5 Must Do Abs Exercises

Some of these "sore abs" exercises are advanced, but others can be modified for all fitness levels. You might even be surprised at some of the exercises I'm about to share with you...

So here we go, 5 exercises that have given me sore abs in the last 3 weeks...

#1 - Stability Ball Plank

As I mentioned yesterday, it's 30 percent harder than a regular plank, but last Friday I used it in a weird way that left my abs sore all weekend.

I did a "3 minute stability ball plank challenge". I set a timer for 3 minutes and got in position. As soon as I started feeling fatigue, I stopped, rested for 15 seconds, and then got back in position.

I alternated between the Ball Plank and short rests for a full 3 minutes...and tallied up the amount of time I spent in the Ball Plank - and next week I'll try to beat that time. That challenge is a great way to make the exercise harder and for the time to fly by.

#2 - Stability Ball Rollout

This is one of my 3 favorite ab exercises, and to make it harder and for more ab soreness, the key is to do a sloooooow "roll out". That will put your abs under a loaded stretch - which causes soreness.

Now of course, you MUST train smart and conservatively...but if you are advanced, you can really extend this to about 5 seconds.

If you are an intermediate, don't roll too far out, but take it really, really, really slow. You'll get similar benefits.And you can do all of my favorite stability ball ab exercises with me in the Turbulence Training for Abs DVDs here:

=> Turbulence Training For Abs

#3 - L-Chin up

Okay, this one is super advanced, but for all of my bodyweight compadres out there, dig this:

You're basically going to do a chin-up while holding the top position of a hanging leg raise. Do all your reps like this. At first it will be really tough, but your reps will increase big time after a couple of sessions.

If that's too tough, I still love the Chin-up with Knee-up exercise that I show you in the TT for Abs DVDs.

#4 - Regular Plank done to failure AFTER a hard upper body workout

I know what you're thinking...how could a regular plank make your abs sore?

Well, there's a little trick to this one...and that is to do the plank at the end of a really tough upper body workout when your arms are pumped and fatigued.

Why? Because it will force your abs to work extra hard, because it takes away a lot of the support that your arms give to a regular plank. So tack a regular plank on to the end of a biceps/triceps superset, and your abs will be pleasantly surprised.

And remember what I said yesterday about needing to be able to do the plank for 2 minutes straight. So go for as long as you can with good form, rest 30-60 seconds, and repeat.

#5 - Strict Hanging Leg Raise and Leg Pike

 Most folks are familiar with the hanging leg raise. You might even have tried it yourself. But you won't get maximum results from this exercise unless you do it with strict form.

That simply means removing as much momentum from the exercise as possible - basically, don't SWING your body and your legs. Instead, brace your abs as hard as possible, start from a "dead hang" position and raise your legs with muscular control - not momentum.

And what's the ab pike? Well, it's an advanced leg raise. In the pike, you'll continue the movement to take your feet all the way to where your hands are holding the bar. Super advanced.

(By the way, I know these all need video demonstrations, and most of them are in the Turbulence Training for Abs DVDs...but I'll try and film a new video of all them soon.)

BONUS EXERCISE - Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions

Yes, the simple lying dumbbell triceps extension exercise can cause ab soreness. How? By emphasizing the stretch in your abs at the bottom of the movement.
You'll need to have your head at the very end of the bench and  you'll need to drop the dumbbells a little lower than normal beside your head to get maximum ab stretching benefits...but done right,  this will cause soreness and more sculpted abs if done consistently.

Ok, that's it for today. When I find more "sore abs" exercises, I'll be sure to pass them along.

In fact, the most advanced workout in the TT for Abs DVD series uses upper body exercises to work your abs.

=> Turbulence Training For Abs

Hitting your abs hard without crunches or situps,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

Creator, Turbulence Training for Abs DVDs

5 Tips To A Flat Stomach And Rock Hard Abs

I want to give you 5 weird tips you might not know when it comes to getting a flat stomach and firm abs.



#1 - The best interval training work-to-rest ratio for losing belly fat might be 1-to-1.5.

In an Australian study, researchers found that doing intervals for 8 seconds followed by 12 seconds of rest resulted in significantly more belly fat burning than long slow cardio.

Now I know that 8 seconds on and 12 seconds off sounds a little annoying (just try doing that on a machine), but the good news is that these researchers found that going for 24 seconds followed by a 36 second rest works just as well for boosting fat burning hormones.

#2 - Dr. Chris Mohr's #1 weird diet tip is...

I just finished up a 2-part fat loss nutrition interview with Dr. Mohr and he told me that his simple, yet slightly weird #1 diet tip for fat loss is...

"Get almost all of your carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables."

I really liked that tip because I've been telling people this for years, and it's part of the Fat Loss Foundation you'll discover as part of the Simple Nutrition manual in the TT Abs package here:

====> Turbulence Training For Abs

Oh, and here's my weird blender drink recipe I mentioned earlier...

The Supercharged Strawberry-Banana blender drink:

1 ripe banana, frozen strawberries, spinach, flax oil (trust me, you can't taste the spinach OR the flax seed oil), cashew butter, chocolate vegetarian protein powder, and almond milk.

It was one of the best recipes I've made in a while.

#3 - You need to be able to do a Plank exercise for 2 minutes.

Dr. Stuart McGill, the world's leading expert on low back health, says in his book that a person with fit abs should be able to do a plank exercise for 2 minutes straight.

If you can't do the plank for 2 minutes, then you need to lose belly fat and you need to get a program that works your abs properly.

The best program for you is the follow-along Turbulence Training for Abs DVDs here:

=====> Turbulence Training For Abs

(You'll also get the Simple Nutrition Manual & DVD as a bonus and you'll save big bucks on the DVDs until Wednesday night.)

#4 - New research shows that supersets training burns more calories than traditional straight set resistance training.

And that's exactly what you'll get in every Turbulence Training workout, including the TT for Abs DVDS.

The TT programs save you time (getting you done in half the time of a traditional resistance workout) while helping you burn more fat.

#5 - To see your abs, a man will need to be close to 10% fat and a woman will need to be at about 16% fat.

Of course, the more muscle you have, the easier it will be too see your abs, so you'll still be able to see a 4-pack on muscular guys when they have 12-13% fat.

But the bottom line is that you need to use the Simple Nutrition plan combined with the Turbulence Training for Abs workouts to burn belly fat to see your sexy abs.

BONUS Tip - A great way to work your abs harder than normal planks  is the Stability Ball Plank.

Research reported in Men's Health magazine reported this exercise to be 30% harder on your abs than a regular plank.

And last Friday I used an interesting technique with this exercise that caused my abs to be sore for days. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

6 Pack Abs: Fat Burning Workouts To See Your Abs

You hear so much today about core workouts for fat burning these days, but I don't think people really get it. Doing "core exercises" on a BOSU ball is a waste of time if you can't do the exercise properly standing on a flat floor. This misinformation has taken us in the wrong direction to get 6 pack abs.

Instead, there is a much better way to do core workouts for fat burning that don't involve circus tricks, and that is to use a variety of total-body, multi-muscle movements and total-body ab exercises. In fact, we won't even refer to "core training" or "core workouts" any longer, because I don't think "core exercises" is a scientific term.

Instead of using "core workouts", we're going to focus on total body fat burning workouts and exercises that focus on the upper torso and also use the legs. Plus, we're not going to do any crunches. In fact, you can have a workout that is completely free of both cardio and crunches and you can still get great 6-pack abs and fat burning results. I believe you actually need to remove cardio and crunches from your workout program if you want to get fast results, because both of those (so called) fat burning exercise techniques are a waste of your time.

In a fat burning workout, you should always start with a bodyweight warm-up that includes exercises for your lower body, upper body, and torso. Fortunately, by choosing the right exercises - rather than using core exercises that include BOSU balls and the like - you can warm-up your body in as little as two movements.

For example, if you used the Prisoner Squat and Elevated Pushup, you would work your lower body and upper back (Prisoner Squat) and your upper body and torso (Elevated Pushups). That's all you need to get your muscles prepared for the upcoming total-body supersets.

After the warm-up, you should do resistance training for fat burning. This takes only 10-20 minutes because you are choosing the right fat burning exercises, and again you skip the BOSU ball circus exercises for your "core". Forget about the stuff and stick to the basics. If you are doing a dumbbell workout, use a dumbbell split squat and decline pushup as your first superset. Your abs will have to work really hard in both calorie-burning exercises to maintain proper position and posture.

After that superset, use dumbbell rows (a powerful core exercise if there ever was one!) and stability ball leg curls to work the back of the legs. You can then finish the core of your workout with a 3rd superset featuring X-body mountain climber and side planks, two of the best so-called "core exercises" for your obliques. If you want to get those sexy muscles that tuck into your waistband, go with these ab exercise superset for fat loss. It's powerful stuff.

To finish off your fat burning workout, use interval training instead of long, slow boring cardio. Your abs will work harder doing the heavy breathing of the interval training, and you will get more results in less time, because you only need to do half the exercise time when using interval training. Research shows you'll get more fat burning results doing only 20 minutes of interval training compared to the results you get doing 40 minutes of cardio.

If you stick to this type of fat loss program, using only total-body fat burning exercises and interval training, and forgetting about crunches and cardio, you will lose fat fast.

Want to try 3 of the most popular Turbulence Training Ab Workouts for FREE. Click here ====> Turbulence Training For Abs for your free workouts.