i would steer clear of sit ups and leg raises jon start out flat on you back right leg strate out. left foot flat on the floor so you left nee is bent pointing up, then lift you right leg so that its 45 degrees from the floor slowly lower it untill its 6 inches from the floor then raise again.

its an easy way or doing legraises that wont kill ya. go easy with them just 3 sets of say 20 at 1st.

jon to you train at home or in a gym? if in a gym what equip have they got for abs??

sorry andy but i'm a nuts and bolts guy kinda guy so i'm gonna ask y the fook are you using macheens to train abs???????????????

i take it you mean as oppose to sit ups and leg raises etc?? i tried doing sit up on one of them large gym balls but thought i was gonna go arse over tit on it it so never touched one of them again. normal situps well i suppose theres not an excuse.
as my gym as the equip then why not use it, thats what i pay my membership for, my abs sting like a b**** when iv finished so they must but working the bad boys.... the crunch board hits them them hard from the bottom and the top, as i said you have to pull your legs in as the same time you raise your stomach up...
im not too keen on leg raises, i tried them a few times, by hanging in arm slings from the "pull-up" bars and trying to raise my legs up straight, im not actually strong enough to do this so i could only raise my knees up with bent legs.... this i felt was too easy, so couldnt seem to find an happy medium.
when i first started training i wasnt very consistant with abs, and missed a few sessions over my first few months, but since xmas iv been regular with them...
im always up for learning new exercises hence the time i spend on here....

whats your ab routine, as i wrote earlier id like to hear how other do there abs.... nuts & bolts...  

Thanks DEAN, thats the sort of trining I did in the army. Great results then.  I go to a gym, Andy, but am falimiar with Deans, "Nuts and Bolts" routine. Thanks guys.

hey guys, dont want to sound like a twat being the new guy and that(first post eh!), but i find the abs machines and that are a bit shite tbh, for my abs i get alot of use out of the exercise balls, crunches and pull ins on em work wonders for me, and hanging leg raises really get the burn going on, im still a bit of a fat bastard but if im aching this much after it must be doing the trick

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exercise balls

Jamie, I fall of them!  

haha it takes a while to get used to, but when you see 80+ year old woman doing crunches on em you  kinda have to up the ante!

what i do for work is decline bench sit ups x5 sets x 25 reps

secondly.. get a mat..lie down and raise one leg straight up (well its kind straight)..hold it for 1 seccond then lower the leg..repeat with the next leg.

3rd exercise is the device you use for chin ups/tri pushups..forgot name.. where you hold your self up! basicly you stick your legs togther and lift them both up.

Another bench situp is when you do the actually situp twist your abs and turn your right elbow to your left knee.


Remember to tense your stomache as your doing it.. alot of people do the exerices..without tensing the actuall muscle.. and this goes for every bodypart.. when you do chest ...tense ur chest as you do it..

Thanks Tank. I'll try those exercises.

Also.. as im sure most people do tri pushdowns standing up.. when your doing that.. really tigten your stomach as your doing the exercise. something a few trainers have mentioned. deff feel it

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as im sure most people do tri pushdowns standing up

Yep, thats what Ive started doing. Also do the "tri dips" its like "push ups" but back to front, Hands resting on the edge of the bench, and the back facing the bench. {If you can work that out!   }

Just had a great 90 minute session in the gym!  That days rest yesterday did me good. I went like a train.  Instructor said that the 4 pounds I seemed to have gained yesterday might be muscle (!) I'm beginning to see some form of shape taking place in my body, though the layer of fat is still covering the muscles and those damn love-handles are still there. Perhaps a dose of LURV will get rid of them!  

yeh i feel your pain jon, i feel as strong as i ever have, only been at it 5 months but already see serious shape taking place, and managed to over double my bench press in the last 4 months, yet im still a tubby git hehe, losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time is nigh on impossible!

core stability ball are awsome for abs just sitting on them while you watch the t.v dose wonders.

i cant physicaly do 'sit ups' i used to get sooooo much stick in the army for it but i have so many problems with my lower back i just cant do the action. luckly sit ups are pants for building 'abs' oyu are much better of doing crunches. think of your abs as mini biceps. they work very much in the same way. to build them you need to flex them, sit ups dont really do this where as crunches do. but when you move your crunches on to a CSB (core stability ball) your not only working to upper layer of abdomanal muscles but also useing the under layer know as the core muscles to keep your self balanced. this improves the upper layer pretty much in the same fassion working your bicep brackies pushes your bicep major out to give you a good peek. do you follow??

and leg raises!! well IMO the daddy of abs exercises!! just because you find them easy bending your knees andy dont mean there not getting a good w/o! i used to do kiteboarding and noticed all the lifting my feet in jumps was working my abs better than anything else. my ab workout looks like this-

leg raises 3x25
CSB crunches 2x30
side bends 2x30

only once every 6 days. i do it like this so i'm never training them on the same day any week. stops me becoming set in my ways. i put girly ankle weights on as they get stronger. but i only train them in the summer if i'm lean enough   my are quite well developed and become used to training quite quick so if i train them all year round it all becomes a bit stale. i've not trained them since june last year b4 i went to ibiza. i'll probaly start in a few weeks if i've lost enought fat.