Bear with us on this and think of your stomach as a football team for a minute. Your front abs are David Beckham, the ones everybody wants to see because they look nice. But consider your oblique and serratus muscles. While not quite the Phil Neville of the team, they are certainly left in the background, doing all the hard work and getting very little credit for it.
Year after year they slave away, allowing you to bend, twist, swivel and tilt your torso, only to have the front abs - which are larger and more visible - garner all the attention. But that doesn't mean you should leave the other stomach muscles on the bench.
Basic crunches alone aren't enough to get them in shape. The obliques can be found at the sides of the waist, while the serratus appears between the chest and lats. Now that you know their functions and whereabouts, it's time to put these muscles to work - and give them their share of the glory.