How is your abdominals training going?  Congratulations if you have stick to the program for the last several weeks or month.

If you have done the Exercises for Abs in Part 2 for the last few weeks, then I think your abdominals must be quite developed by this stage.  Your fitness must also be quite high compared to when you first started. By now you should be feeling quite happy with your results which can only get better from now on.

Even if your abdominals are well developed, you may not see them if there are still layers of fat hiding them.  There are 2 ways we can proceed from here.  One way is to continue developing your muscles and the other is to increase muscle definition.

TO BUILD DEFINITION

If you are happy with the muscles you have built so far (yes go ahead and feel them), then our next step is to strip away all the fat from your mid section and surrounding areas.  To do this, you will have to maintain the intensity of your abdominal exercises from Part 2 training 3 days a week and increase the intensity of your aerobics routines. 

Good aerobics exercises include running, swimming, skipping and bike riding.  Interval training and circuit training will also help.  Remember to stick to your training, sleep at least 8 hours a night and eat healthy.  Always remember that abdominals, like any muscle groups, are build during your rest and recovery time (not in the gym!). 

TO CONTINUE BUILDING YOUR ABDOMINALS 

If you feel that your fitness and abdominals still needs developing, then increase the intensity of your exercises by doing one of the following things. 

1) Increase the number of exercises you do. For example, if you have done 1 exercise for each of the lower, upper and intercostal and oblique muscles, then try doing 2 or 3 for a total of 9 or 12 exercises.

2) Increase the sets you perform. You could also increase the sets you perform if you are happy with the number of exercises you are doing.

3) Split up your routines by targeting upper abs on one workout and lower abs on another.  Example of a split routine could be Mon (Upper Abs), Tues (Lower Abs), Wed (Aerobics/Rest), Thu (Upper), Fri (Lower), Sat (Aerobics/Rest), Sun (Aerobics/Rest).  Get enough quality sleep and food and keep your aerobics training to a minimum level. 

You might or might not need to develop the rest of your body - that is entirely up to you.  Our recommendation is that you should go for it.  There is nothing right about having weak arms and upper body attached to a body with a well developed sets of abdominals.

So to recap :-

To Increase Abdominals Muscle Definition :

- Increase aerobics training intensity.

- Eat and sleep well.

- Train 3 days a week using exercises which targets all the major areas - upper abs, lower abs, side muscles (obliques/intercoastals). 

To Further Develop Your Abdominals Muscles without worrying about Definition : 

- Perform very light aerobics training or eliminate aerobics altogether.

- Increase intensity by increasing the number of exercises you do or increasing the number of sets.

- Look at the possibility of training your abdominals 4 times a week (2 days on, 1 day rest, 2 days on, 2 days rest) using a split upper/lower routine.