A lot of people spend hours every week doing sit ups and crunches religiously, with little or no results to show for it. This is because a lot of people do not understand how complex the abdominal muscle system really is, and they underestimate the variety of exercises that need to be done to ensure an effective all-round workout. An answer to the question, "How many ab exercises should I do?" is therefore a little difficult to give, and will depend entirely on your physique, your age and your fitness goals.
If your goal is to burn fat, then you will probably want to do three or four different ab exercises. Many personal trainers and fitness specialists believe that doing high-rep sets in short time intervals is the most effective means of burning fat without building too much muscle. A new school of thinking that is changing the way people think about how many ab exercises they should be doing teaches something different.
This new school teaches that certain exercises done in low-rep sets using your own body as a resistance tool can be incredible effective at both burning fat and building muscle. The key to this is slow intervals, and to vary the amount of resistance based on how much muscle you want to build. Recent research shows that slow-interval exercises with a low resistance threshold are far more effective at burning fat than doing high-rep sets quickly.
This new way of thinking is still troubled by a few inconclusive results, but the ideas look incredibly promising. Now when people ask, "How many ab exercises should I do?" the answer is not always hard and fast. However, the universal consensus seems to be that you can do too many. In essence there are four major muscle groups that need to be targeted, and each requires a different kind of exercise.
The first of these is called the Upper Rectus Abdominus, more commonly referred to as the 'six pack' muscles. This is the easiest to strengthen, but it also degenerates fastest. Crunches and bicycle crunches are the easiest ways to develop these muscles, but it is important to remember that true definition will never be achieved unless the other three major groups of muscles are also targeted. Sit ups are not enough!
The Obliques are the muscles that run along the side of your abdomen, and a recent Men's Health survey showed that these are the muscles that women find "most attractive" of all abdominal muscles. Doing twist crunches and bicycle crunches will develop these nicely, but doing knee lifts with twists on a captains chair is possibly the most effective way of building good obliques.
The Lower Rectus Abdominus is really only the lower part of your six pack, but it is important to exercise this separately. The captain's chair and vertical leg lifts are two of the best ways to develop these muscles, but many exercises that work the Transverse Abdominus will also strengthen these muscles.
The Transverse Abdominus is the deep band of muscle virtually the whole way around your torso. It is this muscle that people most often neglect, and when asking, "How many ab exercises should I do?" you should always remember to include this one: The Vacuum. All you do is suck in a lungful of air and slowly breath it out while pulling in your navel at the same time. When it starts to burn, hold it and let it out after three seconds. This is one of the most powerful exercise techniques for developing all of your stomach muscle groups, as well as increasing lung capacity and building core strength.
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