Abdominal Exercises, Workouts, and Routines | Ab Workouts

Weight Training Advice

Abdominal Training and Exercises

While weight training is primarily done to help gain muscle size and strength, there is one area of the body that most weight trainers don't want to add size to, but want to add shape to - the midsection. The midsection area of the body is primarily made up the abdominals and the obliques. The abdominals are the muscles in front of the midsection and are the focused on the most while training the midsection. The obliques are the muscles on the sides of the midsection. If have a layer of body fat covering your midsection these muscles won't be visible. If you want to get into great shape you must strive to lose that body fat and make the abs and obliques visible. Even if you're into powerlifting and don't care about dropping body fat you still need to perform oblique and abdominal workouts for a strong core. Having a strong core is important to assisting major compound lifts like the squat and the deadlift.

Abdominal training should be performed with no weight or very light weight with many reps per set. The best abdominal exercise for the upper abs is the crunch. Crunches are better than sit-ups for targeting the upper abs because sit-ups tend to hit the hip flexors as much, if not more, than the abs. Crunches can be done on the floor or a bench, on a weight training ab machine, or on a core training ball.

To get the best stretch and contraction of the abdominals, you should perform crunches on a core ball. Core balls will allow for a ice stretch at the bottom of a crunch rep and force you to stabilize your body to stay on it. Too really get an intense ab workout on a core ball, hold a weighted medicine ball on your chest or behind your head without putting strain on your neck.

If you want to do some sit-ups in your ab workouts you should do them on a declined ab bench. Don't put your hands behind your head and accidently put pressure your neck while performing decline sit-ups - either fold your arms over your chest or use them to hold a wooden twist bar behind your upper back. To get the most out of decline sit-ups in your abdominal routine you should twist as you're going up on each rep, alternating the side you twist on every rep.

To target the lower abdominal area doring your ab training you need to do some type of leg raises. You can do leg raises while sitting on the edge of a bench - pulling your knees toward you on every rep or lie on a bench and raise your legs in the air. Leg raises with your body is in an upright position, whether you're hanging fron a pull-up bar, using ab straps on a pull-up bar, or using a back supported leg raise machine are all excellent lower ab exercises. If you do them without back support you must be careful not to let your body swing back and forth while performing them.

For your obliques you should do some form of side bends. This oblique exercise can be done standing up with a dumbbell in one hand while your bend sideways, opposite the side the weight is on; or with cables instead of dumbbells. You can also do them on an inclined bench specifically designed for lower back and oblique training. Use very light weights while doing oblique exercises because you don't want to make your waist look wider.

To get a smaller, tighter midection you'll need follow a high quality diet (eating 5-6 small meals daily to keep your metabolic and energy levels high throughout the day) and do some cardio exercise in addition to your weight training workouts. If you keep at it you'll get the ripped abs you want. For more information on getting ripped abs, check out The Truth About Abs.