The Mystery of Abdominals

How do I get abs?  The key to getting tone around your mid section so that your abdominals show is all in your diet.  Diet, diet, diet and more diet.  Every single person in the world has abdominal muscles.  But what makes some show and some not?  That would be the amount of fat surrounding it.  Before you start doing any ab exercises you need to make sure you have your diet down and your cardio up.  Diet is key to a good looking stomach.  Make sure you do a lot of cardio, because you need to lose weight and lose your fat in order to see your abs.  I would recommend at least a half hour of cardio a day preferably fat burning cardio exercises.  Sprinting is good, fast swimming, boxing, and quick spinning for women. When trying to get your abdominals to pop out it's very important that you go with cardio that will make you burn fat the fastest.  For example, taking a long slow swim or a long and slow run is going to get you into better long term cardio shape, but fast swims and sprints will make you burn calories faster.  The more calories you burn the quicker your stomach will shrink.  Once you've got that down, make sure your diet is flawless from star to finish.  What I would reccomend for good calories are oatmeal, fruits, vegetables, fish, chicken, beans, and yogurt.  I personally live off of this along with 2 protein shakes a day.  Remember, if you don't diet, the road to getting a six pack is almost impossible to travel.  Once you have those two important things mastered then you can hit the gym.  Now, the abdominals are your stabilizer muscles in your body.  Pretty much every exercise reguardless of what muscle you're working, is hitting the abdominals as well.  Your abdominals balance your whole body all the time.When you walk you are working your abdominal muscles.  They do not need all the attention in the world to grow.  Here is my sample ab routine, I usually do this 3 maybe 4 days a week depending on either my leg day or shoulder day.

Hanging Leg Raises (Front and Side) 4 sets 20 reps
Decline Crunches (Front and Side) 4 sets 20 reps
Medicine Ball Crunches 4 sets 15 reps
Rope Crunches 4 sets 15 reps

This is a basic ab routine stressing the lower abdominals which are always the toughest to hit.  I would highly recommend the hanging leg raises for not only for your lower abs, but for your obliques as well when doing them with a twist.  Decline crunches are very basic, and we will hit your lower abs and upper abs.  When you become more advanced and develop more core strength you may be able to twist at the top and try to hit your obliques a little harder, but for now just stick with normal crunches.  Medicine ball crunches are also great for core strength.  Core strength is core if you want to do every exercise the right way and get the most out of it.  There is a million different types of them, just type in medicine ball abdominal work online, there are so many different exercises.  Lastly, I like to end with rope crunches to really tear my abs.  It's another fairly easy exercise you just have to make sure you do it right.  Once again, if you don't know what they are just type in the name "rope or cable abdominal crunches" on google and familiarize yourself.  Now that you know what to do in the gym, go eat some good food and do more cardio.  Remember bodybuilding is 60 percent diet, 30 percent what you do in the gym and 10 percent genetic.