Abdominal Exercise

I have researched and developed this sit up routine in trials with athletes, bodybuilders and normal people.

It has shown to be the best routine in producing strength, stability and most of all a fantastic looking stomach.

It does this by allowing the twitch fibers and neurons in the abdominal and oblique muscles to develop faster than any other routine.

The routine can be varied as you become stronger by adding more reps and advance to the more technical exercises over time.

In case you are unsure a rep is an individual sit up and a set is a group of reps.

E.g. one set of 10 reps: means 10 sit-ups.

The routine must be followed daily or if struggling every second day. I will now go trough the best exercises for developing a start to your ultimate six-pack.

Women can also use the routine although developed through using men as the subjects. This can be done by halving the reps for every exercise depending on what level you feel you are at.

Below are the exercises going from easiest to hardest and the explanation of how to properly execute the movement:

Normal Sit up:

1. Lie on your back on the floor and hook your toes under a heavy piece of furniture. Even better, use an ab board and hook your toes under the ankle constraints.

2. Bend your knee comfortably and keep them bent throughout the entire set. This helps to relieve concentrated back strain.

3. Place your hands across your chest or fingers behind your ears, don’t pull on your head you will damage your neck.

4. Curl your head, shoulders, upper back and lower back slowly in succession off the floor until your torso is perpendicular to the floor.

5. Hold the upright position for a second and reverse the movement slowly until reaching the starting point.

6. Resistance may be added by varying the degree of incline if you are using an ab bench or by holding a weighed barbell plate behind your head.

Twisted sit ups

1. Lie on your back on the floor and hook your toes under a heavy piece of furniture. Even better, use an ab board and hook your toes under the ankle constraints.

2. Bend your knee comfortably and keep them bent throughout the entire set. This helps to relieve concentrated back strain.

3. Place your fingers behind your ears, don’t pull on your head you will damage your neck.

4. Curl your head, shoulders, upper back and lower back slowly in succession off the floor and twist your torso to the left touching your left knee with right elbow.

5. Hold the upright position for a second and reverse the movement slowly until reaching the starting point.

6. Perform the sit up again but this time twist to the right, touching you right knee with left shoulder.

7. Hold the upright position for a second and reverse the movement slowly until reaching the starting point.

8. Resistance may be added by varying the degree of incline if you are using an ab bench or by holding a weighed barbell plate behind your head. Advanced athletes may want to do both!

9. Continue reps right and left until the end of the set.

Crunches

1. Lie flat on your back and place your calves on a flat bench seat. Your hamstrings should be perpendicular to the floor.

2. Place your hands behind your head with fingers interlaced together.

3. Perform the following movements simultaneously:

• Pull your hips from the floor using your lower abdominal muscles.

• Raise your shoulders and back from the floor using your upper abdominal muscles

• Force your shoulders in moving them toward your hips

• Exhale hard

4. Hold the contracted position for a slow count of 1-3seconds.

5. Keep repeating this movement for stated reps.

Leg raises:

1. Lie flat on your back on the floor or exercise mat.

2. Place both your hands just past or underneath your bum.

3. Keeping your legs together bend your knees very slightly keeping your feet off the floor.

4. Use your abdominal muscles to slowly raise your feet upward in an arc until they are above your hips.

5. Slowly turn them to the starting position just above the floor.

6. Repeat these movements until you have completed the required number of repetitions.

7. If you find this to hard just bring your knees up to your chest and then put feet back to original position, instead of raising the whole leg to a vertical position.

get flat abs

Side Bends

1. Stand up straight and with your arms straight down at your sides.

2. Bend sideways holding your pelvis very firm. First one shoulder should bend down toward the floor.

3. When you reach a point where you cannot bend further, inhale, hold your breath and raise yourself back to the erect starting position exhaling when you reach the vertical position. Can be done holding a weight in your hand to increase difficulty of the exercise

4. Repeat this movement numerous times before switching to the opposite shoulder.

Sit up with leg raise

1. Lie on your back on the floor and hook one foot under a heavy piece of furniture. The other leg must be straight out in front of you.

2. Bend your knee comfortably and keep your leg bent throughout the entire set. This helps to relieve concentrated back strain.

3. Place your hands across your chest or fingers behind your ears, don’t pull on your head you will damage your neck.

4. Curl your head, shoulders, upper back and lower back slowly in succession off the floor until your torso is perpendicular to the floor, at the same time bring your knee up to your chest.

5. Hold the upright position for a second and reverse the movement slowly until reaching the starting point. Move your torso and leg in a simultaneous movement.

6. If this is easy which you can place a small weight behind your head. Repeat for specified number of reps.

7. Now sap legs and do the same for the other side

Advanced rotation crunch:

1. Lie on your back on the floor and hook your toes under a heavy piece of furniture.

2. Bend your knee comfortably and keep them bent throughout the entire set. This helps to relieve concentrated back strain.

3. Place your hands across your chest or fingers behind your ears, don’t pull on your head you will damage your neck.

4. Curl your head, and shoulder blades slightly off the floor keeping your stomach tight.

5. Now the hard and complicated bit!! Staying at the same height off the floor bend to the left slightly and hold for a second.

6. Now staying bent left slightly lift your torso a few centimeters hold for a second keeping your abs tight.

7. Now move your body back to the straight position staying at this higher level and keeping stomach tight, hold for a second.

8. Now bend your body to the right slightly staying at the higher level and keeping abs tight, hold for a second.

9. Staying bent to the right lower back to the original position just above the floor, keeping abs tight and hold for a second.

10. Now straighten up to the original position on the lower level hold for a second and keep abs tight.

11. Repeat this rotation for half of the reps in the direction described.

12. For the second half of the reps rotate in the opposite direction as described above.

Below are some helpful tips to try and help you maximize your routine and get the best six pack possible:

1. Train your abs on an empty stomach. This allows you to burn body fat as fuel instead of carbohydrates.

2. Perform cardio activity before your workout. When the body is warmed up as a result of cardiovascular activity, you're able to get a better contraction on your abs when you work them. The warm up enables you to better feel the deep muscular burning sensation when your abs are trained.

3. Contract and flex your abs in between sets. This technique helps to build abdominal definition. Bodybuilders have been known to stretch and flex in between sets to increase muscle definition. I find this help a lot.

4. Minimize rest time in between sets. Try to only take 1 minute of rest [or less] time in between abdominal exercises. The goal is to keep rest to 30 - 40 seconds in between sets.

5. Focus on the diet. Your diet is the main factor in how your abs will look.