Bust raising on an inclined bench is an exercise to work the abdominal muscles. It allows you to build up your abdominal muscles and firm up your waist. It is an exercise to integrate into your ab program to have the chocolate bar or "6pack" composed of the rectus abdominis which allows the flexion of the trunk but also the obliques and the transverse.
How do you do the exercise?
Lie down on an inclined bench with abdominal muscles or declined bench and place your feet under the wedges so as to block your legs, then lower your trunk while trying to progressively unroll your spine without ever arching your lower back. Contract your abdominal muscles to come back up by rolling up your chest and repeat until the end of your series.
CAUTION: It is absolutely necessary to roll up the spinal column by contracting the abdominal muscles during the rise of the bust. The descent must be slow and controlled in order not to arch the back. The amplitude of the movement is rather reduced. It is an exercise which tends to solicit the hip flexor muscles (psoas iliacus, anterior rectus) hence the importance of stretching them regularly in order not to cause lumbar pains.
Tips
- Breathe in on the way down and blow out as you roll your chest up.
- Go down slowly by unrolling progressively the spine and not the straight bust and stop before arching the lower back.
Variants
- You can add difficulty by adding weight: holding a weight or a gym ball in your hands.
- A rotation can be added to challenge the oblique muscles at the waist.
- If the exercise is too difficult or you feel more hip flexor muscles than abs then you should go for the floor crunch exercises for abs.
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