If it’s easier, you can sit with your back to perpendicular to the bench and swing one leg over the thigh pads with your butt on the bench before scooting forward.
The term “thigh pads” is a little misleading. They usually rest under the knees when you’re performing decline sit-ups.
Lie on the bench as though you’re lying in bed, especially if you have a 30 to 40 in (76 to 102 cm) round waist. [4] X Expert Source Landis OwensPersonal Trainer Expert Interview. 13 July 2021.
Keep your back as straight as possible. Ideally, the angle of your spine will not change as you raise yourself off of the bench. You should feel your entire core flexing as you raise yourself up.
It’s more efficient to not go all the way back to your original position. If you avoid resting your spine directly on the bench when you lower yourself, your core will remain activated in between the individual sit-ups.
Raise the bench up higher to increase the amount of resistance you experience with each sit-up. Once you become proficient with decline sit-ups, try doing them while holding a weight or medicine ball. This is a great way to do some weight training for your core.
The higher the footrest and thigh pads are, the more difficult this exercise will be.
For most people, the hips will naturally lift off of the bench when their legs are a 90-degree angle with the bench. Exhale while you raise your legs in the air.
Once you get good at these, increase the angle of the bench so that you’re more upright. If the bench is past 25-35 degrees, you will begin feeling this workout in your upper thighs as well.
The Russian twist is a great way to stretch and workout the abdominal muscles on your sides. You can do this with a medicine ball or dumbbell for an added layer of difficulty and resistance.
This is a great way to work on your lower back and hip muscles. Keep your knees on the bench while doing this.
For decline dumbbell presses, sit on the bench the same way you would for a decline sit up with your head lower than the rest of your body. For incline dumbbell presses, face away from the bench and lean against it with your head near the footrest. When lifting the weights, be sure to keep them perpendicular to the ground. Lift them straight up the same way that you normally do on a flat bench. The decline press is especially hard if you aren’t experienced with free weights. Do not jump right into this exercise without building up to it first.
The thigh pads are the 2 foam cylinders that sit above the bench, closest to the backrest. Your knees go on top of them if you’re doing decline exercises. The footrest refers to the foam pads at the end of the bench, under the thigh pads. Your feet go underneath the footrest pads if you’re doing workouts on a decline. Some ab bench footrests and thigh pads can be adjusted with knobs on the beams that connect them to the bench. On many ab benches, these parts are not adjustable, though.
You can set the bench to be parallel with the ground if you want, but the entire point of an ab bench is that it’s designed to be elevated in either direction. There’s usually no point to doing exercises on the bench without setting the bench on an angle.
Getting out of the ab bench when your head is below your body takes some coordination as well, so it’s especially important to start out slow if you’re doing decline sit-ups.
