Here on My Fitness Tunes, we have mentioned ab workouts in several of our articles. Developing core strength is essential in order for you to improve your performance in just about anything. Many ab workouts stress different ideas. 5 Minute Abs requires you to perform ten different ab exercises for 30 second intervals. It sounds easy enough, but if you are new to ab workouts, how do you know what to do? Here is a sample of five effective ab exercises (assume that you are starting all of them flat on your back):

• Leg lifts – Keeping your hands by your side and your legs together and as straight as possible, lift your legs up to a vertical position like a pike, and slowly bring them back down. Repeat this process without resting your legs on the floor in between lifts. (Too hard? Try putting your hands under your hips to give yourself a slight edge; you’ll be surprised by how much it helps.)
• Bicycling – Keeping your shoulder blades off of the ground, and your fingers behind your head so your elbows stick out, bring one knee up to the opposite elbow while extending the other. Repeat the same process with the opposite leg, performing a pedaling motion.
• Extended-Arm Crunches – With your knees bent and your feet firmly planted, lift your shoulder blades off the ground like a normal crunch, but keep your arms extended behind your head and next to your ears. If you feel strain in your neck, use one hand to support your next while keeping the other extended.
• The Basic Plank – Start by lying face down. Lift your entire body, keeping it as flat as possible (like a plank), with only your toes and your full forearms in contact with the ground. Try to hold steady for at least 30 seconds, extending this time if  it starts to feel easy.
• Plank Variation – Instead of lifting your body parallel to the ground, lift yourself sideways using only one elbow as support.

When performing ab exercises, there’s one simple rule to remember: if you don’t feel anything, you’re doing it wrong. Happy crunching!