I usually pick three exercises and cycle through them. I change exercises frequently (like every workout it seems) to prevent them from getting old and to target different areas. Here's just one of the many. By the way I love training abs, get a burn like I do when training calves, and never use heavy weight either. It's all in the squeeze!!

Three exercises are : Hanging knee ups or leg lifts, Decline crunches, and v ups

I do mine with hanging ab straps as my shoulders tend to bother me with free hanging from my hands and I find my arms tire way before my abs with free hanging. I start with knee ups, never fully returning my legs completely down straight till the last rep to keep tension on my abs. This tends to prevent use of your hip flexers. I do 15 to the front and 10 to each side. When you first start these you'll need a partner to hold your hips to prevent you from swinging. Once you learn how to control this movement with your abs you won't need a spot.

With no rest I immediately move to the next movement: Decline crunches. I use the decline bench for this one, setting the decline as high as it will go. These are little movements - I do not go all the way back touching my back on the bench. To get an idea of the movement, place your hands on your outer knees and decline back till your arms are straight. This is the full extent of the movement for me. Again I do 15 to the center and 10 to each side (reaching to the opposite knee) and then if I can and the burns are not too bad I do 5 more to the center.

Then immmedately on to the next without rest: V ups.

I do these by sitting at the vary end of a flat bench. Hold on to the bench behind your rearend with both hands, legs over bottom of bench and upper body leaning back a bit towards your hands. Now bring legs up and body slightly forward forming a v shape between legs and torso. I do 15 of these, then roll a bit on my hip, holding onto the bench on either side of my body and do side crunches by kind of lowering my legs up and down and crunching my body towards my hips. Your knees tend to be a bit lower than your lower legs. I hope this make sense as it's hard to explain, easier to show.

Now you can rest one minute then go through the whole thing two more times. Of course resting in between the tri-set is allowed but between exercises is not. Hope you feel the burn the way I do. Remember to breathe out on the crunching and in on the stretching. Slow controlled movements make for a better burn and hold the contraction for the count of two if you can...

Good Luck
Lori

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