Abs together with calves are the most stubborn muscles. You have to hit them really hard if you want to make them any different from what they look like now. That means you have to do at least four sets and as many reps as you can within each set. If you will really be doing this on a regular basis I promise you the results will show!

Importante! To burn fat in your mid-body you cannot get a fancy gizmo or just do situps/ab cruches like the makers of that fancy gizmo want you to believe. You have to eat a caloric deficit together with high intesity cardio/weight training.

I have shed a bucketload of weight and in that time there are guys in the gym who eat poorly, exercise intermittently and look the same/worse than when I started.

Hi, you may want to try the plank and side planks. The plank is like a pushup you hold at the top for as long as you can, except our resting on your elbows instead of hands You can find instructions and pictures for these and other ab exercises at SparkPeople.com. I don't work for them It's a free resource I use all the time. Be careful with exercises where your legs are full extended and your raising your legs off the floor. You could easily hurt your lower back if you're not strong enough or if you practice poor form which is often the case. Plank is somewhat error proof as long as you don't let your lower back sink.

If everyone you asked said sit ups, hopefully you are taking no other workout advice from these same people, because they are clueless. My daughter was griping about having a sore neck one time, and I asked her what she had been doing. She said her 'wellness/phys. ed teacher was making them do a lot of situps...yes, the old fashioned hands laced behind the neck style.

Let's just say I had an interesting and lengthy 'conference' with the teacher, and sit ups are no longer incorporated in the school's phys ed program.

Christ, I thought people stopped doing sit ups in the '50s.

I'm sorry, but there really is nothing wrong with sit ups, done correctly.

Instead of convincing your daughter's phys ed teach to can sit ups altogether, you should have convinced him to teach the kids to do them correctly. Done correctly, sit ups are effective and perfectly safe.

The correct form requires the knees bent with the heels brought in close to the butt, with someone or thing holding the feet in place (the spotter). Arms should be: 1. down your sides, next to but not touching your body (for easier sit ups), 2. crossed the chest with elbows in against the torso (for moderate difficulty), or 3. above the shoulders, elbows bent, with fingers brushing the sides of the head (but not pulling the head) just behind the ears (for more difficult sit ups). At the starting position, the back should have a slight curve so that the lower back is in contact with the floor but the shoulders are off the ground, neck in it's neutral position with relation to the body, and eyes forward aimed at the knees. The movement should be slow and controlled, 1-2 seconds up as far as you can contract, and then back down slowly 1-2 seconds, returning to the starting position, and not allowing your shoulders to come in contact with the ground. Based on the age and experience of the exerciser, set/rep ranges can be anywhere from 1x10 all the way up to 4x50 and higher.

One thing to remember is that ab muscles are just like any muscles in the body. Unfortunately the stomach area is the first place that stores fat and the last place that gets rid of it.

If you want nice, tight abs you must:

Lower your BF (body fat) percentage by having a caloric deficit (as mentioned earlier). I recommend 500-725 calories per day when losing weight. This deficit should also be obtained through cardio. Your body will use energy from stored fat the best when doing cardio at an intensity of about 60% of your max hear rate...anything lower or higher will rely on other energy systems (which you don't want). Also, if you want your abs to show you must build them up...sit ups with a little added weight is ok...but if your gonna do 100 sit-ups/crunches a day the only thing you are doing is building up the abs ability to tolerate lactic acid (endurance).

Also: DIET IS KEY!! Count your calories, eat proper foods. Eat 5-6 times per day and distribute your calories carefully. If you know the total amount of calories you need to eat in a day you can try this:

30%/8.3%/25%/8.3%/20%/8.3%
1st meal/1st snack/2nd meal/2nd snack/3rd meal/3rd snack
This is the percentage of your total daily caloric needs for each meal and snack for the day. By eating
less but more often you are keeping your metabolism high. You can put your meals at 25% each if you like but since the breakfast is the most important meal I prefer to have it this way. By having the biggest meal in the morning you will be burning and using it's nutrients all day. The first meal is also somewhat of a metabolism-tempo regulator...think of it like starting a wood stove in the morning...you want it hot and you want it hot fast and you want to keep the heat up all day long by keeping it well fed. If you want to stick with two snacks you could try 25%/12.5%/25%/12.5/25

Hope I helped.

PM me if you need more info!

I have one suggestion for you: CARDIO. In order to get abs, you will need to eliminate the fat that sits on top of your muscle. Every trainer I have worked with has always stressed that cardio is key. You should at least run, jog, walk, bike or even try the elliptical for 40 min 4-5 times a week. Abs are hard to maintain and obtain without this type of exercise.

It is funny you mention this, because I was just blogging about it. I think sit-ups are really overrated. You want a great crunch.. one that doesn't kill your back and neck. Sit-ups tend to target only one area of the stomach, leaving the lower half ignored. I always use an exercise ball. This has great support and it is fun because you can change it up. When I'm bored with it, I follow a few dvd's in order to get new ideas.

Also, watch your diet! For me, my food intake really dictates. If I eat unhealthy, I rarely ever see progress. Make sure you have five small meals a day (breakfast,snack,lunch,snack,dinner) and try to stock up on veggies, lean meats and even yogurt (studies state that yogurt may actually target stomach fat).

Good luck!
Heather

I've been a personal trainer for 13 years! Your abs do not need as much training as you think. It truly is mostly cardio and diet that will get your abs to show. Remember, your abs are a muscle, too, so too much training, especially with machines, can potentially cause your abs to grow! We don't want that. 50 crunches three times a week and some type of leg lifts, such as the roman chair three times a week is all you need. Cardio at least 30 minutes 5 times a week and a healthy diet with protein, lots of greens and a small amount of good carbs! Hope that helps!
Carla Haug

A simple and better exercise you can do is crunches. And, to make it more effective do it on a ball.

You can learn simple ball exercises here Best Pilates Exercise Ball Workouts to Sculpt Your Abdominal Core

Also, try yoga and pilates. Learn yoga here Core Strength Exercises – How to Get a Strong, Sexy Core Fast! and learn pilates here Pilates Abs Workout – How to Sculpt & Tighten Your Abdominal Core With Pilates


Bottom line?

There's better exercises than sit ups!

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Best Ab Exercise Routines to Get a Six Pack or Flat Abs

I've recently changed my approach to training the abs. I completely agree in that cardio is required to shed the fat to make the muscle visible but I've stopped doing exercises at high reps and instead work my abs like any other muscle. I do 2 or 3 sets of various exercises with enough weight to make me tired. Not only do I want my abs to be visible (diet and cardio), I also want them to be stronger to perform advanced Pilate's and pole fitness exercises. I'm not talking huge amounts of weight, just enough to make 12 reps challenging. Does anyone have experience with this approach?

You can read more about this approach at: Abdominal Training

You've got a lot of answers for this one and not really surprising as the abs are such a popular subject in the fitness world.

Firstly remember just because you are doing ab exercises it does not mean that you will reduce that fat on your stomach. The body works as a whole and fat is just stored energy, therefore to reduce fat on your stomach the most effective area to work on are your legs as they are the biggest muscle group in your body therefore require the most amount of energy. Anyway blah blah blah, onto the exercise.

Sit ups are a great exercise for the abs, however they are quite advanced and if you can't do them then don't worry because they are a bucket load of ab exercises that don't need machines. To describe them all would take a life time and without pictures or diagrams it would be really difficult to explain. I have about 8 of my favourites on my blog with pictures and/or video follow this link to learn more about how to do them Abs | Beebleblog
there are about 3 pages so make sure you look at them all. It includes some of the exercises that have already been mentioned but some others as well.

To help prevent that neck ache even when doing a crunch, concentrate on a spot on the ceiling and allow your head to drop back slightly. So that there is less head movement. At the start there is nearly always some neck ache due to the angle that your head is being held at. It is very rare for the neck muscles not to ache and over time they should strengthen, however if you are worried then only crunch up until the point that your neck begins to ache and then rest. Over time you should be able to build up the amount you can do before your neck begins to ache. Alternatively there are plenty of lower ab workouts that remove the neck movement completely and these are just as effective. They can also be found on the link.

Good luck and I hope I have been of some help.

This I think is one of the best ab exercises for your abs. It looks easy but is really tough and works from your pelvis to the upper part of your abs. It also works you back and shoulders. First time try it for 45 seconds -1 minute then try to work yourself eventually to 2 minutes. Try it and see how you feel the next day or two.




Top 10 Most Effective Ab Exercises - Plank

My ab exercises: Squat, deadlift, military press...and I think even pull ups to some extent

Sure the abs see action in all of those exercises, but the core is just like any other muscle group. Just because you activate your quads as stabilizers during calf raises doesn't mean you don't do squats.

The abs' primary function is to reinforce and support the back, not to "sit up" There is a plethora of research to support not directly training the abs