Ah, yes, tight abs. They’re like the holy grail for the fitness enthusiast: so appealing in their firm, flat appearance; yet seemingly out of reach for so many of us. Make no mistake, however, tight, flat abs are attainable, if you’re willing to put in the work.

First things first: we need to understand the nature of the beast to be tamed. That is: to train our abs we must know what we mean when we say, “abs.” The abs actually consist of a 6 major muscles: the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, 2 internal obliques, and 2 external obliques. Each of thes muscles contributes to stabilization and upper body posture

The transverse abdominis runs laterally across the front of the abdominal cavity, holding our insides in place, and helping hold our carriage (upper body) upright. Over the transverse abdominis, but running up and down rather than across, is the rectus abdominis. The bands of tendon that run across this muscle are what create the “six pack” that so many of us aspire to have. Both sets of obliques run the length of our core on each side. They wrap around from front to back at different angles, assisting with stabilization, and allowing us to twist and turn.

Now that we have an idea of what the abs are, we can get to the good part: how to make work well and look good. When considering how to get tight abs, we need to address all of the muscles discussed above. If you’re working out at home, or on a mat at the gym, the most obvious exercise is the traditional crunch. But (as you may have seen on one or another television infomercial) the traditional crunch targets mainly the rectus abdominis, and does very little for the rest of the abdominal muscles. So do your crunches if you love them, but don’t stop there.

To target the transverse abdominis we need to dig deeper; and an easy way to make it engage is to perform exercises that require more stabilization. An isometric exercise, like the plank (balance on 3 points: hands or elbows, with toes or knees together on the floor), that requires nothing more or less than to hold your whole core tight is a great way to strengthen even the deeper transverse abdominis.

And if you simply must crunch, try bicycle crunches—squeezing the abs diagonally to bring an elbow toward the opposite knee while the other elbow and leg are extended away from one another—to really get those obliques working.

Of course there is also an abundance of equipment on the market, and probably classes at your local gym that can provide you many new and different ways to target those abs. The more you exercise them, the stronger and tighter your abs will grow. So there you go: how to get tight abs is no longer a mystery. It’s only a matter of effort.

You want a six pack, don’t you? But it seems like nothing you try quite does the trick. Can you do crunches for an hour straight and hold a 5 minute plank? Can you outlast anyone when it comes to throwing around a medicine ball, and do reverse curls and bicycle crunches until the cows come home? You know you’re strong, but you want to look as good as you feel, right? Now it’s a matter of showing off what you know is underneath that stomach somewhere. You want to know how to get perfect abs.

The good news and bad news are that getting your abs to look great is both very simple and highly difficult. It’s just a matter of how much effort you’re willing to put in to get those perfect abs.

If you’re on a quest for perfection then you’re probably already aware of the basics, but here’s a quick recap just in case. Your abs are actually 6 different muscles that function together to support and stabilize your upper body. The transverse abdominis lies relatively deep and runs laterally across your abdomen, holding your insides in. The internal and external obliques (one of each on each side) are angled muscles that give you the ability to twist and turn. A good abdominal workout will effectively target all of these muscles with a combination of movement and isometric exercises.

But you already knew that. You want to know how to get perfect abs. You want to make them look good. There are 2 secrets here, neither of which is actually very secret at all:

1) Make your abs strong. Working from the inside out, tighten and strengthen so that you’ve got something to show off when the revealing takes place.

2) Let them be seen. Usually the only thing standing between solid abdominals and a beach-ready six pack is, unfortunately, fat. The stomach is one of the main depositories for adipose tissue (aka, fat), and chances are good that if you have some excess fat there, you’ve probably got it some other places as well. Here’s where the simple but often incredibly difficult part comes in: get rid of the fat, and you’ll expose your perfect abs.

But how to do that? A combination of a reduced calorie diet and increase in exercise (a little extra cardio, coupled with solid resistance training) will start to show results soon. So now the question is not “how to get perfect abs,” but “how long” until we see yours?

For fitness minded individuals, exercise serves a dual purpose: being in shape helps us to be healthy and feel good about ourselves; it also lets us look good. And let’s face it: who doesn’t want to look and feel as good as possible? You eat right, work out at the gym, and even squeeze in a good cardio session 5 days a week, but still, one thing eludes you: how to get tight abs.

I won’t tell you it’s easy—it will probably take more than 6 minutes a day, despite what those infomercials would have you believe—but it’s not nearly as difficult or complicated as many people think.

To get tight abs, we must first get a basic understanding of what exactly we’re trying to tighten. The abdominals are actually 6 different muscles—the transverse abdominis, rectus abdominis, 2 internal obliques, and 2 external obliques—that serve to support the upper body and hold us upright. The rectus abdominis is the “six pack” muscle. It’s closest to the surface, and its fibers run up and down. The transverse abdominis lies deeper, and has fibers running laterally across the abdominal cavity. The obliques are situated on each side of the abdomen, and wrap around from front to back at different angles, allowing us to twist and turn.

So if we really want to get tight abs, we clearly have to work all of the muscles just discussed. Traditional crunches target mainly the rectus abdominis, but bicycle crunches (when care is taken to really “tighten down” or pull your belly button toward your spine) can work all of the abdominal muscles.

Any exercise that requires a little extra degree of stabilization—like doing crunches or legs lifts on an exercise ball, standing on a Bosu ball, or standing one-legged or on an unstable surface like the Bosu to perform almost any resistance exercise that you would normally do standing—will require your abdominal muscles to work.

As your abdominal muscles gain strength and endurance, they will be more readily able to support your upper body in everyday activities, and will begin to appear tighter as well. Once you know how to get tight abs, revealing a flat, toned stomach is simply a matter of getting rid of excess fat with a combination of healthy diet and exercise. But that’s a topic for another time.