Getting and developing a nice set of abs is probably one of the hardest things to do. This is because there is so much more involved than just doing crunches or sit-ups. First of all as discussed in The Truth about Abs, I discuss how body fat plays a major roll in abdominal definition. Another major key in which we will discuss is the fact that the abdominal region is made up of multiple muscle groups.

These muscle groups consist of the rectus abdonimus(middle portion) and the abdominal oblique(on both sides). The problem with just doing crunches and sit-ups is that these exercises work a lot of the upper portion of the rectus abdominus but don’t really hit the lower portion or the oblique’s. This is a big hindrance to getting the complete abs that you want.

In order to get a complete set of abs, you have to target all of the areas of these muscles. In order to target the lower abdominal region I would suggest doing exercises such as the leg raise, weighted reverse crunch, and the air bike. These exercises target mainly your lower abdominal region and help in the overall development of the abdominal region.

The oblique portion of the abdominal region, is the region where you see those pain in the butt “love handles”. A lot of times these muscles are overlooked when working out your abs. Exercises that focus on these muscles are weighted side bends, oblique crunches, and weighted twists.

By choosing ab exercises that target each of these different muscle groups, you will soon start to see better definition, and development not only in the upper portion of the abdominal region but also in the lower and outer portions as well. This will no doubt give you a more complete looking set of abs

I would also like to state that just like any other muscle group in your body, your abs need rest after a workout. When working out you are basically breaking down your muscle, and afterwards it needs time to heal. If you are one of these people who do 200-300 sets of exercises everyday, then your muscles will never get an opportunity to heal and develop as much as they could.

My recommendation is that you workout your abs at most 3 times a week. Try to space it out so that you work your abs out on say Monday, Thursday, Sunday. This way your abs are getting 2 full days of rest and time to repair themselves before the next workout. Contrary to popular belief when it comes to working out more is not always better, Over training is one of the biggest reason why people get hurt and/or see very little results.