3 Top Exercises for Six-Pack Abs

Having a six-pack of abs is pretty much the pinnacle of fitness. The six-pack is what being fit, muscular and ripped is all about and in many ways, ripped abs represent fitness as a whole. Pretty much anyone you see in a gym wants to have ripped abs (although few have achieved that goal).

Let me be clear: Doing weight training and exercises for your abs won't get you a six-pack all on it's own. Of course, you also need a good diet and cardio-routines. However, without the proper abs exercises, you won't ever get a six-pack, either. So here are the top three most effective workouts to get your abs ripped and chiseled:

1. Hanging Leg Raise:
As the name implies, you need to be hanging off something to do this exercise, ideally a pull-up bar. Simply raise your straight legs up until they are at least parallel to the floor (i.e. you'll have a 90 degree bend in your body) and then lower them again. To do this exercise properly, raise and lower your legs slowly, without sudden movements. You'll quickly find that this is one of the hardest, most intense exercises you can do for your abs, giving them a really hard workout.

Bonus tip: Support your back against a solid surface to further increase the intensity of this exercise.

2. Exercise Ball Crunch:
This one is pretty simple: You do the usual crunch exercise, but instead of lying flat on the floor, you lie with your lower back on an exercise ball. Because of the bounciness and wobbliness of the ball, you'll have to put in much more effort, just to stailize yourself. this hits your abs from more angles and increasses the overall intensity of the workout, compared to "traditional" crunches.

3. Cable Crunch:
Again, we're doing the usual crunching exercise, but this time, a cable machine provides resistance. Cables are a great way to add resistance to crunches as they provide full resistance for the full range of motion, but still give you a lot of free motion, almost like training with free weights.

Note: For all abdominal exercises, you should maintain a good "base stability tension" throughout. Tuck in your belly without raising your chest. That’s the base tension you should have in your core, before you start doing the first crunch.

With the three exercises above, your path to a six-pack will be shorter (albeit harder, but that’s kind of a give, with weight-training).

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