Fast Abs - The No.1 Exercise

This is a question I get asked all the time, “what one exercise do you think is the best for abs?”

To answer this, all I can really do is express what is my favourite. As you should know if you are serious about building fast abs, or muscle of any kind, is the importance of variation. It’s about a change of exercises and especially intensity etc, because this is what best overloads the muscle and causes it to respond with growth.

So in theory, the best exercise is a routine of exercises, but I do have my favourites which might help you in finding a no.1 exercise for you.

The beauty about abs, is that it’s probably the only muscle group that has no dependency on a gym membership. Most great abs work outs can be done at home, even without having to change into your workout clothes. Most can be done on the living room floor while watching your favourite TV programme. How about that, you kill two birds with the one stone.

So here’s a great exercise that I often do, that’s based on the static contraction principle. It’s something I’m sure you’ll have seen a male Gymnast do on the floor, so that’s where you start.

Simply sit on the floor, legs out straight and together. With your body upright, put your hands on the floor, slightly in front of your hips (you might have to move them to find your centre of balance). Then squeeze your stomach muscles and attempt to lift your legs off the ground and hold them out in front of you, parallel to the ground.

This is hard and you’ll probably struggle to even get your feet off the ground to start with, but one of the things I like about this exercise is that it works your complete core including your lower back, your hips and even the front of your thighs. Because of this, go carefully if you do suffer from lower back problems as this might but strain on your back until you build stronger abs.

Simply hold your feet and legs off the ground for as long as you can, then relax for 20 seconds and do it again. Repeat this 10 times or for as long as you can bear the burn.

As I said, it’s a static contraction, an exercise method that often gets overlooked, but static contraction based exercises was one of the favourite techniques used by the legendary Bruce Lee, and boy he had great abs.

So add this simple exercise to your routine and see how it can help give you fast abs. I guess I ought to make one last point about your ab work out. Building the muscle is one thing, seeing it is a totally different ball game. This primarily comes down to diet and this is something I’m going to be covering on our fast-abs.net site in the new year. I don’t think there’s much point in focusing too much on this yet, not with Thanks Giving and Christmas just around the corner.

So for now, focus on building the muscle, do everything you can to build fast abs. Get focused and build that midsection you’ve always dreamed of.