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3 Steps to Getting Washboard Abs. Part 3 - Exercise
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To train your abdominals safely and effectively you must know the basic movement patterns of your abs and train them within all sub-categories:


Truck Flexion (upper abs)
Exercise Ball Crunch - Sit on top of an exercise ball with your feet placed firmly on the floor. Roll the bottom half of your buttocks off the ball by sliding forward. Your lower back should be centered on top of the ball. Place your hands on the sides of your head. Crunch your upper body forward and roll your shoulders towards your hips. Squeeze at the top! Then lower back to the starting position and repeat. You can hold a weight to increase the difficulty.

Hip Flexion (lower abs)
Decline Reverse Crunch - Lie on your back on a decline bench and hold on to the top of the bench with both hands. Extend your legs parallel to the floor using your abs to hold them there. Keep your knees and feet together. Slowly contract your abs, focusing on bring your pelvis up and in towards your chest. Let your abs do the work! Slowly lower your pelvis to the starting position, keeping constant tension on the abs.

Rotation (obliques)
Russian Twist - Secure your feet either by placing them under something that won't move or by having a partner hold them. Lean slightly back and clasp your hands in front of you. Moving only at the trunk, rotate to one side. At the end of your range of motion, quickly reverse the movement and rotate to the opposite side. Repeat in a rapid fashion for the full number of reps. You can also hold a weight or medicine ball to increase the difficulty.

Lateral Flexion (obliques)
Decline Oblique Crunch - Position yourself on a decline bench with your feet locked in. Your upper body should be raised off the bench. Cup your right hand over your right ear, and place your left hand on your thigh. Raise your upper body slowly while turning your torso to the left. Focus on keeping your abs tight and keeping the movement slow and controlled. Continue crunching up until your right elbow touches your left knee. Lower your body slowly back down to the starting position. After completing one set on the right, switch to your left side.


Since we have now identified which exercises should be present in our specialized abdominal training routine, let's now figure out how much will we do of each and how often. For abs, let’s keep the repetitions from as low as 5 to a maximum of 25. As far as sets, if you perform days of lower repetitions, you can do as much as 5 sets per exercise, while on higher repetition days you can get away with 3 sets. You want to mainly concentrate on the intensity of the contraction and you really want to feel the movement. However, ensure that you choose a tempo that allows you to finish all of your repetitions within a time span of 1 minute.

Building razor sharp abs is neither the easiest task in the world nor is it the hardest. The above points mentioned serves as a guide to you development of you perfect washboard abs. Discipline and self-motivation is important, and it takes time for the packs to appear so be patient.
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hope this 3 parts help! cheers!
=D