Delts
Your deltoids, or shoulder muscles also get a lot of work during the rest of your workout, however, you can add some light delt work to your routine if you like. You only need about five pounds to start. Use light dumbells or a gripable substitute. Stand holding the weights at your sides and slowly raise them out from your sides and overhead. Variations of this exercise include raising the weights in front of you to the overhead position, and bending over and raising them laterally, as if you were flapping your wings, as far back as you can. You can work up to some pretty high repetitions with these exercises, even up to twenty-five.
Abdominals
There is an exercise that works virtually every muscle in your body, which I call the "floor press". I have used it mostly for abs, however it also really works your arms, shoulders, legs, chest… practically everything. However, because of this, you have to be pretty fresh to do it. In other words, if your arms are tired, and you want to use the floor press to do your abs, you may not be able to because you need fresh arms to do it. Nevertheless, check out this exercise. You can do it at the beginning of your workout and then continue with the rest of your routine, even though some of your other body parts, like your arms, may be more tired than usual. If you familiarize yourself with this exercise, you will have something you can do virtually anywhere to build and keep strengthen your entire body.
To do the floor press, simply sit on the floor with your legs together, straight out in front of you. Place your hands directly next to your buttocks on each side of you, straighten your arms, and press up, lifting your butt off of the ground. Easy? Now tense your abs and lift your feet off of the ground, even if it is only for a second. Try it a few more times. Your goal is to hold your entire body up in the air like a gymnast, with only your hands on the floor. Depending on your weight and physical condition, this may be very difficult to do. At first, you may only lift your butt up and hold that position for ten seconds. Then try raising your feet and legs… at first for just a second, and then longer. Repeat whatever you are doing a few times. Pretty soon your abs and arms will be too tired to do any more. Give your self a few days of rest and try again. There is really no need to do a second set with this exercise because you are pretty thoroughly exhausting your muscles with the multiple attempts at lifting yourself. In fact, none of the ab exercises really lend themselves to a second set. Just doing the exercise itself, two or three sets of one exercise, should be enough for abs.
Other ab exercises include leg lifts and sit-ups. For leg lifts, lay on a bench or on the floor with your hands grasping something behind your head for stability. Raise your legs up to a perpendicular position, then SLOWLY down again. It is not necessary to keep the legs perfectly straight; they can be slightly bent at the knee. Perform ten to twenty leg lifts. Your are probably familiar with sit-ups. My only advice is to find something suitable to put your feet under, or find someone strong to hold them. Also, BEND YOUR KNEES at a forty-five degree angle. Do not do sit-ups with straight legs. It puts too much stress on the lower back.
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