I need some good moves to work my abs and get me in shape. A lot of the exercises I do don't give me the burn you get when something's working. If you have any good moves, I'd like to try them. Thanks!

--L.C.

Dear L.C.:

I don't think you need new moves; I think you need to rethink how you're doing your old moves. Typically in this column I give you several new exercises to try -- after all, there are hundreds of effective abdominal exercises to choose from. But I think you, and all Fit by Friday iVillagers, can benefit from a step-by-step, detailed description of the crunch, the most fundamental of all abdominal exercises. I'll start by giving you the basic description of this exercise and then break it down point by point to give you an idea of what a crunch should look like and feel like.

Basic crunch: Works the rectus abdominis, the wide flat muscle that runs from your breastbone to the front of your pelvis.

1. Lie on the floor with your feet hip-width apart.
2. Cradle your head in your hands without lacing your fingers together and with your elbows rounded slightly inward.
3. Tilt your chin a little way towards your chest and pull your abdominal muscles in.
4. Exhale through your mouth as you curl your head, neck and shoulders up off the floor.
5. Hold at the top of the movement for a moment, then inhale as you slowly lower down.

A couple of general points to think about as you do this exercise:

• You do not need to "go for the burn" during this or any exercise. However, you should be able to feel the muscle working hard within 8 to 15 repetitions. If you can do more than 15 reps of any exercise -- including an abdominal exercise -- you need to review your form and think about making some changes to that exercise.
• Some people can do hundreds of reps of crunches in a row. That's because they slam through the exercise too quickly, using more momentum than muscle power. Move SLOWLY. Each crunch repetition should take about five seconds to complete, not a millisecond.

A detailed description of one repetition:

1. Start with your hands behind your head. Your fingers aren't laced together. Your elbows are rounded slightly inward; you should just be able to sneak a peek at them in the corner of your vision. Your chin is tilted slightly backward as if you were holding a grapefruit between your chin and your chest. Your knees are bent and your feet placed flat on the floor, hip width apart. Your abs are pulled inward to protect your back, but you aren't jamming your back into the floor. To pull your abs inward, don't suck them in; instead, imagine that you have a girdle on that's about two sizes too small. In other words, tighten all of your middle muscles to achieve this girdle-like feeling.
2. Exhale and slowly curl upward and slightly forward, using ONLY your abdominals to power the movement. Imagine someone is about to drop a weight on your tummy and you have to tense up and curl inward to prepare yourself for the impact. At this point most people pull on their heads and their elbows pull inward. That is a no-no. Your head, neck and arms should not change position AT ALL as you lift upward.
3. As you come to the top of the movement, your shoulder blades should just be clear of the floor and you should be looking though the space between your knees. Pause at the top a good slow second or two and pull your abdominals in even more.
4. Slowly, slowly, SLOWLY lower to the start (as opposed to just releasing your muscle and plopping back downward). Think of retracing the path on the way down that your spine took on the way up.
5. Your head should just lightly touch the floor, and then you should be moving up into the next rep.

If you can do 15 perfect reps using this exact technique and the exercise is still too easy, you can make some simple modifications:

• Slow the movement down even more.
• Do 10 short reps at the top of the movement before lowering to the floor.
• Pick your feet a quarter inch up off the floor.

And so on ...

Got a question or comment for Liz? Post it on the Fit by Friday message board!