Ab Workout Routine

Let’s take a little time out and talk about how to  actually setup your own ab workout routine.  Getting other people’s routines out of magazines or videos or wherever is fine, but sooner or later, you’re going to want to set up your own thing.  So here’s how it’s done.

First off, I’ve mentioned in some other articles how important it is to make sure that you take into consideration exactly how much time and effort you’re willing to spend on your ab workouts.  Take a moment and reconsider that, because it really is that important.

Okay.  Now that you’ve come to your own personal conclusion about that issue, here’s what you do.  Pick out your top ab exercise for each of the front abs (rectus abdominus), side abs (obliques), and what I call the “back abs” (low back extensors).  These are the exercises you like to do the most. 

Be honest.  You’re far more likely to do your favorite exercises consistently than a bunch of exercises you hate worse than death.  So why pretend otherwise?  Keep it real, folks, and you’ll get far better results.   Remember, your ab workout routine is going to be a routine, so you need to make certain you’ll actually do it week after week after week.

Okay, so let’s say your favorite exercises for the three main regions of the abs are the crunch on the exercise ball, the side plank, and the superman.  The majority of the time, you’re going to do those exercises when it comes time for your ab workouts.  Then, you’ll come up with one alternate exercise to do for each of those areas.

A Good Ab Workout Routine Isn’t Routine

The idea is simple.  You want to mix things up to keep yourself from getting into a rut, or getting bored.  Your body tends to plateau physically when it does the same exercise the same way over and over again.  Ask any bodybuilder or strength trainer.  They’ve all experienced it- it’s extremely frustrating to deal with.  And, the only way to break through that plateau, is to change things up.

Why wait for a plateau to happen?  By varying your ab workout routine just a little bit from time to time, you’ll never stagnate like that and instead you will keep showing more and more improvement. 

So, if you have decided that you can realistically fit in your ab workouts three times a week, for two of those days, you do your favorites.  On one day, you change it up and do your alternate exercises.  It’s not complicated, my friends, but it does work.  Keep things simple and easy and you’ll stick with them.

If you’re used to doing abs Monday-Wednesday-Friday, then at first, do your favorites on Monday and Friday and do your alternates on Wednesday.  Then change it up and do your alternates on Monday and your favorites on Wednesday and Friday.  Then change it up again and do your alternates on Fridays and your favorites on the other days.

Just Routine Enough

The key to a good ab workout routine, is to make it just “routine” enough that you can slip into it easily, but not so routine that it becomes dull.  Play with it.  After a while, start mixing up alternate and favorite exercises on the same day.  Do a week of all alternates, then a week of all favorites.  You get the idea.

If this seems like a lot to keep track of, guess what?  It is.  Don’t make yourself crazy with this.  It’s supposed to be fun. So make it easy on yourself and keep a notebook on what you’re doing this week.  It may seem a little weird to some of you to do that, but believe me, it’s so much easier to keep track of what you did last week, what you want to do this week, and so on by simply writing it down.  Trust me when I tell you that you will NOT be the only person in the gym with a notebook.  Lots of people track their workouts, and not just beginners.  Plenty of pros do it this way too.

Set up your ab workout routine right, and you’ll never quit… and THAT’S the biggest part of getting and keeping a six pack.