Building those six-pack abdominal muscles is notoriously one of the most difficult areas of the body for many people to achieve for a few reasons:

• The abdominal area is one of the most common places that the body selects to store fat which then causes the muscles to be hidden.

• Many people over-exercise the abdominal muscles because they can’t feel enough of a burn.  This can happen because these are very large muscles, but don’t be mistaken into thinking that if you don’t feel a severe burn, that you haven’t exercised effectively.  If you over-exercise you can actually cause the depletion of muscle.

• When exercising abs, each area of the muscles is not properly targeted. In order to have complete development, you need to train the upper abs, lower abs, obliques, and lower back.

Developing well-defined abdominal muscles is a combination of doing the right combination of exercises for the correct amount of time and with the proper form. Without doing this, you could easily be working out a like a dog, and killing yourself with huge painful sets of exercise that might not be building your six-pack at all. Or even worse, it’s possible you could be causing muscle degradation if you’re using the wrong technique or overusing the muscle.

If you want to get that washboard stomach, you must use an exercise program that will target all the right areas and not overwork the muscles.  It’s actually possible to do this in as little as five minutes, every other day.

Here is one exercise that is a very effective six-pack builder:

Crunches with Legs Raised: A basic crunch is done by lying flat on your back, keeping your hands gently on your ears (not pulling the head which can cause neck strain), feet flat on the floor with the knees up, and then bringing your head up toward the knees to about a 30-degree angle.

However, you can get even better results by taking your legs and placing them on a small medicine ball or even a low chair, so your feet are elevated.  Raise your head at the same 30 degrees and do about three sets of 15 repetitions.

The key to getting great abs is in using an exercise program that will work your abs smart, not just hard.  For more information on building six-pack abs in as little as 5 minutes a day, take a look at the link below.

[Ed. Note: Chris Esposito is a certified fitness trainer and the owner of R2K Kickboxing Academy.  For more information on his Abcubator program, click here.]

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