Prior to beginning an exercise routine at home, ensure that it is appropriate for your fitness level. It would be a fine idea if you follow a program created by a professional based on your needs and your physical condition.

All workouts must begin with warm up exercises, like a few minutes of cardiovascular exercises. Since you are not under professional supervision, be sure not to overdo it, especially when you are just starting out. Begin with just several counts then increase as you become stronger. You should be sensitive as to how your body reacts. There must be no pain, just muscles getting stretched.

Instead of expensive equipment for your ab workout, what you need are appropriate clothing, enough space, and maybe, an exercise mat. Begin with only a few crunches. A very useful kind is the vertical crunch. Lying on your back, place your hands behind your head. Slowly, while lifting your legs up, begin bending your knees. Maintaining such position, raise your body in the direction of your knees and then lower it again slowly. You can begin with ten repetitions, increasing the count as you go along.

Bicycle exercises are also a good means of achieving perfectly fit abs. Again, lie down with your hands at the back of your head. Bend your right knee in your chest’s direction. Touch your right knee with your left elbow by lifting your torso. Begin a pedaling motion with alternate knee and elbow movements. While exercising, do not forget to breathe.

A regular ab workout in your home makes your back muscles stronger. It improves posture and gives you a greater sense of being in control of yourself.

To make the workout exciting, consider variety. There are numerous ab exercises to choose from. You can add or incorporate a new one in your routine on a regular basis to avoid monotony. Make sure to exercise regularly. It will feel good, and in time, you will be surprised how far you have improved.

A healthy diet should accompany your workout. Success will be easier to achieve when it is coupled with a healthy diet and adequate water intake.

Reap the rewards of ab workouts at home without the costs of unnecessary equipment and membership fees at the gym.

Read this popular guide for killer tips on how to get six pack abs now!

Stop With All The Ab Workouts!

The first thing you need to do is stop doing ab workouts every day. Your abdominals are a fairly small muscle group and really only need to be worked hard 2-3 times per week. Also, each workout only needs to be 5-10 minutes long. If you are doing more than this, then you may be over training your abs (which will slow down your results)

However, to gain strength in your abs fast, you’ll need to do a variation of exercises at a very intense pace. You can’t lay on the ground for 5 mins and do two situps and expect to see results. You still need to work very hard (just not for as long!)

Start Doing Full Body Workouts

Instead of focusing all your energy on the small group of muscles called your abdominals, you should start doing full body workouts that work a majority of the muscles on your frame. To get the fastest results, start lifting weights 3-4 times per week.

Each workout should consist only of multi-joint compound lifts (no isolations). This means doing squats, power cleans, bench presses, and other similar exercises to work the biggest muscles on your body. Doing these types of workouts will help you bring out your six pack much faster than ab workouts alone. This is because you will be burning a ton more calories by working the bigger muscles on your body, which will result in more fat loss.

If you want to learn more about getting a tight stomach or sweet six pack abs, check out my 7-day Six Pack Abs crash course. This mini-course will teach you one strategy each day and by this time next week, you’ll be fully equipped to achieve your goals and be on the fast track to a tight stomach.

The main thing to remember about abs is that they are the major support system of your body or “core”.  If your core is weak, then the rest of your body does not have the proper support to function normally.  A great place to start your ab routine is with your back.  The lower back is a part of your “trunk”.  You can think of your trunk as a big barrel that contains all of your organs.  Your abs act like the straps around that barrel weak abdominal muscles allow the abdomen to sag which puts undue stress on your lower back.

Strong abdominal muscles will alleviate the load from your lower back.  This also creates what is called “intra-abdominal pressure”.  Increased pressure forces your spine into a more upright position.  The end result is a decreased load on your lumbar spine which will decrease the chances of rupturing or slipping a disk in your back.  Strengthening and toning your abs also promotes better posture and decrease back pain.

Whether you suffer from acute or chronic back pain, following  a good set of Ab exercises will go a long way to preventing back pain. Most low back pain is preventable by keeping your abs toned.If you use slow controlled movements when you are performing exercises for your abs,you will reduce your risk of injury.If you have a back injury or any lower back issues , it is important to start off any exercise routine slowly and to build your muscles gradually. What you need to do is to find an ab workout plan that has basic excercises that increase in difficulty as you build and define the muscles concerned.

Preview the Truth about Abs Here

Here are a few a flat stomach tips I learned from Mike Geary (author of Truth About Abs):

The first & most important thing to get control of in order to lose your stomach fat & get a flat stomach is cleaning up your diet. Exercise is important, but your diet is king when it comes to losing body fat so that you can see your abs. A better diet needs to start from week one.

The second thing that works your stomach great the first 7 days, is to focus on the intensity of your workouts & focus on working the body as a whole in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that stubborn stomach fat.

For the third thing to get started with flattening your stomach in those first 7 days, let’s speak about actually training the stomach specifically. When it comes to training the stomach, in case you need actual results, I always recommend forgetting about the crunches & situps for the most part. they are ok for someone that is out of shape, but most people that already have some training under their belt need a much better stimulus for their abs than crunches. Crunches are one of the abs exercises that actually provide the least amount of resistance, & keep in mind that resistance is what develops & tones the muscles.

In order to  get lean, the workouts ought to have a high intensity, with short rest periods, working the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific miniscule muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves. Getting a flat stomach in 7 days is a bit unrealilstic, but it is a great starting place to work from.

There’s a ton of great stomach exercises in the Truth about abs book, but one of THE highest resistance exercises for the abs, is hanging leg raises (but NOT the way you see most people at the gym doing them). The key to doing these & actually working the hell out of your abs is to curl your pelvis up as you raise your legs. Nobody ever does this ab exercise right. To be honest,  all of people can’t do this at first, but they’re are some strategies in the book as to how to do these correctly.

Want to get your stomach flat?

Get Mike Geary’s Truth about a six pack abs

Welcome back to the 12 weeks to six pack abs workout series for week 3. Hopefully by now these 10 minute ab routines have become a part of your daily routine and you are doing them on at least 3 or 4 times a week.

It is now time to step it up a notch and try and do these ab routines everyday! If you are having trouble being consistent at doing these workouts, I suggest you pick a time during the day to do them.  This means everyday you do the workout at the same time. For best results, I would suggest doing them first thing in the morning. I typically do this and its great because its the first thing I do when I get up. It relaxes me and lets me think about what I need to do during the day and then sets my mind at ease as I know I have done something healthy for my body!  So again, I encourage you to pick a time during the day that you are going to dedicate and set aside for yourself so that you can consistently get these workouts in. Remember, it only takes 10 minutes to complete, its going to make you feel great and its going to get you those results that you are looking for!  Those results are what is going to keep you motivated to continue so get that motivation and determination and do it!  Trust me, you will be happy you did at the end of these 12 weeks!  Now lets get right into those ab exercises!

12 Week To Six Pack Abs Workout Series – Week 3

Exercise 1: Plate 8′s

Sets & Reps: 2 Sets & 8 Reps per Set

Exercise 2: Recliner Press Crunch

Sets & Reps: 2 Sets & 12 To 15 Reps Per Set

Exercise 3: Side Plank Rotations

Sets & Reps: 2 Sets & 12 Reps per Side per Set

Exercise 4: Physioball Rollouts

Sets & Reps: 2 Sets & as Many Reps as You Can

Exercise 5: Physioball Skier Tuck

Sets & Reps: 2 Sets & 12 Tucks per Side per Set

Once you have finished your sets, don’t forget to drink as much water as you can.  As mentioned in last week’s article, the more water you drink the better.  Try to aim for between 80 to 100 ounces a day (2.5 to 3 liters).  Also, hopefully you are focusing on lowering your fat intake too.

Don’t forget to do the exercises presented above with as few breaks as possible. Once you have completed the exercises, repeat the circuit again. Training in this fashion is called circuit training and will help you build your abdonminal strength and your muscular endurance and get you that healthy, lean, athletic and muscular look.

Circuit training workouts are great ways to get your body into ultimate shape but you need to be organized when you do it and it needs to have variety and you need to ensure you are switching it up on a regular basis.  The reason for this is because your body adapts quickly to workouts and the best way to continually achieve results is to ensure your body is continually in a state of shock.  Therefore you should strive to organize yourself and ensure your training is organized over several months with a nutritional plan to follow as well.  Get a ripped, lean, athletic body is not rocket science.  You just need discipline, commitment and a great circuit training workout and nutritional plan.

Preview the Truth about Abs Here

Here are a few a flat stomach tips I learned from Mike Geary (author of Truth About Abs):

The first & most important thing to get control of in order to lose your stomach fat & get a flat stomach is cleaning up your diet. Exercise is important, but your diet is king when it comes to losing body fat so that you can see your abs. A better diet needs to start from week one.

The second thing that works your stomach great the first 3 days, is to focus on the intensity of your workouts & focus on working the body as a whole in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that stubborn stomach fat.

For the third thing to get started with flattening your stomach in those first 3 days, let’s speak about actually training the stomach specifically. When it comes to training the stomach, in case you need actual results, I always recommend forgetting about the crunches & situps for the most part. they are ok for someone that is out of shape, but most people that already have some training under their belt need a much better stimulus for their abs than crunches. Crunches are one of the abs exercises that actually provide the least amount of resistance, & keep in mind that resistance is what develops & tones the muscles.

In order to  get lean, the workouts ought to have a high intensity, with short rest periods, working the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific miniscule muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves. Getting a flat stomach in 3 days is totally unrealilstic, but it is a great starting place to work from.

There’s a ton of great stomach exercises in the Truth about abs book, but one of THE highest resistance exercises for the abs, is hanging leg raises (but NOT the way you see most people at the gym doing them). The key to doing these & actually working the hell out of your abs is to curl your pelvis up as you raise your legs. Nobody ever does this ab exercise right. To be honest,  all of people can’t do this at first, but they’re are some strategies in the book as to how to do these correctly.

Want to get your stomach flat?

Get Mike Geary’s Truth about a six pack abs

Tone Your Torso
Begin this stomach exercise on all fours, knees and hands on the floor. Keep your stomach pulled in and extend your left arm out in front of you (football fans, imagine a referee signaling first down). Keep this arm outstretched as you extend your right leg out behind you. Switch arms and legs, and repeat for an entire set. Take particular care not to let your pelvis sway out of position.

Butt Burner
You will need to lie on your back for this exercise. Use a mat or towel to cushion your spine. Bend your knees so your feet are flat on the floor, and position your arms at your sides. Squeeze your buttocks as you lift your pelvis off the floor. Keep the rest of your body in line. Raise your pelvis to about forty-five degrees, so your upper body from your head to your knees makes a straight, flat ramp. Hold this for three to five seconds before slowly lowering your pelvis back to the floor. Repeat for an entire set.

Crunchless Crunch
This stomach exercise is fairly simple in theory but can be fairly difficult to perform. Essentially, it involves trying to pull the belly button in towards the spine. This can be tricky, as it involves using muscles which you may not be used to activating. To start, either lie or on your stomach or kneel. You might want to try both ways and see which helps you feel the exercise better. Relax your body as much as possible, then try to use only the lower abdominals to move your belly button toward your spine. Hold for ten seconds. If this feels easy, hold for a longer period. The goal is to hold the contraction until you either cannot feel it, or you feel other muscles working harder than the transverse abdominus. When you feel this, let the contraction out.

Scissor Kicks
This stomach exercise also requires lying on the floor. Position your hands under your butt, keeping your back pressed against the floor. Slowly raise one leg to a height of about ten inches, then slowly lower it back to the floor. As your lower one leg, raise the other. Repeat this motion for an entire set. Maintaining control throughout is important, not allowing momentum to get the better of you. Your upper body should remain on the floor through the entire move.

These are just a few of all the strength building stomach exercises out there. If you are looking to build strength in your midsection, look for any exercise that works your core, especially the transverse abdominal muscles. Many components of Pilates are good for this also.

12 Weeks to 6 Pack Abs Workout Challenge – Week 9 Exercises

Exercise 1:  Rock Reverse Crunch

2 Sets to Failure

Exercise 2:  Frog Crunches

2 Sets of 20 Reps

Exercise 3:  Med Ball Switches

2 Sets of 12 to 15 Reps Each Side

Exercise 4:  Med Ball Side Slams

2 Sets of 10 to 12 Reps on Each Side

Exercise 5:  Tubing Woodchoppers

2 Sets of 15 Reps Each Direction

Hopefully by now you are seeing the benefits of training to a well planned out workout system for your abs.  You shouldn’t just stop there.  Now that you can see the benefits of working out to a training system that works, you should strive to find a fully body workout and nutritional training program.  As you can see, its easy and effective to workout when you have a plan.  Hopefully you have been taking the ab workouts I have provided, written or printed them out and followed along each and everyday since you started reading my articles.  Getting a fully body workout and nutritional program is just as easy to obtain and follow.

And with fast food becoming the norm for most of us, it is no surprise that more and more people are seeing themselves growing horizontally, especially around the stomach area.

You can do many exercises to lose stomach fat, but the first thing that you must do is incorporate a bit of cardio and muscle exercises to help you lose fat in all areas of the body and work the stomach muscles as well.

Losing excess weight can help you see the effects of your stomach exercises faster and get that six pack abs faster. Exercise also increases your body metabolism allowing you to lose fat even when you are sleeping.

Here are a few, easy-to-do exercises to lose stomach fat that you can add to your cardio routine.

Crunch

This is probably the most popular form of abs exercise to lose belly fat. Lie on your back on a firm surface, with your knees bent. Lift your shoulders off the floor, moving the ribs towards the hips.

Do this until you feel a burning sensation in your stomach muscles, which is a sign that the muscles are working.

Vertical leg crunch

This is a variation of the crunch. On your back, put your hands out over your head. Lift your legs together, cross your ankles with your knees bent. Tighten your stomach muscles and lift your shoulders, head and upper back to a 30 degree angle. Hold this position for 5-10 seconds and slowly release.

Reverse Curl

Lay on our back with, contract your abs muscles and bend your knees to your chest, making sure that your hips are still on the floor.

The good thing about stomach fat is because it is just that—fat. You can lose it with the proper amount of exercise if you are really determined to lose the belly fat. Start with these exercises and lose those belly bulges in no time.

These tips will help you make your own workout sessions much more effective at sculpting and toning your muscles:

Lose weight

One of the first things you can do to make your workout sessions more effective is to lose weight.

The more fats you have in your belly area, the more difficult it is for your abs to become prominent. The fats cover up any semblance of muscular growth, thereby nullifying any and all bodybuilding benefits of your workout sessions.

This is exactly why you have to match your abs workout regimen with a weight loss regimen. Cardiovascular activity works wonders at actively burning calories, while the muscles you develop will play a passive role in consuming those calories. Still, you need to watch out what you eat if you want to make your workout regimen a success.

Reduce sodium intake

One way that you can help lose weight is to reduce the amount of sodium you take with each meal.

Simply put, cut down on the salts you consume. A high-sodium diet makes it much easier for the fats to settle into your body, so make sure that you are very careful in screening out the high salt foods out of your diet. 

Make sure that you prepare your own food if you want to have full control over the sodium that you put into your dishes. This is especially true for any kind of preserved or processed foods, as these types of foods usually have very high salt and sugar content.

Keep yourself well-hydrated

Your body functions well if it is properly hydrated and will be able to build muscles much more easily.

It is for this reason that water must be readily available whenever you are in an abs workout regimen. Taking the occasional sip of water will not only help give you the energy you need to keep on working out, but will also help prevent you from losing too much water due to sweat.

You should also be mindful of your water levels even when you are not working out, especially when you are about to sleep. This is the time when your body will start building muscle, so make sure your body is well hydrated before you go to sleep.

Focus on power and intensity

One of the most important things you can do while working out is to go for the burn, not a set of numbers.

When you work out with your crunches or bench presses, make sure that you really push your muscles to the point where you feel a slight burn. This means that you are exerting enough power in each crunch or press to develop your muscles, contributing to a faster, healthier muscle growth.

Keep these five abs workout tips in mind, and you will be one step closer to achieving your dream set of six-pack abs through a well working abs workout.