Burning abs: here's a unique tri-set to burn your abs into an honest six-pack - abdominal exercises for men

Men's Fitness, Nov, 1998 by Ray Velasquez

Ever since the first Calvin Klein underwear ad was plastered onto billboards, trumpeting the sexiness of six-pack abs, we have become a nation obsessed with finding a secret recipe for forging a tight, hard midsection.

Fitness professionals get asked about ab development almost daily. While there is no universal answer for developing a washboard stomach, you must be aware of these four basic truths before you can transform ordinary abs into legendary abs:

1. Maintain a responsible diet. If you regularly indulge in six-packs of the alcoholic variety, you'll never see that six-pack you've been working on. In other words, curtail empty calories and fatty foods.

2. Exercise on a consistent basis. You need both aerobic and anaerobic work to carve out the kind of killer abs that people will notice.

3. Remember, body fat hides muscle. You must maintain single-digit body fat for your abs to "pop" out, and low-double-digit body fat for your abs to show at all.

4. Find the ab program best for you. No single regimen, exercise or machine works for everyone. Different people respond to different stimuli.

Having adopted these tenets of ab development, stop and think about what you really want. If your goal is to gain 20 pounds of muscle through weight training, do you want a corresponding gain in your waist size? Probably not. A small waist goes a long way toward enhancing the symmetrical V-taper you strive so hard for. In fact, certain weight-bearing ab exercises can actually increase the size of your waist and create a blocky appearance.

The ab routine outlined below is a customized version of the one done by top professional bodybuilder Don Long. Using this program, Long went from a tight and toned 190 pounds to a massive 300-plus pounds without increasing his waist size significantly. Needless to say, his program is more extensive and exhausting, more comprehensive and time-consuming than you need, so we've condensed his routine and experimented with some of the core exercises, eventually streamlining it down to the "holy trinity" of abdominal work.

These three exercises, which comprise a triset, should be performed in the order shown one right after the other, and slowly, focusing on contracting your midsection, particularly your obliques. Don't rest between exercises. Start out with 20 reps per exercise, getting a good burn from each movement. As you progress, increase the reps for each exercise until you start feeling the burn again. The completion of all three exercises constitutes one set. Rest no mort than one minute between sets, and do a total of three sets. Perform this routine three times a week on nonconsecutive days, and you'll soon be able to boast that all your hard work is actually making one set of muscles shrink.

Lying oblique twist

Primary emphasis: internal and external obliques, rectus abdominis

Technique: Lie flat on your back with your hands extended out perpendicular to your body. Your knees should be slightly bent, feet together and legs raised at a 65- to 75-degree angle off the floor. (Maintain this angle throughout the movement.) With your head raised slightly, lower your feet toward the left side of your body until they're two inches from the floor. Then, bring them back up and over to the right side of your body, again until they're two inches from the floor. Return your legs to the starting position; that's one rep. If you do this exercise correctly, without stopping between reps, you should find your body gradually inching across the floor.

Cross knee curl-up

Primary emphasis: internal and external obliques, rectus abdominis

Technique: Lie on your back with your right foot flat on the floor; your right knee should be at a 90-degree angle, and your left leg should be crossed on top of it. Keep your left arm on the ground extended perpendicular to your body, and keep your right hand touching your left ear. Twist and bring your right elbow toward your left knee. (Don't jerk your head to assist the motion - your elbow does not have to touch your knee.) Squeeze your abs and hold for a second before returning to the starting position. After completing 20 reps, switch sides, putting your left foot liar on the floor and crossing your right foot on top of your left knee. Do 20 reps on this side; that's one set.

Curl and reach

Primary emphasis: rectus abdominis

Technique: Lie flat on your back with your arms and fingers stretched straight above your head, almost parallel to the floor. Keep your legs together and your thighs perpendicular to your body. Simultaneously try touching your nose to your knees while reaching and stretching your fingers directly behind your head as far as you can. Your shoulders should come up only a few inches off the floor. Concentrate on squeezing your abs into your groin, and hold that contraction for a half second. Return to the starting position; that's one rep.