Let’s cut to the chase here. You want shredded abs. Who doesn’t? This is pretty much the exercise blueprint to get them there.

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Exercise One – Diet and Portion Control

No matter how frequently or intensely you work on your abs, the world will never know the hard work you’ve put in if you have a layer of fat covering them. Hands down, the number 1 ab exercise you can do to enhance your mid section is, to exercise control over your diet and portion sizes. Abs are made in the kitchen, and perfected in the gym. It sounds cliché, but it’s the truth.

Exercise Two – Planks

Planks the bread and butter of our ab routines. Performing them will help to develop your deep inner core muscles and lay the foundation for the strength required for isolation exercises. The best thing about the plank is that anyone can do it; your goal is to simply beat your best time week to week. By aiming to improve the time you can hold a plank, you can very quickly develop the abdominal strength to move on to more intense ab building exercises.

Exercise Three – Horizontal Cable Wood Chops (Oblique Twists)

The neglected obliques: When we think abs, we typically think of the 6 pack and neglect attention to our obliques. If your looking for a well developed abdominal section then obliques work is a must. Nothing screams well-developed abs like popping serratus and obliques that frame up your six-pack. Horizontal cable wood chops are the perfect resistance exercise to build and define your obliques. If you don’t have access to cables any twisting motions of your torso will workout your obliques.

Exercise Four – Rope Crunches

An oldie but a goodie. This one has been around since the very start of bodybuilding and still remains a staple in many pro athletes ab workout routines. Rope crunches are amazing for developing your upper abdominal section. The exercise is very much the same as a lying down crunch but with one difference. The difference is we can load up the cable with weight and increase the workload we place on our abs. The greater workload we place on our abs the greater strength and growth potential we create.

Exercise Five – Wheel Roll Out or Barbell Roll Out

There are a lot of great moves out there to work your abs, and a lot of bad ones too. But the one that tops the lot and is always on my list of go to ab exercises is the wheel rollout. The wheel roll out or the barbell roll out is one of the toughest and most beneficial ab exercises for developing a well-defined and strong midsection as it works your upper, mid, lower and deep inner core muscles. A wheel roll out is essentially the combination of a crunch, a plank and knee raise all rolled into one movement (Pun intended).

Exercise Six – Cable or Weighted Knee Raises

The lower ab section of your rectus abdominis (6 pack) is the primary target when performing a cable or weighted knee raise. Weighted/cable Knee raises require a lot of extra muscle work from supporter muscles to stabilize the movement. This in turn increases separation between the abs and the vertical creases that separate rectus abdominis from the obliques, a defining factor for a set of well-developed abs. This exercise can be performed hanging or laying on the ground with a cable attached to your feet.