When most people think six pack abs, the best exercise for obliques and losing belly fat, they think about long cardio workouts and hundreds of crunches. The good news is, that isn’t what it takes to get a great belly and sexy oblique muscles.

In fact, I believe that there are many exercises that better and actually safer than crunches. Some physical therapists warn that crunches involve spinal flexion (rounding forward).  Research has shown that spinal flexion can lead to herniated discs.

So what we need is both a safe and effective ab training workout.

The following abdominal workouts strengthen your lower, upper and oblique abdominal muscles. I always tell beginners to start with the an abdominal exercise circuit where they perform the desired amount of repetitions and sets for each abdominal exercise, having sufficient rest between abdominal exercises and sets (20 -30 sec’s).

For best results try to increase the amount of reps you perform each week by 2, until you can comfortably perform 20 reps of each abdominal exercise. The best way to strengthen your abdominal muscles is to vary both the exercises you perform, and also the workout routines that you do.

· Perform 10 repetitions of each exercise and move to the next exercise.

· Change your exercise routine every 2 to 3 weeks.

· Maintain good form with each muscle contraction.

· Contract your abs and pull your belly button in toward your spine with each contraction.

· Maintain a slow and controlled movement.

· Support your head when you need to, but don’t pull on your head or pull your chin to your chest.

Following are few exercises to consider.  We’ve found more body fat exercises

Incline Twisting Sit Up

Incline the sit-up board on a 25-30 degree angle. Sit down on the board and hook your feet under the strap at the upper end. With your knees slightly bent, put your hands behind your head and place your chin on your chest. Twist your torso to the right and hold this position. Inhale and lower your torso down until your lower back touches the board. Return to the starting position and exhale.

Do the prescribed number of reps on the right side and then change the twist of your torso to the left and repeat the repetitions.

Elbow to Knee  Oblique Crunches

Lie on your back and keep your feet flat on the floor. Place your hands behind your head. Curl up and bring your left elbow and shoulder across your body while bringing your right knee in toward your left shoulder at the same time. Reach with your elbow and try to touch your knee. You can either do one side for all your reps, then switch to the other side or alternate sides.

Bicycle Exercise

• Lie flat on the floor with your lower back pressed to the ground.
• Put your hands beside your head.
• Bring your knees up to about a 45-degree angle and slowly go through a bicycle pedal motion.
• Touch your left elbow to your right knee, then your right elbow to your left knee.
• Breath evenly throughout the exercise.

Captain’s Chair Exercise

• Start with legs dangling and slowly lift your knees in toward your chest.
• The motion should be controlled and deliberate as you bring your knees up and return them back to the starting position.

Long Arm Crunch

• Lie on your back with your arms over your head with hands clasped and arms close to your ears.
• Keep you knees bent with feet flat on the floor.
• Contract your abs and lift your shoulder blades off the floor.
• Lower and repeat for 12-16 reps.

Plank with Leg Lift
Start in the same plank position as above with your forearms and toes on the floor.

• Keep your leg straight with your toe flexed.
• Slowly raise one leg 5-8 inches off the floor (photo 2)
• Hold 1-2 seconds and slowly to the floor.
• Switch legs and repeat.
• Do about 2-3 sets of 10 reps.

Exercise can seem hard to achieve, but it’s actually often much easier than you might think.  The key to making exercise fitness a part of your life is to sit down and look carefully at your life and commitments, to see where exercise can be fitted in.

Make Sure You Can Meet The Number One Rule

This is paramount if you are to succeed at improving your exercise fitness levels.  The type of exercise you select to help you get fit should be something you genuinely enjoy doing.

Don’t get a membership at the gym just because they’re offering a fifty per cent discount if you know you hate going on the various machines they have there.  Don’t go swimming if you had a bad experience as a kid, just because you’ve heard it’s a good all round form of exercise.

The easiest form of exercise fitness for you will be the activity you most enjoy doing.  If it’s jogging, go and buy some decent footwear and get going.  If it’s tennis, go and buy a new tennis racket and dream of winning Wimbledon.   A few other ideas include playing basketball or simply walking.  Whatever gets you up and out, that will be the activity that will improve your exercise fitness levels more than any other.

Exercise, Fitness And Realistic Goals

So you’re sitting down and deciding how you can integrate exercise into your life on a regular basis.  It’s important to be realistic about your prospects at this stage, as setting yourself an unrealistic timetable will only lead to frustration when you find you cannot keep up with your new goals.

If your life is busy with work, consider whether you could fit an exercise plan into your lunch hour.  I love to get home and take my dogs out for a nice 1/2 hour – 45 minute walk.  It’s good for me and definitely very good for my dogs.   If you enjoy jogging, perhaps you could pack a change of clothes into a rucksack and jog to and from work twice a week?

Sometimes it can be easier fitting exercise in around your work day like this than trying to rely on exercising during the evenings.  Once you get in from a long tiring day, it’s frequently too easy to simply sit down in front of the TV and never get up and out again.

As you can see, exercise, fitness and planning all go hand in hand.  To make the most of them, you need to have realistic goals and I strongly recommend an activity you love to do.

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• Exercise Resolutions That Are Easy To Keep

It can sometimes be difficult to find the best weight loss programs.  Oftentimes you will find yourself going in circles from one diet plan to the other without any success.  This is why finding healthy, yet successful, weight loss programs that help you take off the pounds safely can seem like a difficult task.  Of course, it does not have to be this way if you know what to look for.

Why Weight Loss Programs Fail

Have you stopped to think about why so many weight loss programs fail?  The number one reason is because they are too restrictive.  They limit the kinds of food that you can eat and the number of calories that you can have.  While you may keep trying to stick to these weight loss programs your body may tell you that enough is enough and then you will be “forced” to end the diet.  This is why 1 of the keys to finding the best weight loss programs is ensuring that it allows you to eat a variety of foods and thus it is not too restrictive.  Of course, this does not mean that you can eat cupcakes, candy bars and milkshakes everyday.  If you do, then you are never going to lose weight.  However, you should be allowed to eat a good variety of foods.

Crash Diet Weight Loss Programs Are Not The Answer

Another thing that good weight loss programs have in common is that they allow you to lose weight in a healthy manner, which basically means that you will lose weight over a long period of time and in a safe, healthy way.  While it may sound impressive to say that you have lost 25 pounds in 2 weeks, most of the time you will end up quitting the diet and gaining all of the weight back again.

The best weight loss programs should be a combination of healthy eating & drinking habits combined with regular exercise.  Unlike “crash diets,” you don’t want to have big portions of the day where you feel hungry with an urge to gorge yourself.   Believe it or not, exercise can actually curb your appetite in Instead, you will be allowed to be comfortably filled.  They will also allow you to eat some of your favorite foods while still losing weight.

The bottomline is that whenever you are looking at weight loss programs you need to be sure that you are allowed to eat a variety of foods and exercise regularly so you can lose weight in a healthy manner.  Herein you will find the best weight loss programs and in the end you will find the one that will help you to meet your weight loss goals.