Achieving a toned stomach takes a serious commitment and a lot of hard work. There are many exercises that you can do to target various aspects of your abdominals. It is a good idea to look at a variety of abs exercise workouts.

There are four major muscle groups that make up the abs. They are the external obliques, the internal obliques, the rectus abdominis and the transverse abdominal. It is important to consider all of these muscle groups when you put together your abs exercise workouts.

The transverse abdominis is the deepest of the abdominal muscles and it wraps around your torso and acts like a support belt. Some very effective exercises in toning this particular muscle are crunches, reverse crunches, roman chair lifts and sit ups.

The internal obliques are two muscles that are located on either side of your torso. They are involved in rotation and lateral flexion of your spine. The internal and external obliques are located at right angles to each other. The internal obliques attach from your lower three ribs to the linea alba and from the inguinal ligament to the iliac crest, then to the lower back. The external obliques work together with the internal obliques to perform sideways bending, rotation of your trunk and compression of your abdomen. Some effective exercises for your internal obliques are lying side oblique crunches, sideways sit ups and dumbbell side dips.

The rectus abdominis is the most superficial of the abdominal muscles and is where the six pack is located. The most effective exercises for this section of the abs are crunches, leg lifts and bicycling. (This is an exercise where you imitate the movements you make while riding a bike, but you are on your back with your legs elevated).

While all of these exercises will work to tone and define your abs, they will not be very effective if you have excess body fats. You will need to consider an overall change in your eating habits to achieve your ultimate goal.