Abdominal exercises will help you strengthen, build, tighten and tone your abdominal muscles. However, to obtain a washboard stomach or the much coveted six-pack, it is essential you include cardiovascular exercise in your workout routine to burn away excess belly fat -- and eat a diet conducive to minimizing your level of body fat.
Guidelines
Do your abdominal exercises in a slow and controlled manner to fully engage your abdominal muscles. A comprehensive abdominal exercise program should consist of exercises that target your entire abdominal wall, including the lower, middle and upper abs, as well as the obliques.
Upper and Middle Abdominals
Do bench crunches. Lie on your back on an exercise mat and place your legs on a bench or Swiss ball. Touch your fingers to your temples and lift your shoulder blades from the floor. Crunch your abdominal muscles and reach your elbows toward your waist. Return to your starting position, keeping your shoulder blades off the floor. For the bench jack-knife, lie on your back on a bench with your legs hanging off one end. Keep both legs straight. Extend your arms over your head. Reach forward with both arms and raise your legs as if you were trying to touch your legs to your arms. Return to the starting position and repeat. To do toe reaches, lie flat on your back, put your legs together and lift them until they are pointing at the ceiling. Place one hand over the other, lift both arms and point your fingers toward the ceiling. Use your abdominal muscles to lift your shoulders off the floor and reach up with your arms as far as you can. Pause briefly, return to the starting position and repeat the movement.
Lower and Middle Abdominals
Perform bench leg raises. Lie on your back on a bench with your straight legs hanging over one end. Reach over your head and grasp the edge of the bench for stability. Keep your knees and feet together, and lift your legs up slowly until your feet are pointing at the ceiling. Lower your legs to the starting position and repeat the movement. To place more emphasis on your lower abs, do leg raises with hip thrusts, by thrusting your hips up once your feet are pointing at the ceiling. Reach up and grasp a pullup bar with an underarm grip. Lift your legs, bend your knees and cross your ankles. Contract your abdominal muscles and lift your knees up to your chin or head. Lower your legs and repeat the exercise.
Do reverse crunches. Lie on your back, lift your legs, bend your knees and cross your ankles. Place your arms on the floor alongside your body and lift your shoulders. Use your abdominal muscles to pull your knees toward your chest. Lower your knees and repeat for your desired number of repetitions.
Obliques
Oblique plate twists target your obliques or love handles. Sit on the floor with straight legs and hold a weight plate in front of your abdominals with arms slightly bent. Lean back slightly and raise both legs. Tense your ab muscles and twist from side to side touching the plate to the floor. Perform decline bench crunches. Lie on a decline bench and secure your legs at the top. Place your fingertips on your temples. Raise your body using your ab muscles and twist to your left, touching your right elbow to your left knee. Do your desired number of repetitions, return to the starting position and repeat the movement twisting to your right. Do hanging oblique raises. Hang from a pullup bar with an underarm grip. Keep your feet together with your knees slightly bent. Lift your knees as high as you can to your left by curling up from the hips. Squeeze your abs and obliques at the apex of the movement, lower your knees and repeat the movement to your right.
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