Focused fitness: Work those abs

Crunches
When it comes to toning your abs, for most people the crunch, or sit-up, comes to mind. And here's how you do it. Lying on your back with your knees bent 45 degrees and your hands reaching forwards, focus on your abs, contracting them and then use them to curl yourself upwards and forwards, reaching out to your knees with your hands and then back down again. To maximise the exercise exhale as you reach up and inhale as you let yourself down. Be careful not to use your shoulders and neck to pull yourself up. Repeat ten times, or as many times as you feel comfortable with, building up the number with an extra few each time you do them. For more intense crunches keep yourself elevated slightly from the floor throughout and do tighter and faster repetitions.

Crossover crunches
Much the same as a crunch but with your hands behind your head, as you pull up you draw your right shoulder towards your left knee on one crunch and then alternate to the left shoulder towards the right knee with the next.

Equipment: You don't need any equipment to do crunches, though some people do prefer to have some support. If you're working out in a gym you should be able to use a crunch support to support your neck and help prevent you using your neck and shoulders to pull yourself up with. If you have a swiss ball there are several variations of crunches you can try and it's a great way of working on your core stability. For a starter position for crunches with the swiss ball have the ball under your upper back and your knees bent at around a 45 degree angle: Crossover crunches work particularly well with the ball.

Bridging
Lie flat on the floor on your back with your arms down by your sides and your knees bent at around 45 degrees. Focus on your breathing and on your abdominal muscles. Lift your bottom slowly upwards so that your torso and legs make a triangle with the floor. Hold the position for a few seconds before slowly returning your bottom to the floor. Start off with 10-15 repetitions.

Equipment: You don't need any equipment for bridging, but you can use a swiss ball for variation, and to make the exercise more challenging as you build strength, by resting your feet on the top of the ball so you need to balance as well as lift.

Rotations
Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet tucked in towards your body. Put your arms out straight to either side of you in a T-shape. Slowly rotate your hips to bring your knees down to touch the floor on your left side, keeping them bent and together. The rotate back up and down to the other side. Keep the movement slow and smooth. You should be able to feel your stomach muscles as you rotate over and back. Do two sets of ten rotations to each side with about fifteen seconds rest between the sets.

Equipment: You don't need anything for the basic version of the rotations, but you can do a slightly more advanced version using a swiss ball. Lie with the ball under your lower back and put your legs out in front of the ball for stability. Now put your arms out in front of your chest and bring your hands together. Slowly rotate your hips and torso over to the left side, bringing your arms over with your torso to around a 45 degree angle from the floor. The ball will roll underneath you as you twist. Rotate up and then down to the right side. If you really want to work those abs then try holding a weight between your hands for this exercise, but start with a low weight if you're new to it!

Standing rotations
This is a really simple one. Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms bent up at the elbow, lift up one knee and simultaneously bring your opposite elbow down and across to meet it and then return to the starting position. Repeat on one side for 30-40 seconds and then change to the other side for the same time.

Knee tucks
This is a bit of a toughie. Sit upright on the floor with your hands by your side and your knees bent in close, feet on the floor. Focus on your breathing and your abs. Start by raising your feet one or two inches off the floor and then stretch your legs out in front of you as straight as you can. Draw your legs back up towards your chest. Repeat five times at first and then build to two sets of up to ten, with a twenty-second break between sets.

Equipment: This is a pretty tough exercise and you might find it a little easier to do the lying flat variation with a gym elastic reaching around your feet and held in your hands, using the elastic for resistance as you stretch out your legs.

Another option is to use the swiss ball for tucks. Lying with your knees on the ball and your hands on the floor raising the rest of your body off the ground to be level with your knees in a push-up position, bring your knees into your chest by rolling the ball under your lower legs and drawing your abs into your spine. Then push the ball out again. Do 5 repetitions at first, building to two sets of ten with a twenty-second break between them.

Once you've worked out which exercises work best for you you can work them into a routine or exercise circuit with exercise focusing on other muscle groups. Try to do the exercises for at least twenty minutes at a time, several times a week. If you can start your day off every morning with twenty to thirty reps of one of these exercises then all the better!