Check Out These Best Ab Exercises
By Fitness Atlantic Writer: Brian Cannone

Let's get one thing straight. The best exercise for ab definition is the one that burns the most calories and prevents you from eating more than you need. In other words, without the benefit of a controlled diet and rigorous exercise plan, it will be impossible to get defined six pack abs. Did you ever notice the disclaimer for diet pills and home exercise equipment? They state that:

1. Results will vary


2. Results are not typical and


3. The person followed an exercise and diet plan.

Basically, they are selling us a product but are basing the results on things we already know. Eat less, do more, repeat.

Many times, I have been at the gym doing my cardio, and have seen people do ab exercises for the entire time I am there. These people would be much better off with 35 minutes of an aerobic activity vs. 35 minutes of abs! The abs are high resistance muscles that can withstand a lot of punishment. They are not easy to fatigue since they are in constant strain as they stabilize our body in our daily activity.

Due to their fatigue resistant fibers, the abs CAN be trained every day, but do not NEED to be trained everyday. If you are struggling to loose that last bit of fat that is preventing rock hard abs, you do not need more ab work, you need to figure out why that fat has not gone away. Re-evaluate your eating and make sure you are burning enough calories.

Three to 4 days of ab work is usually sufficient, and few people looking to get shredded should be avoiding cardio. So, if you only have 8 minutes before you leave the gym, you best return on investment will probably be on the stair climber, not the ab gizmo machine.

Recent experiments looked at the electrical activity produced by the muscles of the rectus abdominis and the obliques. Researchers then determined which were the best ab exercises based on the amount of activity produced. Greater electrical activity meant greater muscle activation, but translates into either muscles that will become stronger, more resistant to fatigue, or even bigger.

All of this is dependent on how many days the muscle is trained, how long a rest period, and how many sets & reps. So depending on your goal, you can train the abs like any other muscle group to achieve the desired result. Most ab routines mimic muscle hypertrophy training (getting the muscle bigger) because there is high volume (lots of sets and reps), high intensity (by adding weight), and about 1 minute rest.

This type of training may actually cause the muscle to get bigger, but it will do very little to decrease the fat covering it. A better alternative is high reps, low to medium intensity with very little rest.This is more likely to increase caloric expenditure and thus help burn fat.

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The bicycle maneuver, and the captains chair ranked in the top of the list for both rectus abdominis and oblique activity. We have previously discussed the action of these muscles, so a shift of focus needs to occur for these exercises to be truly effective. There should be limited activity of the hip flexors. For the captains chair, start with the knees bent at 90 degrees, not with straight legs.

Then, move the pelvis towards the chest, not so much the hips bending and straightening. The bicycle maneuver is effective, not because the legs are moving, but because the legs moving cause the abs to stabilize and also extend the lever arm making pelvic motion more difficult. This exercise should be done slow and controlled with a focus on using the abs, not moving quickly and letting the majority of the movement occur from the legs.

Any other crunch, or crunch variation (ie reverse crunches typically done for the 'lower' abs) should have minimal movement except for the spine either flexion, side bending, or rotating. There is no need to do crunches with lots of weight or to do them quickly. It is ok to do variations, but remember that the rectus abdominis is only one muscle and there is not exercise that does lower and upper.

Ab training can be done on a regular basis, but the goal is to help overall performance and decrease injury. Even the best ab exercise will not be enough to get you ripped and sexy.

I have uploaded a YouTube video of exercise and nutrition< seminar at a local high school. If you want to learn feel free to watch my free seminar using the link below:

http://www.fitnessatlantic.com/nutrition-exercise-seminar.htm

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