subject: How To Do Upper Ab Exercises [print this page] The front ab area, also called the "six pack" or rectus abdominis, is often the focus of a lot of people's core training. But, it is possible to focus that training even further and stress the upper (also called "superior" in anatomical terms) portion of the six pack.
So what goes in to an upper ab exercise? Well, first off, understand that even if you stress the top section of your abs, you're still going to exercise the entire front section from top to bottom. That means you can favor training your upper abs, but you can't really isolate them fully.
That being said, you can pretty much take any front abs exercise and modify it somewhat to target the area you want. The key is in understanding how the abs create movement.
Any muscle works the exact same way: it shortens. That's all it does. By shortening in length, a muscle pulls two bones closer together. These attachments to bone are called the origin and the insertion. As an example, if a muscle starts on the upper arm and attaches to the forearm, when it contracts, it will pull the forearm closer to the upper arm (like a bicep curl).
Okay, that's Muscle 101. Now all we do is apply that knowledge to the structure of the front abs to see what we have to do to stress the section we want to stress.
The Rectus Abdominis essentially attaches at the bottom of the ribcage and then the top of the front pelvis. As it contracts, it draws the ribcage to the pelvis (like a crunch) or the pelvis to the ribcage (like reverse crunches, or the end part of leg lifts).
Here's the tricky part. The Rectus Abdominis is called the "six pack" because it is divided by a series of horizontal tendons that divide the muscle up and give it its classic ribbed appearance. These tendons aren't just for show. What they do is essentially create another attachment point like the origin and insertion- sort of allowing the muscle to pull off of itself. It allows for a much greater degree of control and flexibility of movement.
Therefore, if you want to stress the upper abs (the upper two of the "six pack"), look at where it attaches: the bottom of the ribcage, and about one third of the way down the abs. Its action would best be described as pulling your ribcage toward the middle of your stomach.
Really, what this translates to in exercise is the very first part of the crunch movement, the part where your shoulders just start to leave the floor and come upward. As you come further up, you will begin to engage the lower portions of the abs more and more.
The easiest way to stress this portion of the crunch is to do it on a stability ball. However, rather than keep flat across the ball, roll down on it slightly (it helps if the ball is a bit oversized) so that your torso is at a forty five degree angle to the floor.
In this position, as you "tuck" your ribcage over your lower abs, you will stress the top two of the "six pack". While you're still going to engage the entire rectus abdominis to some extent, this is the simplest upper ab exercise to perform.
