According to an abdominal exercise study performed by the American Council on Exercise, the bicycle maneuver is one of the best exercises for the internal obliques.
After that, you will do some exercises for the hip flexors and obliques, plus some shoulder burners, which work the entire body.
Also, strengthening up the obliques has a slightly toning effect, creating a girdle-like effect pulling the sides of your waist tighter -- although the effect won't be noticeable until you've burned off most of the covering fat.
Alternate sides in order to target both sets of obliques.
As you crunch up, engage your obliques and begin twisting your torso until your right elbow touches your left knee.
Criss crosses work the obliques, the muscles on the sides of the abs to help improve that hourglass shape.
Even if you don't focus on exercising your obliques very often, they actually work constantly to help you perform basic functions.
For instance, you might start with a full core exercise, followed by exercises that isolate your rectus abdominus or obliques.
However, there's another set of important midsection muscles called obliques, which run diagonally from your ribcage to your hips in two layers, essentially criss-crossing one another to allow for a twisting motion.
If you include a side-plank or a plank that adds twisting and movement to the exercise you can also target the muscles of your sides, the obliques.
If you lower your legs to either side and repeat the motions, you can also work your internal and external obliques.
Most importantly, lose the excess body fat, then worry about the finer points of "toning" the abs and obliques in an aesthetically pleasing manner to get the flat abs you desire.
Most of these machines allow you to vary the angle of the crunch, so that you can work your obliques.
Straighten down over the ball, and then use your obliques to crunch up.
Targeting your obliques will give your core form.
The Ab Roller claimed ninth place for the rectus abdominus and tenth place for the obliques.
The bicycle maneuver, which is performed without ab exercise equipment was one of the most effective effective exercises for both the rectus abdominus and the obliques.
The exercise is lifting your knees straight forward, alternating towards the sides for obliques training.
The internal and external obliques run diagonally across the abdomen, enabling your body to twist from side to side.
The latter may not seem obvious at first, but having suitably toned obliques will help tighten up the waist kind of like a natural girdle.
The two most important muscles of male abs for aesthetic purposes are the rectus abdominis, i.e., the classic "six-pack", and the obliques, which wrap around the sides of the waist.
There are two sets of diagonal muscles called obliques that criss-cross one another, and work by twisting the torso.
To hit obliques, place yourself sideways on just one elbow and the side of one foot.
To work your obliques, secure the band to a stable object behind you, but to the left of your body as you rotate your torso to the right.
Training obliques in particular can help visually "tighten up" the waist by acting as the body's own girdle, just don't overdo it to the point where they get too bulky and take away from the flat abs you've worked so hard for.
When you've flexed as far as you comfortably can, continue engaging your obliques as you slowly return to the standing position.
You can also work your obliques, by rotating your torso from side to side.
Your abdominal muscles consist of four different muscle groups, the rectus abdominis, internal obliques, external obliques and transverse abdominis.
Your abdominal region is made up of several muscles including the rectus abdominis, the transverse abdominis, and the internal and external obliques.
Your obliques engage every time you take a breath, helping to expand and contract the chest cavity as your lungs take in and exhale air.