So you want to reveal your six pack abs? Well, you need to start off by choosing the right exercises. The right exercise will challenge you and help you improve your fitness level. Long are the days where you did hundreds of crunches and sit ups daily.

Crunches are not a very efficient abdominal exercise because they do not work the entire main ab muscle (rectus abdomonis). Also, if you have back pain

Now we’re smarter. We realize that excessive, high-rep abdominal training is dangerous and causes lower back pain that can potentially derail you from achieving your goals. Instead, try and make a movement more difficult, instead of just adding repetitions.

Here are some great movements you can try:

Stability Ball Roll outs

• Place your knees on a mat and your hands outstretched on a stability ball. Roll the ball out. You should feel a stretch in your abs. Keep your back straight and abs tight. Roll the ball back to starting position and repeat.
• You can also do this movement with an ab wheel.

Stability Ball Jackknives

• Place your elbows on a bench and your feet on a stability ball. Keep your back straight and abs tight. Bring you knees into your chest, and back out.

Side Plank

• Lay on your side and place one forearm on the ground. Raise your body up, keeping a straight line from your head to your toe. Rest your body on your forearm and the side of the foot.
• Make sure to keep your back straight and abs tight. Lower back down and repeat on the other side.

One of the best ways to create intense abdominal workouts is to organize them into supersets. Supersets are where you perform two exercises back to back with little to no rest in between each set.

This is also a great way to get your workouts done faster. A sample superset using the above exercises would be to perform 10 roll outs, immediately followed by 10 jackknives. This counts as one set. Rest 30-60 seconds, and repeat.

Once you get stronger, you can use some other high intensity techniques:

Trisets  – perform 3 exercises in a row with no rest in between.

Giant Sets – perform 4 exercises in a row with no rest in between.

Bonus Tip: Interval Training

Just doing ab workouts isn’t going to give you a six pack. You also need to perform cardiovascular exercise. The best form of cardio is interval training. Interval training is better at raising your metabolism and burning fat than steady state cardio.

Interval training is where you perform a movement at a high intensity level for a short period of time, followed by a period of rest. For example, you can do an all-out jump rope for 30 seconds, followed by 60 seconds of easy jump roping.

I’ve actually come across a great, 4-week fitness program developed by Craig Ballantyne which includes some great superset ab workouts. Click here to get this free program.

Tags: abdominal exercises, craig ballantyne, intensity techniques, six pack abs, turbulence training