Finally! A flat sexy stomach: A complete abdominal workout for women at the gym

The Muscles: An Overview

Comprised of four main muscle groups, your abdominal muscles or “abs” are the muscles located between the ribs and the pelvis on the front of the body.

Imagine going into a dressing room or walking by a mirror and NOT having to suck your stomach in just to look at yourself. It is possible. Millions of people do it every day and you too can be one of those lucky ones. A good healthy diet and plenty of cardio work are essential in achieving this, as well as genetics. But, don’t get frustrated, with a little work; you too can have a flat, sexy, no bathing suit cover-up required abs.

The four main abdominal muscles are:

• Transversus abdominus – the deepest muscle layer. Its main roles are to stabilize the trunk and maintain internal abdominal pressure.

• Rectus abdominus – slung between the ribs and the pubic bone at the front of the pelvis. The main function of these muscles is to move the body between the ribcage and the pelvis.

• External oblique muscles – these are on each side of the rectus abdominus. These muscles allow the trunk to twist, but to the opposite side of whichever external oblique is contracting. For example, the right external oblique contracts to turn the body to the left.

• Internal oblique muscles – these flank the rectus abdominus and are located just inside the hipbones. They operate in the opposite of the external oblique muscles. For example, twisting the trunk to the left requires the left side internal oblique and the right side external oblique to contract together.


Besides supporting your trunk, allowing movement and holding organs in place by regulating internal abdominal pressure, your abs play a key role in breathing, posture and overall appearance.

The Workout

Working out with a trainer is your best bet to ensure you train all the muscles of your abdominal cavity and in the most challenging and beneficial way. However, sometimes a personal training session is impossible so when you find yourself in that position, pick up this sheet and let it help guide to getting a great workout.

Warm Up

Before you start your strength-training workout be sure to warm up. Warm muscles respond better to exercise and a warm up will also help prevent any injuries. Spend about 5-10 minutes on a stationary bike, Stairmaster, elliptical or treadmill.

Now that you’re warm, let’s get started

Cable Crunch

• Kneel below a high pulley.

• Grasp cable rope attachment and place wrists against your head. Flex hips slightly and allow the weight to hyperextend the lower back slightly.

• Keeping your hips still, bend at the waist so your elbows travel toward the middle of your thighs.

• Return slowly to kneeled position.

• Don’t rush the movement and exhale on the exertion.

• Continue doing reps until fatigued (you cannot perform a full repetition with good form).

Seated Cable Crunch

• Sit with your back facing a high pulley.

• Grasp the cable rope attachment with both hands and place securely over the both shoulders. Allow the weight to hyperextend the lower back slightly.

• Keeping your hips still, bend at the waist so your elbows travel toward the middle of your thighs.

• Return slowly to kneeled position.

• Don’t rush the movement and exhale on the exertion.

• Continue doing reps until fatigued (you cannot perform a full repetition with good form).

NOTE: These two crunches are similar but focus on different areas of the adnominal cavity, for the best results, it’s important to do both kids of cable crunches.

Chin Crunch

• Hang from a chinning bar with your knees bent at a 90 degree angle and your hands about 12 inches apart with an underhand grip.

• Pull yourself up with your arms and crunch your knees up at the same time. You should finish the chin and crunch at the same time. When fully contracted, your nose will be at the bar and your knees will be pulled up to your chest.

• Slowly reverse the movement and return to the starting position.

TIP: To increase the intensity you can also do this with a dumbbell or medicine ball between your feet or with a weight attached to a dip belt around your waist

• Continue doing reps until fatigued (you cannot perform a full repetition with good form).

Tip: To work more of your oblique muscles, lift your legs at an angle.


Press Sit-Up

Note: Always start light on this exercise to understand the movement and increase the weight accordingly.

• Lie on either a flat or decline bench. For those that are stronger, use the decline.

• Start with the bar on the chest as though you were preparing to perform a bench press.

• Take a nice deep breathe, tighten the abdominals and glutes. Begin by simultaneously curling your torso and pressing the bar to an overhead position. Exhale only through pierced lips not to lose intra-abdominal pressure.

• Reverse the process by unrolling your body, but do not exhale all your air.

• Continue doing reps until fatigued (you cannot perform a full repetition with good form).

The Woodchop

• Grasp the handle attachment of a pulley machine at shoulder height with your left hand.

• Square yourself to the machine and take a few steps to the right (away from the machine) until there is sufficient tension. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, bring your right arm across your body, and clasp your hands together while holding the handle.

• Keeping your arms straight and at shoulder-height, use your abs to bring your arms across your body, as though you were making a woodchopping motion. Bring them back to the starting position.

• Alternate sides and continue doing reps until fatigued (you cannot perform a full repetition with good form).

Work towards completing 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps of each exercise. Don’t rush through the movements; make sure you are doing them with good form. Remember, speed doesn’t count, form does! Once you can easily complete 2-3 sets, add more repetitions.

Stretching

After you’ve worked your muscles, it’s important to stretch them. Stretching after strength training is imperative to help prevent injury and for the muscles to recover quicker. Plus, it feels good.

The Cobra Stretch

The nice thing about this stretch, besides feeling great after working your abs, is that is not only stretches but also lengthens and relaxes the front of your abdomen.

• Lie with your stomach on your mat and your legs extended behind you. Place your palms on the floor under your shoulders.

• Exhale as you push your nose forward slightly and then press into your palms to pull your chest forward and up, arching your back.

• Feel your chest open and your ribs lengthen away from your hips as you lift your head and shoulders, creating a long arch in your back.

• You should feel no pinching in your spine. If you do, you haven't created enough length by pulling forward as you lift. Hold for four breaths, lower, and repeat one time.

Remember that rest is an important component to any exercise regime. You must allow your muscles to recover to see the results you desire, and that goes for your abdominals as well. So unless you are doing upper abdominals one day and lower the next, you are better off training your abdominals for no more than 20 minutes at a time, 3 times per week on alternating days, as in Mon/Wed/Fri or every other day at the most.