ab routine

[shawnyboy]

give me your ab workout..summer is coming and we all know that abs are a mut for the beach bod!! give me your input!

[fodive]

well, I vary things by day, with certain sets of exercises.

windmills -this is where you get on one of those stands where you brace yourself with your arms. You bring your legs straight out, and do a circular motion, going as high as you can. you do ten one way, reverse direction and do ten more, and that is one set, so 3x20 for those.

knockdowns - if you have a partner, grab their ankles while laying flat on your back, kick your legs up, have them throw your legs back down, try not to let them hit the ground. 3x10

leg raises - lay flat on your back, hold your legs about 5 inches off of the ground, hold that position for 30 seconds while keeping your abs flexed.

I don't know what this machine is called, but I also do one where you rest your ass on a padded circular cushion, feet braced against a metal thing so that you are completely off the ground, but still laying flat.

On that machine, I do regular crunches (with a 25lb weight) and something that works the side more. I call it "touch the sky" because you have your arms straight out, pointing towards the cieling and you reach as high as you can with the right side of your body, then the same with the left. While you are on this thing, you are bringing up your entire upper body.

The last two might be kind of confusing, I'm going to see if I can find a picture of the machine im talking about...

[shawnyboy]

well my current routine also varies by day..

but in most cases i usually do a set of 15 crunches after any set of a typical exercise... but usually i do 5 sets of wieghted decline sit ups with 35pounds.
i also do a sort of wieght cross while on the decline, works the obliques but i dunno how to describe it. i do a lot of leg lifts and i usually do atleast 5 sets of the ab roller thingy.

[The League Champ]

I set up a decline in front of a pulley machine with a tricep rope on the ground, hold the rope behind my head and do situps like that. I put on a weight that looks tough, usually about 40-50 pounds for 25 reps. Do 10 straight up, 5 across the right side, 5 aross the left side, 5 straight up, increase weight and go down in reps by 5, and go down to 5 and do a pyramid back up. Follow this up with as many regular decline situps as you can do (hands behind the head, chin past the knees).

Hanging half leg raises (leg raises with your knees bent to 90 degrees). Have someone hold you steady by placing their hand on your lower back. Don't swing it to get it up, control your momentum. If you're feeling swirly you can do these with ankle weights. 25-35 reps, again 10 straight up, 5 across the right side, 5 across the left side, 5 straight up. 5 sets.

Side bridges. 30 seonds, 3 sets.

Twists with a bar, around 50 twists each way, 5 sets.

Leg raises on a bench with hands behind your head holding the underneath of the bench. Pump them out. 5 sets.

I stay away from crunches because they work only your upper abs and some of your lower abs and lower abs are the problem for most people.

Running is also a good way to help your abs.