The Four-Minute Ab Toning Workout

If there's one body part almost all of us wants to tone and tighten, it's our abs. I'm pretty sure even the cavemen were cranking out crunches back in prehistoric times.

But while working our abdominals is a necessary part of a well-rounded fitness program, many people actually spend too much time focusing on this one body part. My rule of thumb is that your abdominal exercises should be roughly 10% of your workout time, so roughly 3 minutes in a 30-minute session and 6 minutes when exercising for a full hour.

Here is a 4-minute ab-toning workout that you can do during the commercial break of your favorite TV show:

Here are the exercises in the workout:

1. Regular Crunches
2. Oblique Crunches - Right Side
3. Oblique Crunches - Left Side
4. Lower Ab Crunches

The exercises are done for 30 seconds each, two times through. The workout targets the three main areas of our abdominals: the rectus abdominis, commonly known as our “six-pack,” the sides of our stomachs also known as the obliques, and the lower part of our abs. This way you are toning and strengthening all three areas instead of focusing on just one or two.