Do not set yourself up for failure!

When I started my quest to get a strong fit body with sculpted tight abs I was absolutely confused. I did a ton of long slow cardio and an hour in a half of lifting weights. I did lose some weight but I still had the fat around my stomach. I was only alittle stronger from when I started out and my muscles were not gaining any size. I also cut my calories and had very little energy throughout the day. My workouts started to become a chore and too time consuming. I eventually I gave up all together. I basically set myself up for fail. Save yourself time, money and effort and get it right the first time. And how do you do that? You find a mentor that help other people like you and follow his plan. That is why I was so excited and grateful to find this information. I was amazed on how easy the solution actually was. Once you have the knowledge, the rest comes easy. You see most of the programs and diets are not bad and some do work. They just do not include all the factors of the individual or the program has not been tested long enough. That is why these programs seem to work for some people but not all. You should be happy to know that the guess work is over. Just Read the testimonials. You will have your tight abs fast. Here is the overview of the most effective weight loss, abs sculpting program out there.

Nutrition

Nutrition is a tricky subject and I am not going to touch too much on this. I am going to leave it to the experts. One of the first things I learned from a personal trainer at my gym was that he could not tell me what to eat. He could only share what was called common knowledge. This is because it is against the law to tell someone what to eat if they do not have a degree and is certified. So here is my common knowledge. Eat a well rounded diet with whole foods. Get in the habit of making your own meals. Make sure that you eat unprocessed quality carbohydrates, enough protein and healthy fats. The majority of the time you should eat slightly less then what you expend per day. That way you will still have energy and lose weight. Now before you say “That is ten seconds of my life that I will never get back”. You can find out more specifics by reading the FAQs. There is also a place where you can download a calorie calculator for weight loss and muscle gain.

High intense Cardio

We need to realize that our bodies were designed to perform short burst of physical activity followed by a recovery period. You may think that you are just expending your carbohydrates and not burning fat. Well think about this for a second. How do you think that you are going to restore those carbohydrates? You are going to restore them by having an elevated metabolism for the next 4 to 6 hours. In the long run you will burn more fat with interval training. Square

You will have a more sculpted look. The fat will melt away leaving firm tight abs. Just look at any sprinter and compare them to a marathon runner. The marathon runner looks thin, little definitions and sometimes almost sickly. Now look at the sprinter. They usually carry a lean, powerful physique with great definition. Another factor to keep in mind is recent studies show that excessive endurance exercise increases free radicals in the body that can degenerate joints, reduce the immune function, and cause a pro-inflammatory response in the body that can potentially lead to chronic diseases. On the other hand high intense variable training has been linked to increased anti-oxidant production and a more efficient nitric oxide response (encourages a healthy cardiovascular system).

Strength Training Using Complex Movements

Far too many times I have seen people who do their 45 minute cardio session and then 15 minutes of abs. If you want results fast to need to strength train your whole body. And the most efficient way to do this is using complex movements. Complex movements are an essntial key for rapid body fat loss. A simple definition if a complex movement is an exercise that spans across multiple joints. The opposite of a complex movement is an isolated movement. Just focusing on the quadriceps by doing a leg extension would be an example of this. A squat would be an example of a complex movement to strengthen the quadriceps. The squat (complex movement) will yields better results because quadriceps will work in a kinetic chain with assisting muscle groups. A full squat will work all of your leg muscles, all of your abs muscles and back. Talk about a great exercise. You will burn more calories, increase your metabolic rate and create muscle building hormones. Just for your reference, one pound of lean muscle will burn an extra 35 to 50 calories a day just to maintain.

Variability and Consistency

You need to exercises consistently. You also should stick with a routine for 4-8 weeks. When you start a routine it will be new to your body and your body will have to adjust. This is great and it will maximize your weight loss and sculpt your body. It’s called periodization and it can do magical things. This can also be called variable training. Just like there is a certain variable training methods to gain muscle size there are variables training methods to maximize fat loss and tight abs. The reason why you wait 4 to 8 weeks to change your program is you need a base to see improvement. When you first start the training program the exercises may seem more difficult. This is what stimulates the body to yield greater results. After 4 to 8 weeks of training you probably will have smaller gains. This means that your body has adapted to the new routine and it is time to change your program again.

There are many ways that you can strategically modify your training variables to assure that you maximize your fat loss and/or muscle building response to exercise. Most people only think about changing their sets and reps performed, if they even think about changing their routine at all. However, other variables that can dramatically affect your results are changing the order of exercises (sequence), exercise grouping (super-setting, circuit training, tri-sets, etc.), exercise type (multi-joint or single joint, free-weight or machine based), the number of exercises per workout, the amount of resistance, the time under tension, the base of stability (standing, seated, on stability ball, one-legged, etc.), the volume of work (sets x reps x distance moved), rest periods between sets, repetition speed, range of motion, exercise angle (inclined, flat, declined, bent over, upright, etc), training duration per workout, and training frequency per week. Sounds like a lot of different training aspects to consider in order to achieve the best results from your workouts, doesn’t it?

If you were confused by the above paragraph, do not worry about it. I was when I started. The good thing is that you do not have to re-invent the wheel. You can do what is already tested and proven. This means that you too can have the results that you always have wanted. Click Here and get the internets top rated weight loss and abs sculpting program now.

I Want Firm Abs Fast!

Do not put this off any longer. Get started today!

Thanks for reading

I wish you the greatest success

Lose the fat, tight abs will be revealed.  Easier said than done right?  Well it may be easier than you think.  Try following these steps for a month and you will be amazed of what you can accomplish.

The first step is to decide.  When people truly decide to become fit they will.  The people who are so sick of being overweight, the people who are told that if they don’t they will die, the people that associate all the pain in their life to being overweight.  These people renounce their old habits and say “I will NEVER get that way again!”  And they never will.

Do you see the difference between the above and saying to yourself I need to lose some weight.  Saying that you need to lose some weight is a softener.  It saying “it’s not too bad.”  Well if it is not too bad what will motivates you.  We are motivated by two things and two things only.  And these too things are to gain pleasure and avoid pain.

So the first step is to decide that this is what you truly want.  The second step is to link as much pain to not being at the level of fitness you want and as much pleasure of being at that place.  If you would like more information on how to use this please and pain to literally change your life Click Here.

The next step after you decided is to make a plan.  Decide in advance exactly how much weight that you want to lose.  Then figure out how long it is going to take you.  2 to 3 pounds a week is not unreasonable.  Then break it down into weekly goals.  So let’s say that you want to lose 30 lbs.  Write down on a piece of paper and say that I WILL lose 30 lbs in 10 weeks.  That is 3 lbs a week.  Carry this piece paper with you.  Look at it as often as possible throughout the day.

Take your plan and break it down into exact steps.  Write it down on the piece of paper.  It can be I will eliminate this from my diet or I will eat this amount of calories.  I will exercise this amount.  Be specific.  Also make a list of what you are going to give up.  Be clear on this.  Once you know what you are going to give up you can start associating pain to this activity or food.  For example if you are going to workout at a time that one of your favorite shows is on, picture yourself heavier that you are now while your friends and family makes fun of your weight.  This may sound evil, but I bet it will get off the couch.

Immediately take action.  Do not ever set a goal without doing something directly towards it attainment.  You need to prove to yourself that this is what you truly want.  The startling truth is that 95 percent of what we do, how we act and how we respond is handle by our subconscious.  We do not even think about it.  You need discipline yourself to follow through until these action and behaviors engrained into your subconscious were now this new behavior is performed without thinking.

If your goal is to lose fat and have firm tone body you need to make sure that strength training is involved.  Heavier weight with a rep range of 8-12 works the best starting out.  If you use free weights you will typically see better results.  This is absolutely true for women too.  Intervals will trim fat faster than long cadio sessions.  These means going hard for one minute catch your breath and recover for a minute before you start another burst.

Your body burns so many calories a day.  That threshold is called your metabolic rate.  You need to make sure that on average your calorie intake is below this number.  A new method is called calorie shifting.  This were you eat a different number of calories a day.  If you lower your calories too much your body will try to maintain its weight.  This is actually a defense mechanism for starvation.  Your body will actually lower your metabolism.  Calorie shifting tricks the body to maintain the elevated metabolism.  Click Here for more information.

Start looking at food as fuel, because that is what food really is.  Far too often we associate good feelings to unhealthy foods.  If we eat foods that give us energy and make us more vibrant, we need to take note.  We need to associate these foods with feeling of being alive, focus and abundance of energy.  Then these foods will become the ones that we love.

Reward yourself.  If you are not going to do it most likely no one else will.  Have you ever helped someone out and then in return they did something nice for you?  Now, this same person asked you to do something again.  Because of the gift they gave you and because feel appreciated aren’t you more likely to help the person again?  You know you are.  Do the same for yourself.  Start out by rewarding yourself any time you do something to attain your goal.  Then reward yourself ever other time.  Then reward yourself every 5 times.  After a month it will be part of you and you will have to reward yourself.

Look for obstacles.  What cause you to fail before?  What can prevent me from getting to the gym this week?  I am going out to dinner with my friends on Friday, how can I eat healthy?  If you go through your week this way you can come up with an alternative plan.  If something comes up, you will be prepared and able to stay on track.  It is very easy to fall back to our old habits.  Planning ahead could be the deciding factor of achieving your goal.

All these tips I have only covered briefly.  Do not take them likely.  They are important and extremely powerful.  Take advantage this tips, lose the fat, tight abs will be revealed.  I hope this article helps you become more aware of what held you back before.

One of the easiest ways to obtain any goal is to find someone who already has done it and copy them. The same applies to weight loss. This is why I did some research and came up with my top 11 things fit people do.

1. They do not stuff themselves. They may be having their favorite meal in the whole world and yet they do not over eat. They take their time and enjoy each bite. They eat slowly and savior all taste of the food. And because they eat slowly the stomach will then signal the brain saying, hey I getting full. At that point they put the food away. Another trick is to always leave something on your plate.
   What they are also doing without even realizing it, is prcticing calorie shifting. Recent evidence proves that calories shifting is the quickest ways to drop weight fast!
2. 
   

   When they are stressed out they turn to other activities instead of food. These activities may include exercise, mediations, talking with your spouse or family, calling a friend or reading a book. Another method that work well for me is to ask myself “what am I stressed about? Is there something that I can do about it now?” If there is immediately start doing that something. If it is out your control, tell yourself that let it go. A lot of times you will find whan you feel stress about is not a major deal. Once this is realized, you will naturally let it go.

3. Get the junk food out of your kitchen. Why torture yourself. If it is not there you are not going to eat it. This was my down fall when I moved in with my wife. Prior to living together I never had those foods in the house. My wife bought them but rarely ate them. I found myself going to the cupboards and eating these foods more and more. We replaced the sugary snack with nuts fruits and vegetables.
4. Indulge yourself once in a while. If you like cake, eat it once in a while. Take a small piece and eat it slowly. This will get rid of your craving. The reason why this fit people can get away with this is because they do consciously. They know that it is a small treat and they know that they will not do it often.
5. Fit people love to exercise. It sometimes can be difficult starting an exercise program. But is you can find a way to make it fun and consistently do it over a month or so, you should develop a habit. Find different activities to keep you motivated. Once your body starts feeling the benefits of exercise you will be hooked. The internet has ideas on how you can get started with an exercise program.
6. Fit people eat breakfast. Breakfast literally means “to break your fast.” This will jump start your metabolism in the morning. You should eat within the first 30 minutes of waking up.
7. 
   

   Eat 5 or six meals a day. Skipping meals can affect your blood sugar and cause you periods of low energy. And what usually happens if you wait too long between meals, the next meal you will over eat. Your metabolism will slow if you go more than 6 hours without a meal.

8. Check your weight daily. You are not going to weigh the same every day. You are not going to gain 15 pounds over night either. Set a threshold of where you want your weight to be. If it goes over that threshold then you know that some adjustments need to be made. If you keep a journal of your weight and meals you can usually see where things went wrong.
9. Bounce your legs, stretch and go for frequent walks. If you are in an office setting and sit at a desk all day you still can burn extra calories by fidgeting. Stand up and go get a drink of water. Stretch for a minute. My old boss would start doing push-ups out of nowhere. This may be a little extreme but if you can get away with it why not. Be creative and try to think of any ideas that will create movement.
10. Make a point to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. If you exercise you will probably need more. Water is so important for your health. You are made up of mostly water. You cannot live more than a week without water. If you lose more than 2.5% of your body weight from water you will lose 25% of your efficiency. Water help get rid of the body toxins. Water is needed to process the food that you eat. Make sure that you get enough water.
11. Do not call it a diet. When people say the word diet they think of taking away foods that they enjoy. They also think of things they have to eat. I don’t know about you but I never enjoyed the thought of something being taken away from me or having to do something. I rather think that I am lucky enough to eat these foods that make me feel alert, strong and healthy. Changing the way you think will make easier on your nutritional selection. Then when your body starts feeling the benefits, it will be easy to make a lifestyle change.

In closing on want to wish you the greatest amount of success in your new healthy lifestyle.

If you want tight abs these are the steps that you need to take for the fastest results. If followed you will see results fast.

1. 
   

   Eat the correct amount of calories. If you eat too many you will obviously gain weight. If you too few calories your metabolism will slow down and you will not have energy to work out to work. To figure out the correct number calories you need to start you’re your BMR. This is you Basel Metabolic Rate. When calculating this make sure to the Katch-McArdle formula. This is the most accurate. Once the number is found multiply it by a activity multiplier and then subtract 500. This will guarantee you will get that you will at least one pound of fat. If you have problems counting calories or just do not have the time or patients to do so, a meal delivery program may be the answer for you. Note: There is a new technique called Calorie Shifting. I have not done much research on the subject, but it is proving to be one of the best ways to raise your metabolic rate. It has to do with eating more on some days ans less on others. How much and how often I am not sure of yet. Calorie Shifting may be something that you will want to research more.

2. I am sure that you already know this but it is a must. Eat every three to four hours. Make sure that each meal has some protein and fats that are high in omega 3 and omega 6. The protein will help with lean muscle growth and the omega’s will help metabolize fat. This brings me to my next key point.
3. The majority of the foods that you eat need to be high on the alkaline food chart. If you are recent studies show that major cause of illness and fatigue is acidity in the body. By drinking a minimum of 8 glassed of pure water a day and eating the majority high alkaline based foods your craving for junk food will disappear. Not to mention that you will have a ton of energy. Just by doing this step people recorded illness disappearing and dramatic weight loss.
4. Consume the correct amount of protein for lean muscle growth. I mentioned earlier that protein needs to consume each meal. Dr Michael Colgan who is known internationally for research in sports nutrition has a different take on amount of protein a person should consume. He says that it should be based on lean muscle mass instead of total weight. This makes sense to me. A 5 foot 200 lbs couch potato at 35% body fat does not need the same amount of protein as a 6 foot 200 lbs athlete at 10% body fat. Look at his chart to determine the amount of protein you should take.
5. Short, high intensity intervals will burn more fat than long low intensity cardio. If you truly want fast results do a quick 15 minute cardo in the morning were you get your heart rate up to 85% of you max heart rate. Once this is reached jog in place until it drops to 70% of you max heart rate. The kick it gear again to 85%. This will get you in shape quick. Then in the evening do a 30 minute circuit with heavy weights. What I mean by heavy is that you can complete more that 10 repetitions in a given exercise. Immediately go into the next exercise. This is OK as long as you work different muscle groups. For example go from chest to legs to back. Then triceps to calves to biceps. The individual muscles will get enough recovery time between sets and I guarantee that you will maintain elevated heart rate. This may not be optimal for maximum strength or power, but for rapid weight loss tight abs, this is magic.
6. 
   

   When doing your strength exercises try to do most of them standing up or with a stability ball. This way it will use more stabilizing muscles. Not only will the exercise become more functional you are using more muscle fibers, burning more calories and including more of your core (abs, lower back, etc..). And yes this includes women. For you women out there this may produce your quickest results for tight abs. You are NOT going to get too muscular.

7. When doing actual abs work make sure that you are not just doing crunches. Crunches may be part of your routine but make sure that you do sometime of hanging exercise that you bring you knees or legs up (roman chair). Make sure that you do something with a twist (wood chops, Russian twist). Make sure that you do some stabilization exercise (plank). Finally make sure that you strengthen you lower back (supermans, hyper-extensions). Your want to make sure that you are strengthening your entire core. Crunches are great, but it is the other exercises that are going to give you tight abs.
8. Manage your stress and negative emotions. This is a course in itself. But when you experience negative emotion it releases acidic toxins in your body. You need to learn how to release these feelings and emotions. Notice not I said not to control them. Know and understand that the event did not create the emotion, you did. The event of the person cutting you off did not cause you to get made. Your subconscious recognized the event and said this should make you mad. It then released certain chemicals and messages to the body which created the feeling of being mad. You can stop this behavior if you are aware of this. Ask yourself questions like what do I have to believe right now to feel this way? Is it justified or am I over reacting? Then think of times when this happened before and how you got through it. Try to think of a solution to prevent it from happening again and immediately do something in that direction. If these steps are made you can master your emotions. Meditation is also good for relieving stress. As you probably already know exercises is good but it usually does not get to the route of the problem. It’s more temporary. The steps mentioned above are more permanent solution.
9. Get the proper amount of sleep. Your body needs sleep to rebuild. Make it a priority to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night. The best habit you can get into is getting up at the same time every morning for 3 weeks straight. Go to bed when you are tired. Do not eat or watch TV in your bedroom, especially before you go to sleep. If followed you will find your natural time to go bed. Now you just need to follow this as close as possible. As you fall asleep at night think about you workouts. Picture yourself getting stronger, healthier and fitter. A university study showed that a group of people gained strength by doing nothing more than this. I believe what is happening is the brain is actually becomes more efficient in the exercise and learns how to better recruit the muscle fibers. In the end you will be doing either more reps or more weight, which means more work and closer to your goal. Try it for month, you will be pleased.
10. The last tip is progression. Make sure that you are challenging yourself. The amount of repetitions or weight should be going up every other week. If it is not you need to change your program. If your still plateauing you may need to just a take a week off. You should be doing this anyway every six to eight weeks if you are consistently working out 5 to six days a week. You should also be changing your workout routine every 4 to 6 weeks. Some people even do it every week. If a certain exercise is new to you will probably want to keep that exercise in the routine longer just to become more proficient in that exercise.

I hope that you found this informative and I wish you the greatest success in your quest for tight abs. Thanks reading

The following is what I consider the best abs exercises.  I use the word abs just as a term so that you the end user can find this article easier.  A better term though is core.  Your core is made up of not just your abs (rectus abdominis), but you internal oblique’s, external oblique’s, transverse abdominis, back extensors and one more.  Strengthening your abs in the method given will not only produce great looking abs.  It will also provide better overall functioning of the body and prevent injury on a day to day basis.

The idea or philosophy behind this method is to train the abs or core as you would any other muscle group for strength.  This means you may need to add other forms of resistance.  Your goal will be to complete following exercises and not to exceed 12 repetitions.  Since we are training with heavier resistances you will need a resting day in between.  To maximize the results you may want to do some type of calisthenics in between sets.  We use calisthenics because these exercises include the major muscle groups, work your core and elevate your heart rate fast.

By no means is this an easy workout.  You may actually find that just doing the abs routine will elevate your heart rate enough.  If this is the case skip the calisthenics and stretch or walk during the rest periods.  You should only do this routine 2 or 3 times a week.  Make sure that you cannot do more than 12 repetitions of each exercise.  If you can do more than 12 you need to add weight.  If you cannot do at least eight repetitions you will need to lessen the weight or change to an easier exercise until you can complete eight repetitions.

Before starting the routine you need to be warmed up.  Make sure that you spend 5 to 10 minutes doing cardio and active stretching to warm up your body to prevent injury and spikes in heart rate.  Just as important, when the routine is completed make sure that do some walking and cool down.  Let your heart rate drop.  You then can finish the routine with some static stretching.  This will help prevent blood pooling.

So with that all being said here are the 10 best abs exercises.

The Crunch
The crunch is getting a bad rap lately.  I see so much stuff out there reporting “Get six pack abs without doing crunches” or “Never do a crunch again.”  Well the crunch is still one of the best exercises for training your rectus abdominis, especially focusing on the upper abs.  But we still want to perform this exercise slightly different.  You want to make sure that you go through a full range of motion.  You cannot get full range of motion lying on the ground.  The use of a stability ball or bosu can help you reach the full range.  Note that the higher your lower back is up on the stability ball the more difficult it will be.  When you perform the crunch, focus on pushing your lower back into the stability ball as hard as you can.  Crunch up, hold for a sec and come back down slowly for about 3 seconds.  When using a weight makes sure that the weight is directly over the eyes with the arms straight.  Breathe out as you come up and inhale as you go back down.  I like to focus my eyes on one point on the ceiling to make sure that I am not pulling my chin to my chest.  Holding the weight over the eyes makes the exercise more difficult.  If you really want to make the exercise more difficult, bring your feet together or perform the crunch with one leg straight out.  This should only be done once you have experience performing this exercise.  The crunch may not be the most functional exercise, but it is one that will help you make that six pack visible.

Hyper Extensions
We need to make sure that we train all areas of our core and this includes our lower back.  Some of the best exercises for strengthening the lower back I am not going to get into.  These include but are not limited to dead lifts, squats and stiff leg dead lifts.  An alternative is the hyper extension.  We are going to be using a hyper extension machine to perform these exercises.  We are going to let our body slowly fall down.  It is OK to allow your back to curve a little.  Then with control we are going to bring our body to the upright position.  Once the height is reached we are slowly going to twist to the left and then the right.  Once we get to the 12 rep max range we need toad weight.  Place a weighted plate or dumbbell behind the head to add resistance.  Start out slow with this exercise.  It may not feel like you are doing much.  But if you not used to the exercise you will definitely feel it the next day.

Side Bends on the Hyperextension Machine

You are going to use the same machine in this exercise as you did for the hyper extensions.  We are going to turn our body sideways in the machine.  We are next going to slowly bend at our side.  Once we are at our full down position we are going to pull our upper body back up using our oblique’s.  When you are able to do 12 repetitions add resistance by holding a weight in hand.  Do both sides.

Hanging Leg Raises
This exercise you can do a few ways.  You can either hang from a pull-up bar or you can use the roman chair.  Start by lifting you legs straight up and holding for a second.  Then slowly go back down.  It should take at least 3 seconds for your legs to reach the starting point.  Your legs should be straight.  If you cannot perform the exercise with your legs straight, start with our knees bent and work your way up to having them straight.  Once you can complete 12 repetitions, hold a dumb bell between your feet for extra resistance.  A close variation of this exercise is the wind shield wiper.  With this exercise you will start out to one side and bring your feet in the air.  Your feet will then cross at eye level or higher and coming down on the other side.  At this point you could either go back the other way or just complete a full circle.  If you chose to the circle method make sure that you go both directions.

Wood Chops
This is another great exercise for strengthening your obliques.  You are going to start out kneeling down.  The next step is to bring your left leg up as if you were going to stand.  So right now you will kneeling on you right knee.  Your upper body will be aligned vertically with your right thigh.  Your will have a 90 degree bend at the hip and then a 90 bend at the knee with the left leg.  You are going to hold a dumbbell or medicine ball with your hands.  You will start by keeping your body upright and twisting at the waist to the right and bringing the weight just above eye level.  Your arms will remain straight throughout the exercise.   You are then twist your upper body to the left keeping your body upright bring the weight just to the left and outside the knee.  Repeat 8 to 12 times and then switch sides.

Reverse Hyper Extensions

With this exercise you will use a stability ball.  Start by placing your stomach on the stability ball.  Go forward on the ball until your hips are at the very top of the ball.  You may need to grab onto something that will not move with your hands to perform this exercise.  The next step is to lift your feet in the air extending the lower back.  Hold at the top and slowly return to the starting position.  Once the exercise has started make sure that your feet do not touch the ground.  If more resistance is needed, add ankle weights.  This exercise along with regular hyper extensions, I recommend starting slow and light.  As I said before, it may feel like you are doing much, but you will definitely feel the next day.

Reverse Crunch on the Decline Bench
Find a decline bench and adjust so you will have around a 30% decline.  You are going to lie on your back with your head close to where you would lock your feet into if you were doing a decline bench.  With yours grab hold of where you usually lock your feet.  At this point you are going to bring your feet straight out so legs will be parallel with the floor not the bench.  During this exercise it is critical that your lower back does not arch and that you are always pressing it into the bench when your legs are fully extended and parallel with the floor.  Pull your knees into your chest and pull you lower back off the bench.  If more weight is needed place a dumbbell between your feet.  A simple variation would be to bring your knees first to the side and up and over the other and then back down.  Make sure that you go in both directions.

Weighted Crunch with the Cable Crossover
This exercise is performed easiest when you use the rope connection on the cable crossover machine.  Set the height of the rope so that it can be grabbed while kneeling.  Pull the rope down with both hands so that the hands rest on your upper chest.  Your head will be between your rope.  You also want to position yourself slightly ahead of the pulley so the pulley will try to pull you back.  This forces your abs to stay contracted through the entire exercise.  From here we want to crunch down.  This means spinal flexion, not bending at the hip.  When we bend at the hip we are training our hip flexors and putting the emphasis on the abs.  Find a weight that you can complete 8 to 12 repetitions.
The last two exercises we are going to use time instead of repetitions.  Both exercises are great functional exercises to improve your core strength.  Our Goal for the next two exercises is to complete 1 minute sets.  Once this is completed we just ad variations to make the exercise more difficult.

Plank
The plank is almost like the starting point of a pushup position.  The main difference is that you will be on your elbows instead of your hands.  When you are on your elbows you want a straight line up from your elbow to your shoulder.   This should be perpendicular to the floor.  Your hips are going to be slightly higher than a push-up.  At this point try pushing you stomach outward and hold this position.  Make sure you breathe while performing this exercise.  Hold for a minute.  Once a minute is reached try variations as in holding one leg or arm up.  Try holding one arm and the opposite leg in the air.  A weighted vest will also make the exercise more difficult.  Add a stability ball.  Place your toes on the stability ball and elbows on a bench.  This is another great variation.

Crab

Not only will this exercise strengthen your lower back it will also help you gain flexibility.  You are going to start out on your lying stomach.  Next bend your knees and so your heels go towards your butt.  Reach back with your arms and grab your ankles.  From here you want to try to arch your back as much as possible while pulling with your arms and hip flexors.  Try to straighten your legs even though it will not be possible.  You want to get your chest off the ground as much as possible so only your stomach will be touching.  Keep your knees relatively close together.  Make sure that to breathe while performing this exercise.  Do this for 1 minute.  No extra resistance is needed.

Try this routine for about a month.  I guarantee great results.