Ab exercise suggestions

[sooner_ed]

The exercises I've been using for abs/waist since March 1st of this year are:

1. Knee-in
2. Incline knee-in
3. Hanging knee-up
4. Bent-leg partial sit-up
5. Seated twist

It's time for me to really work hard on these abs after losing 10 inches around my waist with the above exercises. I'm down from 221 to 161 and a 42 inch waist to a 32 inch waist. Actually, it's probably closer to a 31 inch waist now. Anyone have any suggestions for a four week ab workout that may blast from 1-2 more inches from my waist? I appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.

[Todd]

Actually, ab exercises themselves do not take inches off your stomach/waist....it's the reduction in overall body fat % you've obtained over time that accomplishes this. The exercises themselves will help develop your abdominal muscles, but that is about it, they do not directly take inches off your abdominal region. So, we can recommend some good ab exercises to help develop your abs, but you'll have to continue to rely on your diet, cardio and calorie expenditure vs. calorie consumption to take care of the extra fat on your abs.

As far as ab exercises go for developing your abdominals, I would say cable rope crunches and hanging knee-ups would accomplish overall ab strength and size effectively.

[sooner_ed]

Todd, I have done those ab exercises from March 1st until now so I'm sure my body is too used to them. I did add an abs workout I found in Mens Health. It consisted of:

1. Traditional Crunch/Modified Raised-Feet Crunch
2. Bent-Leg Knee Raise
3. Two-Handed Wood Chop
4. Two-Point Bridge/Swiss-Ball Pull-In
5. Swiss-Ball Superman

I did that in addition to the others for about two months. So I think it's time to move on. I'm sure my body got used to those too. So I'm looking for different ab exercises that will "shock" my body into getting better results. I went to that website you gave me. The exercises I could do (given what I have at home) and that the guy recommended (there were a few he didn't particuarily recommend) are:

1. Twisting Crunch
2. Leg Raise
3. Hanging Leg Raise
4. Traditional Crunch

What would you recommend for me? And how many sets and reps? I'm really trying to watch my diet. I've gone down from 168 to 161 over the last nine days and am trying to get down to 149. I'm lifting now only three times a week. I'm doing:

Tuesday - Lower Body
Thursday - Pushing Muscles
Saturday - Pulling Muscles

I'm following the same program I have been for those days, but alternating the number of reps, sets, and weights to keep things different.

I'm running six days a week with speed training on two days and a long run (up to nine miles) one day each week. I take a complete rest day on Mondays. So I'm really looking for a kick-butt ab program. You told me before two days a week for abs would suffice. So I could lift on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, do abs on Wednesdays and Fridays, and run every day but Monday. Aside from my rest day on Monday, that would leave Sunday as the only day I'm running without any other exercise. Does this sound like a plan? I'm thinking by cutting back on the lifting and keeping cardio the same, I might be able to take off these additional 12 pounds rather quickly with a good diet. Ya think??