Well first I want to respond to a comment made last week. There is a very good pushup called the Hindu pushup and for those of you who are curious, this is done by starting in pushup form except with your feet about one and a half feet apart. Next you want to raise your bum into the air and then kind of dive forward; you want to bring your entire body low to the ground with forward momentum. As you reach the bottom, you want to bring your upper body up while keeping your lower body down to stretch the back. Then you want to bring your bum off the ground and then head back with it to where you started before coming down. I know this sounds complicated but here is a good video if you are interested: Click here
I promised that I would cover some different workouts that you can do, but I will first look into some abdominal or ab exercises that you can do, in an attempt to diversify exercise types. Along with the pushup, and running, ab exercises are fundamental, extremely important and versatile components for getting in shape or maintaining high physical condition. There are so many different ab exercises out there that it would take an enormous amount of time for me to cover them all; therefore, I will start with some basic, yet, effective ones to get started with.
The first is the sit-up. Probably the most standard for of abdominal exercise, the sit-up is performed by lying flat on your back with your knees bent at a ninety degree angle and you feet resting flat on the floor. The next step is to put your hands on your collarbone with your right hand on the left side of your neck and your left hand on the right side of your neck so that they cross. Next you want to raise your upper body off of the ground until it is perpendicular with the floor. Then you let your upper body lower back to the floor. That was one rep.
Here are a couple of things to be aware of. First you want to make sure that your feet do not move when performing a sit-up. If you are just beginning, it would be a good idea if you had someone stand or kneel on your feet to keep them from moving. Another option would be to press them up against something like a wall or a couch. As you progress and your abs get stronger, you will not need this extra support and will be able to do a sit-up without feet support.
Second, watch your hands; keep them touching your collarbone at all times. It is very easy to cheat and lift them off to try and get some extra momentum, but this will sacrifice form and will result in a less effective workout. Many people like to have their hands in different positions; I will describe the benefits and disadvantages of each position at a later time. For now, just keep them on you collarbone. Alright, that should get you started, next time I will look at some more ab exercises.