These are not only a great abs exercise, but a great total body strengthening exercise too. They’re different from their supported cousins not just because you’re hanging from overhead. (Duh…) It’s what goes on inside the body that creates the effect.

When you hang from a bar your abdominals become almost fully stretched, unlike the Supported Knee Raises, where they are compressed (shortened). This raises the difficulty level up a whole ‘nother notch.

The increased range of motion creates more work for your abs to do, and therefore puts more strain on them, helping you achieve that six pack even faster.

• Hang from a pull-up bar or gymnastic rings.
• Pull your shoulders away from your ears by contracting your lats (pulling down on the bar).
• Hold this position and slowly raise your legs with your knees bent, but squeezed together, to your chest.
• Lower them back down and repeat.
• 10-15 reps per set is a good range to shoot for.

Click here to see a video explanation of the Hanging Knee Raises.

These are sinister abdominal exercises, because from the outside, they don’t look like they’re doing much of anything. It’s only when you start doing these nasty bast*rds that you feel your abs get hammered.

That’s because Carries are an amazing combination of all three types of abdominal exercises – Coordination, Stabilization, and Strength all rolled into one nasty six-pack abs smashing exercise.

Sounds like hype. It’s not, as you’ll soon discover.

They are best performed with dumbbells, kettlebells, or sandbags. And they’re simple to perform – just find a course where you can carry something back and forth.

Here are some different types:

Suitcase – Carrying DB/KB in one hand by your side

Farmer – Carrying DB/KB in each hand

Zercher – Carry a sandbag, rock, or barrel in the crooks of your arms, squeezing the object to your chest

Over the Shoulder – Carry a sandbag or object across one shoulder

Across the Back – Carry a sandbag or object across your back

Personally, I get more from the Suitcase, Farmer, and Zercher carries. The Zercher’s just punish my abs from the inside out. There’s no hiding from the Zercher.

The KEY POINT TO REMEMBER when performing Carries is to keep your abs tight the whole time.

Never let your abs go loose or slack while carrying otherwise you could end up hurting your back. The cool thing is that by the time you get to the Carries, you’ll notice that two things are happening simultaneously – your abdominals contract automatically and you can make them contract, making your abs work even harder.

Of course that extra work helps your abs get stronger and as I’ve written about before, the stronger your abs, the easier it is to see you six pack.

Click here for more six pack abs exercises.

Drag a sled or sandbag or even car behind you. These are great because they force your abs to work the entire time you’re doing them. It’s another great combination exercise of coordination, stabilization, and strength.

Your abs literally have to contract very, very hard, in some cases maximally, in order to get the object you’re dragging to move. They are what give your legs the ability to move.

Dragging is very good for getting your six pack not only because it makes your abs work but again, like many of the other Six Pack Abs Strength Exercises, they use many of the other muscles in your body, forcing your body to work hard and burn calories.

The more calories burned, the more fat you lose, and the leaner your body gets and therefore the sooner you can see your six pack abs.

There is one KEY POINT you MUST REMEMBER when Dragging – you must use a load that still allows you to walk with your feet pointing straight ahead and your body relatively upright. Otherwise you risk injuring your back, hips, knees, or even feet.

You can get even more six pack abs exercises by clicking here.

The Clean – whether performed with a barbell, kettlebells, a sandbag, keg or even dumbbells, is a powerful exercise for helping you achieve six pack abs.

This is because it uses every single muscle in your body and because it is an explosive exercise, it uses a TON of energy. Remember, your body fat is stored energy, so the more energy you use, the more fat you lose.

Not only is the Clean great because it uses a lot of energy, but because it, like the Deadlift, increases testosterone levels in your body, helping you put on new muscle and decrease body fat. This is what will ultimately help you see your abdominals.

Here’s a video of the barbell Clean performed from the “hang” position.

Here’s how you perform the Clean from the Hang:

• Start with your feet about shoulder width apart, point straight ahead or turned out slightly.
• Fold through your hips and push your butt back while pushing your chest out until your hands touch the bar.
• Grip the bar about shoulder width or just outside, with both hands facing your body.
• Keep your head up and your eyes looking at the horizon.
• Inhale, hold your breath, and tighten your abs.
• Keeping a flat back, pick the bar (or any object) up off the floor and exhale through the sticking point (the most difficult part of the lift).
• Keeping the chest pushed out and a tight arch in your lower back, push the bar down your thighs to just above your knees.
• Now jump and let the bar float up your body
• Quickly turn your elbows over and push them under the bar, catching the bar across the front of the shoulders (also known as the “Rack” position)
• Keeping your abs tight, drop the bar back down to your waist, and lower it back to the knees for another rep.
• Perform as many reps as desired or required.

Click here for more high-powered exercises to help you get your six pack abs.

If there was ever an overlooked exercise to work your abs – to help you get a clearly defined six pack, the Chin Up is it.

When you perform Chins, your abs are overloaded because they are being stretched out, basically keeping your legs from falling off your body. Not only that, they are trying to still work so your body can pull itself up using your lats and arms (your abs are stabilizers – in simplest terms they help keep your body together). But the really cool thing about Chins is that your abs also shorten (contract) so they get A TON of work.

There are several ways to perform Chins but one of the best ways in my opinion is to learn to hang from the bar and then “lock” your body together, making it feel like it does in a Plank.

Here’s a video:

Here’s the play-by-play:

• Hang from a bar with your palms facing you
• Tighten your abs and squeeze your gluts and keep them that way for the duration of the whole rep. (You can relax them and retighten them between reps.)
• Squeeze the bar hard and think about pulling your elbows down to your waist instead of pulling your chin over the bar.
• Touch your throat to the bar.
• Lower yourself back down so your elbows are straight.
• Repeat.

And it’s really that simple to get started. Of course there are a bunch of other subtle nuances that will really improve your Chin Up performance, but the important part is to get started. The sooner you do, the sooner you stand a better chance of seeing your six pack.

Click here for more little-known six pack abs exercises.

Just like it’s brother, the 1 Arm Row, the 2 Arm Row delivers pretty spectacular results when it comes to getting your own set of six pack abs. Why?

Because it forces your abs to stabilize your body to not only keep your spine from breaking in half, but also to keep your body still while it’s moving.

Huh?

Yeah, I know, sounds contradictory and crazy so let me explain.

See, when you’re doing bent over rows, your arms are moving and they have weight in them. This means your center of gravity is going to move. And if your abs (whole core really) didn’t contract really hard, you’d fall over on your face every time you went to lower the weight back down to the ground. Your abs literally resist the forces of gravity and keep you from swaying.

Here’s a video so you can see what I mean:

Here’s some simple steps to doing the 2 Arm Row:

• Place a pair of dumbbells on the outsides of your feet.
• Push your butt back and fold in the middle, keeping your chest up, and your lower back flat.
• Reach down and grab the dumbbells and pull them to the outside of your hips.
• If you can, pause there for a second or two.
• Then lower them back to the floor without totally relaxing. Still keep the tension on them.
• Repeat for the specified number of reps.

Obviously (well, maybe not), the 2 Arm Row is designed to strengthen and develop your upper back. But by performing it faithfully and routinely, you’ll also get a much stronger set of abdominal muscles. And stronger abs are abs your more likely to see in the mirror as a six pack.

Go here to get some more six pack abs exercises.

The RDL is a great lower body exercise to help you achieve that set of six-pack abs. Just like it’s big brother the Deadlift, the RDL forces your abs to stabilize your spine so that you don’t break your back. (Nice imagery, huh?)

The key to really performing a great RDL is to understand that you really have to contract, or brace, your abs very hard while doing it. This puts a powerful hurt on the abs while protecting your lower back.

Of course, that’s just the main reason the RDL is great for your abs. There are some others as well that are equally as important.

1. The RDL strengthens the backside of your body, helping your posture, and taking the stress and strain off your lower back and digestive system. (Yes, stomach and such. Sitting all day will kill your chances of getting a six pack – but that’s another story for another time.)
2. The RDL allows you to pick up relatively heavy weight, which stimulates your body’s production of testosterone, the hormone primarily responsible for helping you grow and keep muscle and burn off fat.
3. The RDL forces the really big muscles of your body – your hips, legs, and back – to all work at one time, demanding a lot of energy. That energy has to come from somewhere. If you’re in a caloric deficit, that energy will come from stored body fat – enabling you to see your six pack sooner.

Here’s a video:

And here’s exactly how you do the RDL:

• Keeping your back flat and chest out, deadlift the weight and stand up.
• Push your hips back while keeping your lower back flat and your chest up until you feel your hamstrings engage. Your knees may be slightly bent.
• KEY POINT: To really make this work, your shins should be vertical – perpendicular to the ground.
• Keep pushing your hips back until the weight is just below your knees. If you can keep going maintaining a flat back, do so.
• Push your feet through the floor and squeeze your gluts hard to stand back up.
• Perform as many reps as necessary and when your done, bend your knees and put the bar on the floor with a flat back.

Click here for more challenging exercises to get your six pack abs.

Many people fail to see why squatting at all would impact their ability to see their abs. My response of course is how many of these people are sporting a set of six pack abs? I’d be willing to bet the answer is 1. Not a number I want to design a plan for ab training around, how about you?

Ok then, let’s take a look at the easiest way to squat – the Goblet Squat. Most people just can’t squat anymore. They used to when they were kids, but that was a long time ago and their body’s have just forgotten how to squat. The Goblet Squat helps your body remember.

The cool thing about the Goblet Squat is it will actually help your abs work with out you telling them to (reflexively), which is very important for spine health and seeing your six pack. See, when your abs don’t work reflexively, or automatically, they tend to bulge out, instead of being flat, even slightly hollow looking. And that’s good if you want to look like you’re sporting a keg, but not so good for the ol’ six pack. So you need to get your abs working automatically again.

Here’s a video of the Goblet Squat:

And here’s the step-by-step breakdown of the Goblet Squat:

• Hold a dumbbell by one end, not by the handle or a kettlebell by the horns.
• Initiate the squat by pushing your knees apart.
• Sit down and between your knees, like there is a curb you’re sitting on.
• Keep your chest pushed out like you were going to the beach to show off.
• When the outside of your elbows touch the inside of your knees, stop and hold that position for a second or two.
• Push your elbows against your knees to help spread your knees apart and keep lowering your hips.
• Do the best you can to keep your chest pushed out and your lower back flat.
• Stand up by grunting. (Yeah, weird, I know, but it makes it much easier to get out of the hole.)

The Goblet Squat is a great “introductory” squat, but also a great squat by its own right. Do enough of them, and your abs will thank you in the morning.

Here are some more great six pack abs exercises.

I have no idea where the name “Zercher” came from, but what I do know is that it is a punishing ab exercise. The Zercher Squat picks up where the Goblet Squat finished. Because of where you hold the bar, it forces you to contract your abs very, very hard.

And because you’re muscles are working so hard, you expend A LOT of energy.

And that of course is good news because that energy is stored on your body around your waist and lower back as fat. And the sooner you burn that junk off, the sooner you’ll see your six pack.

The Zercher Squat falls into the same category as the Deadlift, or the Clean and Press – it’s ANABOLIC. That means that it causes your body to build muscle and burn off fat due to the release of testosterone, the male sex hormone.

Not only that, but depending on how you set up your workout program, the Zercher Squat can actually stimulate the release of growth hormone, which is one of your body’s hormones that it uses to burn fat and keep it off. Again, that’s what needs to happen to see the ol’ abs.

You can use a sandbag, a barrel/keg, or a barbell for the Zercher Squat.

Here’s a video:

And here’s the “how to”:

• Hold the weight in the crook your arms, with your elbows bent.
• Take a deep breath and tighten your abs like you’re bracing for a punch.
• Push your knees out and sit between them. Your butt should go back and down.
• Stand up by pushing your feet through the floor, keeping your knees out.
• Repeat.

The Zercher Squat takes a little while to get used to especially if you’re using a bar, but the pressure it puts on your abs is really quite unbelievable – way more so in my opinion than the tradition squat with the bar on the back.

Here are some more great six pack abs exercises for you.

The Military Press really makes your abs work hard. They are busy trying to keep the object you’re pressing from folding your body in half and breaking your spine. Similar to the Parallel Dip, you have to learn how to lock your body together as one piece – it’s the same feeling as the Plank.

The Military Press used to be the measure of a man’s strength before the Bench Press. It helps you get broad shoulders, muscular arms, and even a little bit of chest.

Here’s a video:

And here’s how you perform it:

• Hold the bar (or keg, or sandbag, or dumbbells, or kettlebells) across the shoulders
• Tighten you abs and squeeze your gluts, making your entire body rigid
• Press the weight over your head until your arms lockout. Push your feet through the floor at the same time.
• Lower the weight slowly back to your shoulders.
• Repeat.

Although it may not look like it on the surface, the Military Press really beats up your abs. You won’t believe me until you try it for yourself because it doesn’t look like a “traditional” abs exercise. But it works wonders to help you achieve those coveted six pack abs my friend!

Click here for more six pack abs getting exercises.