If you follow the advice already suggested in this article, you’re well on your way to your very own six-pack. A good abdominal training program is the final piece to the puzzle. By now you understand that well-defined abs come from more than just crunches and sit-ups, and that concept continues when we talk about effective ways to condition the muscles that you want to show off.
Once you've disposed of the fat covering your abs, you'll want something there to show off. That’s where a good program of resistance training comes into play. When training your abs, quality is immensely more important than quantity. 20 perfectly executed repetitions will take you a great deal farther than 200 reps done with poor form. You want to shock the muscles into growing, not bore them with never-ending sets of the same exercise. Just like any other muscle in your body, your abs don’t want to grow, you’ve got to force them to. Growth is what you’re after, here – the more your abs grow, the more noticeably well-defined they’ll be when the time comes to display them.
Simply training your abs twice a week is a good place to start, using two to three different exercises per session. Remember to focus on quality, not quantity. Concentrate on doing the exercises using a moderately slow tempo: 2 seconds up, 1 second of contraction at the top of the movement, then 2 seconds down. The more you focus on making each rep count, the less you’ll have to do in order to achieve the results you want.
While training, aim for 2-3 sets of 10-15 repetitions each, with about 30 seconds to a minute of rest between sets. Once it becomes easy to do 3 sets of 15 reps with your own body weight, try adding on another set. Alternatively, you can also try adding some resistance to the movement for added difficulty. Whatever you do, just make sure that you’re challenging yourself during each and every workout. If you don’t make a conscious attempt to improve yourself every time, you’re not going to achieve the results you desire. Muscle growth is the result of your body recognizing a need to adapt to greater challenges, so if you don’t challenge it, it won’t see a need to improve.
Finally, make sure to allow time for a quick warm-up session before your workout, as well as a cool-down session afterwards. Doing some light jogging for 5-6 minutes before exercising limbers up your joints and gets blood flowing to your extremities, helping to prevent a work-out injury that could set you back weeks in lost training time. A brisk walk and some stretching at the end of every workout will also go a long ways towards ensuring that you’re not set back by a painful injury.