Sweeping Scissors Ab Exercise

Everyone wants lean, sculpted abs, but doing crunches over and over can get boring—not to mention it’s ineffective. If you want to create amazing abs, you need to mix up your core work and do a variety of moves that target different abdominal exercises. A great bodyweight exercise for sculpting lean abs is called sweeping scissors. Sweeping scissors works not only the rectus abdominus but also the transverse abdominus, or the TVA. The TVA acts like an invisible girdle around your middle, keeping your stomach flat. Working the TVA in moves like sweeping scissors helps give you a lean, strong stomach. So let’s get to it! Watch this quick video to see how to perform sweeping scissors.

To perform sweeping scissors, you don’t need any equipment; you just need your own body weight. To begin, lie on your back with your arms and legs extended. Sweep your arms around as you lengthen through the back of the neck and keep your chin to your chest as you lift your shoulder blades off the ground. One leg comes up off the ground as you engage your abdominals and lower back down, keeping your arms long. Repeat on the other side and continue for as many repetitions as you want! You’ll start to feel the burn as you work your abs and strengthen your core.

Doing different core exercises helps keep your muscles challenged, creating that lean, strong appearance we all want. If you want flat abs, it’s not enough to do crunches over; you need to do different movements that target the transverse abdominus, obliques, and more. With moves like sweeping scissors, you can start to sculpt a lean, strong core. For more effective core moves, try this ultimate ab workout routine!