If you want to have a flat stomach or 6-pack abs, you never have to do another crunch or sit-up ever again.

In fact, the truth about abdominal crunches is that they are useless, ineffective, and even damaging to your spine. The latter fact is covered in great detail by Dr. Stuart McGill in his book, Ultimate Low Back Fitness and Performance. His research will shock and scare the bejesus out of you — if you are one of those gym rats who spends 30 minutes on abdominal crunching type movements.

I found out crunches are useless the hard way by spending ten minutes per day on crunches back in my 3rd year of University — but to no avail. They didn’t do anything for my abs.

That year I stumbled across interval training and total body abdominal exercises. Finally, it was these training secrets that helped me change my torso from just a fit but regular-looking college-aged male, into a cover-model with 6-pack abs!

We’ve talked about interval training before here at THB, so let’s focus on the total body abdominal exercises to help you build a better-looking torso without doing so at the expense of your low back health.

For beginners, the three exercises you must master are called, the Plank, the Side Plank, and the Bird Dog. Now I’ll be honest, these aren’t the most exciting moves in the world, but they will put you on track to flatter abs and a healthier low back.

For intermediate fitness and strength, you can graduate to exercises such as Mountain Climbers, Plank with your Forearms on the Ball, and Stability Ball Jackknives. There are also at least a half-dozen advanced pushup exercises that will work your abs as well as crunches ever could!

Finally, if you are advanced, some of my favorite abdominal exercises include Cross-Body Mountain Climbers, Chin-ups with Knee-Ups, and Stability Ball Rollouts.

You can find these exercises demonstrated on many websites. If you have a gym membership, ask one of the trainers to show you how they are done.

Here’s to the new era of CRUNCH-FREE abdominal workouts.

[Ed. Note: Craig Ballantyne is an expert consultant for Men's Health magazine. If you're looking to burn fat, build muscle and quickly step into the body you have always wanted with just three workouts each week, check out Craig's fat-loss system, Turbulence Training for Fat Loss.]

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