The Magnificent 7 Ab Routine!

                                               

The routine is composed of 7 abdominal exercises carefully chosen to hit both the upper and lower abs. You will note that no direct oblique work is present. The reason for that is the fact that in my experience, direct oblique work only leads to a wider waistline. Besides, obliques get enough indirect stimulation from exercises like Squats, Deadlifts, Sit-ups, etc. 
So having said that, below is the list of the Magnificent Seven:

EXERCISE 1 SIT-UPS

PRIMARY TARGET: Upper Abs
SECONDARY TARGET: Lower Abs and Obliques

EXERCISE 2 LEG RAISES

PRIMARY TARGET: Lower Abs
SECONDARY TARGET: Upper Abs and Obliques

EXERCISE 3 LYING LEG RAISE+CRUNCH 
PRIMARY TARGET: Upper and Lower Abs
SECONDARY TARGET: Obliques

EXERCISE 4 KNEE-INS PRIMARY TARGET: Lower Abs

SECONDARY TARGET: Upper Abs and Obliques

EXERCISE 5 TOE TOUCHERS

PRIMARY TARGET: Upper and Lower Abs

SECONDARY TARGET: Obliques

EXERCISE 6 CRUNCHES

PRIMARY TARGET: Upper Abs
SECONDARY TARGET: Lower Abs and Obliques

EXERCISE 7 REVERSE CRUNCH

PRIMARY TARGET: Upper and Lower Abs
SECONDARY TARGET: Obliques

SETS, REPS AND REST IN BETWEEN SETS

Each exercise is to be done for 3 sets each of as many reps as possible. There are many ways to perform this routine. I like to do a superset of exercises 1 and 2, rest 30 seconds, superset 3 and 4, rest 30 seconds, superset 5 & 6, rest 30 seconds and perform exercise 7. After exercise 7, I rest 1 minute and start the sequence again two more times for a total of three sets.