Dumbbell Exercises for Abs

There's nothing that screams fitness like a well-toned abdominal region. A flat belly is a coveted property and a ribbed, six or eight packed one is enough to get people to stare. As for women, a flat belly lends much, much character to the curve of that waist. You know it does. With so much on the line, it comes as no surprise that getting well toned abs is not easy. True. But it is not impossible. There are several abdominal exercises that one can undertake to get the perfect set of abs, but it has been seen that dumbbell exercises for abs are some of the most effective choices to go by. In the article that follows, we will look at some of these ab exercises that involve dumbbells at their core and understand how one is supposed to carry them through.

Ab Exercises with Dumbbells

It is said that the abdominal region is one of the toughest places to get into shape and that it takes time. This is a good factor to know at the outset because this will help you understand that one has to keep at the abdominal exercises to lose belly fat with an unparalleled zeal and be patient about the results. In the following section we focus on some of the best abdominal dumbbell exercises that we can find to carry this mission through.

Stability Ball Crunch
This is one of the best dumbbell exercise routine to follow for washboard abs. Here's how you do it.

1. Take a stability ball for exercise from the ab exercises with medicine ball and place your back flat against it. The knees need to be bent and the feet flat against the ground.
2. Hold a dumbbell over your chest so that it is parallel to the ground and catch both ends of it in your hands. Make sure that you maintain a gap between your neck and the dumbbell.
3. Crunch up till you feel a pull in your ab region.
4. Maintain the crunch for 2-3 seconds and then lower yourself to the starting position.
5. Make sure that the neck does not get strained.
6. Do 15 counts of this abdominal exercise and 3 sets in all.

Side Bend
This stomach toning exercise works very well on the obliques, gets rid of the love handles and lends a great shape to the waist. Here's how you do it.

1. Stand straight maintaining a shoulder width gap between your feet.
2. Hold a dumbbell in one hand and place the opposite hand at the back of the head or on your waist.
3. Start off with a light weight dumbbell and move on to a heavier one when you get used to it.
4. While keeping your spine straight, slowly lower the dumbbell to your knees. You have to feel a pull in the side abdominal muscles of the opposite side.
5. Hold for 2 seconds and come back to the original position.
6. Do 16 repetitions of these and 3 sets in total.
7. Repeat the same on the other side as well.

Leg Raise Dumbbell Crunch
This makes for one of the most intense exercises for abs because it works the entire ab region. Here's how you do this exercise for abs.

1. Lie on your back on the floor and hold a dumbbell from both ends over your head.
2. Raise your legs at a 60-90 degree angle from your body.
3. Inhale and crunch up carrying with you the dumbbell. At the same time lift your legs to the 90 degree position (if you're not already into one).
4. Hold the dumbbell below the legs and maintain that position for 3-4 seconds.
5. Slowly lower yourself to the starting position and start all over again.
6. Do 3 sets of this with 16 repetitions each.

Twisting with Dumbbell
This is one of the best from the abdominal exercises that works on the entire abdominal region as well as the sides. Here's how you do it.

1. Stand with a straight back and a small gap between your feet.
2. Take a dumbbell and place it vertically in front of your chest. Bend the elbows of both hands.
3. Now twist to the right side completely while keeping the back and shoulders straight. Then come back to the center and twist to the left.
4. The dumbbell should stay firmly in place and not move. Make sure that the back is absolutely straight as well.
5. Do 15 twists on both sides and rest.
6. Then repeat with 2 more sets.

If one has a gym membership then they can even try the incline dumbbell press for those dream abs.

Now that you know what these are and how to go about doing them, here's hoping that you'll have those killer toned abs soon enough. All the best!