Thread: ab workout w/o being on floor?

can anyone tell me of any ab exercises that work just as efficiently without having to lay on the floor? it would be a lot easier on my lower back (and actually more convenient for me since i don't have a lot of floor to work with anyway).

oh and anyone know any good exercises for thighs, mainly the back part? i hate that 'act like ur sitting on a chair against the wall' move lol

if you have access to one of those "chairs", I have had extremely good results for them. They're usually found in gyms but you can buy them too. It's a high "chair", no seat. The back and the arms are high off the floor and the there are handles on the arms. The idea is that you rest your back against the chair, grip the handles on the arm rests and lift your legs to work your core. That thing will give you a six pack in a hurry. It is expensive though (although it doesn't have a big footprint so it doesn't take a lot of space). Apart from that, there are things like Turbo Jam or Hip Hop abs that feature ab work out done standing up, but honestly I prefer omis and other BD moves to do ab work.

I know what you mean though, I hate ab work done the floor too, it makes me dizzy and strains my neck.

Well, there's Roman Chair Knee Lifts, but you need some piece of furniture to use as a Roman Chair -- a big sturdy armchair can work for a modified version if you're a petite person.



Or put a chinup bar in a doorway and do knee lifts hanging from that.

You can also do sit ups on a stability ball


edited to fix pics and add - Keminitri, great minds think alike!

i like the 'chair' but wouldn't be able to get it, nor do i own a gym membership (nor do i have the time!)
anad ah, completley forgot about my big blue pilates ball. the poor thing has been deserted for quite some time now lol
thanks ladies!

what about for the back of the legs/thigh area?

A lot of ballet and balance moves are great for your core and abs. Especially if you throw in some light weights. Suhaila's Pilates fusion DVD also has some examples of standing exercises. Also practicing descents (standing on toes and going down as far as you can without tipping forward or back is great for the core and also the thighs, never mind that comes in handy for dancing).

I found some short video:

How to Do Standing Abdominal Exercises | Expert Village Videos

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGRjfYXqyVE]YouTube - Standing Ab Routine[/ame]

and here are some other examples:

STANDING AB WORKOUT | Women's Health Magazine

I have developed abs entirely from doing BD moves

turbo jam's ab jam has a good standing abdominal routine, there are some good standing pilates videos. yoga booty ballet's advanced routine has great standing work for the legs. hamstring curls are great for toning the back of the legs, to add resistance, tie a resistance band into a big loop. step into it & position around the ankles. center your weight over one leg, curl the other leg heel to the butt and down slowly. do 8-12 reps, switch sides. do 2-3 sets. For standing lower body I also really like turbo jam's lower body jam dvd

I think forward horizontal figure 8s are the best abdominal exercise in the world.

I am going to put in a word for Ayshe's Core Fitness for Belly Dance dvd. Don't let the looks of the cover deceive you. There is lots of good stuff there. The dvd includes a workout that you can do with voice over or without and a tutorial that covers all the stuff in the workout in great detail. The workout itself is about 30 minues, which includes warm up and cool down. But the tutorial is probably well over an hour to an hour and a half and is very detailed guiding you through progressive standing exercises that use the inner layers of muscles of the hips and abs. Some of the exercises are simply to built strength an endurance and others involve the use of inner core to initiate pelvic movements. Ayshe goes into detail demonstrating on students with different body types, using diagrams, and self-assessment tools. Examples--hip drops driven by inner thighs, hip drops driven by what she calls inner glutes, hip drops using the inner layers of the psoas. Shimmies, circles, 8s, etc. isolated to use the same muscle sequentially.

If you work through the tutorial as a strength building exercise you really feel it. Although there are dance movements incorporated the dvd is aimed more at building strength than just dancing.

Now I am working with Ranyas baladi dvd which uses some of the same techniques to generate pelvic movement from psoas and inner thighs.

Oooh, thank you, Souzan, for providing additional motivation to work with Ayshe's dvd. I got it recently at Borders and was very impressed with the anatomy detail. I keep meaning to work with it, but Ranya's dvd has been gobbling up all my practice time lately. It sounds like the two might complement each other very well.

Yes,I do think they complement each other very well. Ayshe's exercises are using that same pelvic floor, zipper, magic spot engagement that Ranya emphasizes. In fact I have been running through Ayshe's standing exercises as a warm up before working with Ranyas dvd.

Looks like both are filmed at Rocky's studio.