Six Steps to Your Six Pack Abs

Do you need to tone up your abs? The following are 6 great ab toning exercises that can be done almost anywhere:

1. The basic crunch: This is the tried and true exercise for toning up those abdominal muscles. To do the basic crunch you are going to lie flat on your back, and bend your knees, with your feet on the floor. Raise your feet off the floor, keeping your knees bent, and bringing them toward your upper body. Then, you are going to put your hands to your neck for some stability, and crunch upward to bring your chest toward your knees.

2. The reverse crunch: This is another abdominal exercise that helps work some of the lower portion of your abdominal muscles. For this you want to lie on your back, and bend your knees slightly with your legs up in the air, and your ankles crossed. Then put your arms on the floor next to your sides. Slowly raise your hips about two inches off the floor, and keep them in position for two or three seconds, then use your stomach muscles to lower them back down to the floor. All the while your head should be flat on the floor.

3. Seated leg tucks: This is going to help you work all of the abdominal muscles. To do this exercise you are going to sit on a bench, and hold on to it so that you are steady when doing the exercise. Your legs should be in front of you. You want to raise your legs up, bending the knees, and crunching your upper body at the same time. Then, slowly, using muscle control, uncrunch and return to your original position.

4. Bicycle crunch: For this exercise you are going to lie on your back, put your legs in the air, and bend your knees at a right angle. You then want to slightly raise your shoulders off the ground, and you are going to crunch so that your left elbow meets your right knees, and then return, and crunch again so your right elbow meets your left knee. Whatever knee is not being met should be extended during the crunch to make a bicycle type effect.

5. Side bends: For this exercise you want to stand up straight, with your legs about shoulder width apart. You want to hold a dumbbell in one hand, and then crunch toward the other side, then raise back to starting position, and crunch to the side with the dumbbell. You will be doing reps of this. When you have completed the reps, and when you feel ready to add resistance, you can hold bigger dumbbells.

6. Leg raises: For this you are going to sit on a bench, and once again hold the sides for stability and support. Put your legs out in front of you, and completely extended. Now lift them as high as you can without bending your knees. You will want to try and get them parallel to the floor. Hold them at that level, then lower them back down.