Is There a Best Abdominal Exercise ?

One of the biggest problems we face when attempting to get fit is to tone up our stomach muscles.

Stomach muscles are stubborn and painful to exercise. They also tend to stay hidden from view even after doing hundreds or thousands of crunches.

Developing an impressive set of six-pack abs takes a combination of strategy, good nutrition, hard work, and patience. Don't expect to develop perfect abs by resorting to one best abdominal exercise but to a combination of exercises that work your stomach from different angles.

Failure in ab development comes in many forms, all easily fixed. Here are a few examples of why people fail in abdomen toning.

1. Expecting instant results.

Depending on your genetics/body type, getting ripped abs will be more difficult for some than for others. A thick bodied person will have a more difficult time producing perfect abs than a thin bodied person.

Please be patient. Your abs are there, it'll just take some time to get them to show.

2. Expecting abs to show before weight loss.

Ain't gonna happen! It's physically impossible to build up your abs big enough to appear if you have a beer belly covering them.

If you are grossly overweight you'll have to lose a lot of belly fat before you can expect to see your abdominal muscles.

3. Stop working out abs through sheer boredom.

Doing endless repetitions of the same exercise always ends in failure. Partly because we get bored and partly because our bodies adapt to certain exercises and stop producing results.

Our first two problems, expecting instant results and expecting to see our abs while still being overweight are really common sense issues. You just need a little patience and you need to lose weight.

But what about the third one, "Boredom"? How do you overcome that one? It's actually fairly easy. Here's how.

You have to mix up your abdominal exercises from week to week so that you're not just doing sit-ups.

You'll be happy to know that I've come up with a list of 44 abdominal exercises that you can choose from. Many of them don't require any extra equipment other than a floor mat to work out on.

Some of the ab exercises do require extra equipment but you may already have the equipment available.

Here's a checklist of equipment you need for some of the exercises.

- Barbell
- Dumbbell
- Chin-Up Bar
- Flat/Incline Bench
- Exercise Ball
- Medicine Ball
- Ankle Weights

Here are 44 different ab exercises that should slay the boredom dragon once and for all! The list is broken up into three categories, lower ab exercises, middle and upper ab exercises and oblique exercises.

Lower Abdominal Exercises:

- Abdominal Flutter Kicks
- Abdominal Flutter Kicks with ankle weights (This one's tough!)
- Bent Knee Abdominal Hip Raises
- Decline Abdominal Crunches
- Exercise Ball Abdominal Pull Ins
- Flat Bench Abdominal Leg Pull Ins
- Flat Bench Abdominal Leg Raises
- Hanging Knees To Chin Raises
- Hanging Abdominal Leg Raises
- Hanging Knees To Head Raises
- Inverted Exercise Ball Leg Pull Ins
- Lying Reverse Abdominal Crunches
- Medicine Ball Leg Raises
- Parallel Bar Abdominal Knee Raises
- Reverse Abdominal Crunches
- Reverse Decline Crunches
- Weighted Hand To Leg Ab Crunches

Middle And Upper Abdominal Exercises:

- Abdominal Butt Raises
- Abdominal Cable Crunches
- Abdominal Crunches
- Abdominal Crunch Machine
- Abdominal Sit Ups
- Abdominal Toe Touchers
- Abdominal Tuck Crunches
- Barbell Abdominal Rollouts
- Exercise Ball Abdominal Crunches
- Fingers To Toes Abdominal Crunches
- Legs On Exercise Ball Abdominal Crunches
- Medicine Ball Crunches on Exercise Ball
- Overhead Abdominal Crunches
- Raised Knee Barbell Crunches
- Straight Arm Abdominal Crunches

Oblique Exercises (more commonly called love handles):

- Barbell Oblique Side Bends
- Dumbbell Oblique Side Bends
- Elbow To Knee Oblique Crunches
- Fingers To Heel Oblique Touchers
- Flutter Kick Oblique Crunches
- Hanging Oblique Knee Raises
- Lying Oblique Leg Raises
- Lying Side Oblique Crunches
- Oblique Crunches
- Oblique Decline Crunches
- Oblique Plate Twists
- Oblique Twists
- Seated Oblique Barbell Twists

Conclusion

With a comprehensive list of best abdominal exercises like this to choose from your ab workout routine should never be dull or boring. By adding a few pieces of low cost exercise equipment to your home gym you'll be able to create the perfect set of killer abs!

Mark A Hanson specializes in helping you get fit and build muscle. Pick up his free Skinny Guy Guide To Fast Muscle Gain [http://fastmusclegainsecrets.com/]. Visit [http://fastmusclegainsecrets.com/]

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