Ab Workout Plan?

I sometimes get asked, “whats a good ab workout plan?” so I figured I’d do an article on how to best train your abs so you get that flat stomach, or even ripped abs work.

The Problem With Ab Workouts

Most people who want abs think you should do 100’s of crunches, hundreds of situps, or other ab exercises to really get those abs…

They figure all the “targeted” work to their midsection will do two things: 1. Burn fat there and 2. build muscle tone/ripped/flatten it.

But it doesn’t work that way…

My Story: YEARS and NO Results

So when I was 12 years old to 14 years old I was OBSESSED with getting abs. Actually, I was obsessed with Bruce Lee. I was on my way to earning my first degree black belt. I’d come home from school go in my basement and train for a couple hours every day.

I got a book on Bruce Lee’s training methods, it had a lot of his routines in it, and some days I’d go running like he did… lift weights on other days like he did… but I always did my abs like he did.

Bruce felt you should train your abs every day and it worked for him so I kept doing them every day too. I’d train them down stairs and then many nights before I went to bed, I’d do 100’s more situps, leg raises, crunches, etc before hopping in bed.

I never got em back then… but I guess I had pretty strong abs.

3 Keys To Getting Abs

To get abs, it takes more than ab workouts, it takes 3 things:

• Strength Training – you wanna have lean muscle on your body to help you burn fat and so your abs look good…
• Proper Cardio -- to burn fat over your WHOLE body, and consequently burns fat around your abs and…
• Proper Diet – because no matter how hard you work in the gym, it’s not gonna do anything for your waist if you’re not eating right. “you can’t out train the kitchen table” is a great saying because it’s true.

With this in mind, your three part plan to get great abs should include doing strength training, eating right per my guidelines and doing cardio.

This will get you down to 10% bodyfat for men (about 15% for women) or a little less and you’ll start to see your abs by then.

With that said, I’ll give you a few ab workout routines here (these are straight from my days of doing Bruce Lee workouts, along with some stuff I’ve learned along the way towards the end!).

What you want to do is everytime you train your abs (on your cardio days works well for people or on your strength training days works well — 3-4x per week is all that’s needed you do NOT need to do them every day)… just pick a plan and do it, then the next time do the next one, etc…

Ab Workout Plan 1.

These are all performed in a circuit fashion, meaning you do the prescribed number of reps for each exercise, then go to the next with no rest, the next, and so on… that’s one “set”. Then repeat the process if it calls for it.

• Sitting Crunches — 10 reps
• Crunches – 10 reps
• Oblique Crunches – 10 reps
• Leg Lifts – 10 reps
• Bicycle Crunches – 10 reps
• Sitting Crunch – 10 reps

Then sometimes I’d repeat the whole circuit again for a second set.

Ab Workout Plan 2.

• Leg lifts – 4 sets of 20 reps
• Situp with twists at top – 4 sets of 20 reps
• Situp – 20 reps
• Crunch – 20 reps
• Situp – 20 reps
• Crunch – 20 reps

Ab Workout Plan 3.

This is done as a super-set: do the first set of reps on the first exercise (a-1), then the first set of the next exercise (a-2), then go back and forth like that until the prescribed number of sets/reps for each exercise is done.

• A-1: Leg raises – hanging from a bar – 5 x 5 (5 sets of 5 reps)
• A-2: Ab rollouts with ab wheel – 5 x 5

Ab Workout Plan 4.

• A- 1: Swiss Ball Planks – hold for 1 minute
• A-2: Full Contact Twist – 5 reps each side

The Bottom Line?

I train my abs less now than I ever have in my whole fitness “career” and yet I’ m getting more lean, a more ripped mid-section and looking better than ever.

To REALLY get eye-popping eyes, you need to do more than ab workouts. You know what the best ab training in my program is now? Really heavy squats and double (approaching triple) by bodyweight deadlifts. These full body training movements DEPEND on you having a strong core — or your body collapses.

That being said: if you’re already doing the 3 keys to getting abs above, then be sure to give this ab workout plan a try!