella responses.
Thanks for the tips! I don't know my body fat percentage, although I'd like to find out (I'm about 5'5" and 118 pounds, if that helps). I don't necessarily want to lose weight, but I really want to get in shape. I've been told that spot toning doesn't work and that I should try some weights at the gym, which I will try out.</p>
<p>I like the plank and the raising-legs-6inches-off-ground thing too. I like to do them whenever I work out. I think the problem is that I don't work out regularly. haha. But I will start soon. Who knows, maybe with this second-semester-senior status I will try out a Pilates class...once I get my license.</p>
<p>Planks are the way to go if you hurt your a$$. Although this site will definitely help you out, it has tons of ab exercises.</p>
<p>Hard</a> Core - Exercises to Strengthen Your Abs For Better Performance</p>
<p>I know one way (forgot what it's called) is getting into a pushup position, but instead of holding yourself up on your hands, you hold yourself up by the forearms (elbow to wrist area). </p>
<p>Your abs should immediately tighten up, and you hold the position for a few minutes.</p>
<p>betterthenu- It is a terrible idea to get your body fat to 5%. I've done it before and it is miserable.</p>
<p>yeah, and if you are a girl, its basically dangerous. i am pretty sure that girls won't even menstruate with a 5% body fat percentage.</p>