1. Don't be Afraid of Weight
To get chiseled abs, you've got to add weight to your routine. Ab training has long suffered misinformation. The truth is that your abs are a muscle like any other. And like any other, they're built only with intensity, progressive overload and rest. You could do 1,000 sit-ups a day for the next 10 years, but only get so far. Why? Because 1,000 sit-ups satisfies only the intensity requirement. To get the brick-hard belly you want, you have to constantly challenge your abs by progressively overloading them, forcing them to guess what's coming next. The best way to do this is to add weight to your ab routine. It's as simple as holding a plate or dumbbell as you perform crunches, or using ab machines and cable exercises.
2. Don't Go Too Far
Select weight that forces you to failure around 15 reps. Any heavier weight--plus any fewer reps--and your abs will grow. This means your waist will get bigger. By aiming for 15 reps, you can train your abs for definition, keep them overloaded with weight and not worry about actually widening your waistline.
3. Triple-Set, Triple Threat
Instead of doing one set of one ab exercise, waiting, doing another couple, then moving on, try "triple-sets." If your ab exercises for the day are crunches, leg lifts and side bends, do one set of crunches. Then, without resting, do a set of leg lifts. Then again, without resting, do a set of bends. Only after the last exercise should you rest for one to three minutes. This will guarantee your abs get completely fatigued and bring you closer to the stomach you want.
4. Take Abs Seriously
Merely tacking abs on at the end of a routine doesn't work. By the time you're finished with your workout, you're fatigued, you're tempted to skip out and you're abs get neglected. In order to counteract this, and in order to fit as many sets of ab work as possible in your routine, try the tri-set approach above, or superset your abs with the other exercises in your routine. For example, if it's your chest day, do a set of bench press immediately followed by a set of Swiss ball crunches--without resting--for three or four sets. Then, you might do incline press immediately followed by hanging leg raises. This approach ensures that you give your abs as much attention as every other body part, and it keeps your heart rate up, which is great for chiseling the stomach.
5. Concentrate
Concentrate on relaxing all the other muscles of the body as you do ab work. Focus on using only your abs, not your momentum, to perform every rep. For example, with hanging leg raises, sometimes people have a tendency to swing their legs as their abs fatigue, using the momentum to get their knees up for one more rep. Or when doing crunches, you might catch yourself pulling your head up with your hands instead of lifting your torso by contracting your abs. When you do these things, you're wasting your time, and your abs do not benefit.
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