Exercise: The Three Most Effective Abdominal Crunches

Lately I've been really concentrating on my abdominal muscles during my workouts.

Even though I can't exactly see them yet, I know that strong abs are important for my back's health. One of the greatest things about working abs is that I can easily add the exercises into both cardio routines and strengthening workouts. Once you get the cardio involved and start seeing its effect on your body, that's when the fun starts! Suddenly you have visible abs! And it doesn't take as long as one might think.

Right after warming up during cardio training days, you can exercise your abs before or after your aerobic workout. During strengthening workouts, you might add sets of abdominal exercises into the middle of your routine. One of the most important things to remember is that you should work work your abs before you're too fatigued maintain correct form. Always remember that correct form and quality repetitions is better than poor form and high repetitions!

Abs can be worked effectively with three nonconsecutive workouts per week. Make sure that you attack all of your abdominal muscles. Use crunches for the top layer, twisting exercises ( like the bicycle ) for the obliques and then train the deep muscles with sets that involve pulling the belly in.

In my experience, these exercises are the most beneficial:

My top three ab exercises for the rectus abdominus (the long, flat set of muscles that stretch across the front of the abdomen) are:

1 - Bicycle Crunch

2 - Captain's Chair ( sometimes called hanging leg raises )

3 - Swiss Ball Crunch ( using a swiss ball challenges the muscles by making the adjust to balance you )

The top three ab exercises for your obliques (the long, flat muscles extending at an angle along the sides of the abdomen ) are:

1 - Captain's Chair ( otherwise known as Hanging Leg Raises -- these are really tough ! )

2 - Bicycle Crunch ( perhaps the most effective ab exercise -- incorporates many ab muscle groups )

3 - Reverse Crunch