Your abdominal area is comprised of different muscle groups that form your abs.  If you want to work this muscle group so you can have six pack abs, it’s important that you understand the different muscles.  This article will explain what the muscle is, where each one is located and what it does.  You will also see a few examples of the types of exercises that target these muscles.  

Transversus Abdominis 

These are the muscles that are in the deepest level of your abdomen.  They are important for several reasons.  They stabilize your core and help you with your posture, as well as support your spine during activity.  They also protect many of your vital organs and help with certain bodily functions.  

It’s very important for these muscles to be strong.  Isometric contraction exercises like the plank and the vacuum pose are great to work this area of your abs. These exercises may be difficult for you at first if you’re not used to working this muscle group.  However, they will get easier with practice, so try to hold the poses longer each time you practice.     

Internal and External Obliques 

These muscles run along the side of your abdomen.  The internal obliques are deeper than the external which are more towards the surface.  The main function of this muscle group is to assist your body when it rotates.  Any time your body twists or bends, the internal and external obliques stabilize you.  

Many typical ab exercises will work your obliques, but there are some specifically for this area.  Oblique crunches, side bends, and bicycle crunches are just a few of the exercises you can do to work your obliques.  It can sometimes be hard to get the form correct on these exercises, so you may want to start out with fewer reps at first, until you’re confident about your form.  

Rectus Abdominis 

These muscles are actually 8 muscles that make up the upper and lower abdominals.  These are the muscles that you actually see when they’re toned and that give you that six pack appearance.  Besides making your stomach look great, these muscles also protect your organs against any external injuries like getting hit in the stomach.  

While all of the muscles of your abdominal area are important, these are probably the ones you want to focus on if you’re trying to get a washboard stomach.  There are so many exercises that work these muscles that it would be impossible to list them all, but a few examples are standard and reverse crunches.  Since you have so many options, you can choose the exercises that you enjoy doing and work them into your routine.   

Now that you know the muscles that make up your abdominal region, you should have a better understanding of the types of exercises you’ll need to use to target the individual areas.  A good ab workout will make sure that each one of these areas is covered.

You may already know that you have to burn the fat off of your abs if you want to have a six pack.  Of course, this usually means spending hours running on the treadmill and sweating.  Most people don’t know that you can actually workout for half the time and burn almost twice as many calories.  In fact, you’ll burn calories for hours after you stop working out.  This amazing fat burning workout is called interval training.

 Interval training is a specific type of cardiovascular exercise.  With traditional cardio exercise, you usually workout at a moderate steady pace for an extended period of time.  With interval training, your workouts are usually much shorter, and you only do the workout a few times a week.  The main difference between interval training and traditional cardio is that you vary the intensity or pace several times throughout the workout.  There are a number of benefits of this type of exercise. 

First of all, since you work out for a shorter amount of time, interval training is much easier to fit into a busy schedule.  It’s hard to find the time to workout for an hour or more, but it’s not that difficult to find 20 or 30 minutes during the day.  Another benefit, as mentioned earlier, is that you’ll burn a lot more calories with interval training.  When you vary the intensity of your workouts, you keep your body burning the most calories possible.  Interval training also speeds up your metabolism even after you’ve stopped working out, so you’ll burn tons of calories throughout the day.  

All of this calorie burning adds up to amazing abs.  If you want to see these benefits for yourself, it’s very easy to get started.  You can use almost any cardio exercise for interval training.  What you’ll want to do is pick an exercise that you can control the intensity like jogging.  There are a couple of different ways you can do interval training.  

You can do structured or unstructured intervals.  An example of structured intervals during jogging would be to jog at a moderate pace for 3 minutes then sprint for 1 minute.  You would repeat this for the entire workout.  With unstructured intervals, you would sprint for as long as you can, then rest for as long as you need before starting the next interval.  You can choose the best type for you.   

While interval training alone won’t get you perfect abs, it will help you burn the fat around your waistline.  This is a huge step towards six pack abs.  With less fat around your stomach, you’ll have an easier time sculpting your abs without them being hidden under a layer of fat.

When you think of a washboard stomach, you probably have images of someone in a gym at all hours of the day doing hundreds of crunches.  If this is the idea you have about what it takes to get a washboard stomach, then you’re in for a pleasant surprise.  While there’s no denying that it does take effort, it’s much simpler than it seems.  Here are some simple ways you can get a washboard stomach without spending hours in the gym. 

One of the ways to get a washboard stomach is to put the focus on your abs.  To burn off extra fat, you do need cardio and strength training in your routine.  But while these exercises will melt away the extra fat from your stomach, they’re not enough to give you the definition that you want.  If you want ripped abs, you have to do exercises that specifically target your abs. 

It’s also important that you find exercises that will work all of the muscles of your abs.  There are some exercises that target specific muscle groups while others will work all of the muscles at once.  You may want a combination of these exercises.  Just remember not to go overboard with working your abs.  You should really only be working them a maximum of every other day.  They need time to rest in between workouts if you want to see results. 

Something else you should do on your way to a washboard stomach is to periodically change up your workout routine.  Once your body gets used to a certain exercise, it becomes less effective.  Since you want to get the most out of any effort you put into your abs, you need to change the exercises you do at least every 6-8 weeks.  There are hundreds of different ab exercises you can do, so you shouldn’t have a problem coming up with a new routine.  You can also try simple changes like doing crunches on an exercise ball instead of the floor.  Even small changes make a big difference. 

The last way to get a washboard stomach is to have patience.  You’re not going to be able to see results overnight.  However, if you do what you need to do and keep working your abs, then you will see results.  Getting six pack abs is one of the hardest fitness goals to accomplish.  It takes lots of dedication and hard work.  The most important thing you can do is not give up.  If you continue to put in the effort, you will reach your goal in time. 

As you can see, working towards a washboard stomach is not nearly as frightening as you may have thought.  If you follow the simple ways above, you should start to see results in no time.  You just have to focus on all of the muscles in your abs, keep your routine fresh, and have a little patience.  It really doesn’t take much more than that to have great looking abs you can show off.