You do not have to belong to a gym to get a great set of abs. In fact you can get a great set of abs in a very little space just by doing the right exercises at home.
The big mistake everyone makes in their ab workout is to spend time doing countless sit ups and crunches or other ab specific workout. This is great if you are below 10% body fat. Then you will actually see the results of your efforts. However, most of us are not. So now the issue becomes not one of working your abs but of reducing overall body fat % in order to see your abs.
A pound of fat takes 3,500 calories to burn. Considering that you can spend an hour on the treadmill and only burn 500 calories, this seems to be a pretty daunting task.
However, I am going to give you the perfect workouts to do at home in order that you can eventually see your abs.
The trick to reducing body fat is to do all body exercises. Exercises that make you use multiple muscle groups together. This will have the effect on your body of throwing it into a state of metabolic shock and cause you to burn calories at a significantly higher rate for days after the workout is over.
The best way to do this at home is to buy a kettle bell. Basically it looks like a cannonball with a handle. Men usually use a 35 pounder. There are a wide variety of exercises you can perform with this device and they are all designed to burn fat. Studies have shown that kettle bell workouts burn 20 calories a minute. The only thing comparable to that is cross country skiing uphill.
The following workouts should be done every other day, working out 4 or 5 days a week.
A: You may not think it but these exercises will work your abs both directly and indirectly.
Halo (rotate the KB around your head in one direction and then another)
Figure 8 (pass the KB between your legs from one hand to another)
Swing (using one hand or two swing the KB between your legs thrusting out with your hips)
Renegade rows (assume the pushup position with your hands gripping the handles of the KB. Raise one KB to your side after another. Lower and repeat.)
Squats (holding one or two KBs squat down as far as possible, stand up and repeat)
Dead lift (standing straight bend over with your legs straight but not stiff, pick up one or two KBs and stand up. Lower and repeat)
B: These exercise will work your abs to a lesser degree but are great for boosting your metabolism for hours after the workout. They are more common than the exercises above and should need no explanation.
Pull ups
Dips
Clean and press
Snatch
Military press
Bent over rows