As promised, peeps, here are some additional ab exercises that you can work into your routine. The first 13 moves are here, and I suggest that you read that post first before delving into this one. Again, some of these pictures are blurry – the weather is yuck outside so we had to take them in my mom’s living room. (p.s. how great is it to visit your parents?! So relaxing. I mean, look at that fireplace. Look at it!!) (oh, and thanks to maid-of-honor-slash-cousin Joelle for being my photographer)

Have fun trying to keep your balance on these mo-fos.

A proviso: I am NOT in good abdominal shape. These pictures are intended to give you a general idea, but my form is nowhere near perfect.

And now, the exciting conclusion to How Swimmers Get Nice Abs (Or: You’re Going to be Abs-olutely GORGEOUS, Dah-ling)

1. Upright crunches

This ‘un is pretty self-explanatory. I always keep the inner edges of my feet together as I bring my knees into my chest, resulting in a bit of a butterfly-position. I suppose keeping your knees together would give you a slightly different exercise, so you might consider trying both ways to see which feels more effective to you. The most important thing to keep in mind is that your feet should never touch the ground. I’ll be hiding around the corner waiting to see you cheat, and when you do, I’m going to be all over you like dog-hair on cashmere.

2. Side-to-Side Legs

For this move, you’re tracing a rainbow in the air with your toes. Keep your arms straight out to either side, palms touching the floor, for balance and support – and try your friggin’ hardest to keep your shoulderblades flat on the ground (yeah, good luck with that). Don’t let your legs rest on the floor on either side; just allow your ankles to lightly skim the ground before using your abs to pull your legs up and over to the other side. Unlike a lot of the other exercises I’ve shown you, this is not about speed – it’s about form and accuracy. If you need a slightly easier variation, bend your knees about 90 degrees or so.

3. Leg Swishes

Woahhhhh this angle makes me look like Bigfoot.

With your hands nestled under your buttcheeks, lift your toes about six to twelve inches off the ground. Lift your head and watch your feet as you trace a 24-inch horizontal line in the air with your toes.

4. Pretzel Crunches

See the fear in my eyes there? It’s because this one gets H-A-R-D after a while.

Cross your legs as twistily as you can (sometimes I can get my ankles to hook together…but not today) with your toes lightly touching the floor.  To execute the move, scrunch yourself up into as tight a ball as possible. Once you’ve done this for a minute, re-cross your leg so that the other one is on top, and do the same move for another 60 seconds (or until you upchuck, whichever comes first).

5. Oblique crunches

Another one that takes two minutes – one for each side. These are basically normal crunches, except with your knees dropped to the side so that your oblique abs (the ones on the side of your waist) are doing the heavy lifting. I say “heavy lifting” because my brain is so large and full of knowledge that it adds an extra twelve pounds to my upper body. I know you’ve all got the same problem.

6. Up, Out, Together, Down

This is a CLASSIC swimteam move – it’s great for keeping your back looking strong and sexy. It consists of four distinct positions: a faceplant on the ground, the “Superman” posish with your arms and legs off the ground, arms and legs apart, then back to the Superman. You’ll know you’re doing this correctly if you can distinctly feel your back muscles squeezing to hold your limbs off the floor.

7. Upright Oblique Crunches

Dude. This one is SO. Hard. I can hardly keep my balance (the first picture of this post was an attempt at this move). It’s basically the same as the upright crunch (#1 above), except you balance on one hip/buttcheek and use your oblique abdominal muscles to pull yourself into a ball. Unless you’re in great shape, it’s next to impossible to do this for a full minute, so I suggest starting at 30 or 45 seconds and resting between sets. Or not. Whatever. But don’t yell at me when you can’t laugh because it hurts so much.

8. Russian Twists

When doing this move, make sure you look as much like an imbecile as possible. Observe:

You can almost hear my grunt of exertion.

If you own a 5-10 pound handweight or medicine ball, you can hold it during this exercise; or you can just have impeccably graceful ballerina hands, like moi. To do this move, point your toes and hold them about 1 inch off the floor – they should never touch the ground. Then twist back and forth as though you’re picking up a tiny puppy on one side of your hips and transferring it to the other side.

…so, folks, there you have it. I advise picking and choosing between these exercises and the ones from the previous post. Start with a five- or six-minute routine, and work your way up to fifteen or twenty minutes. And never, ever, EVER forget to stretch afterward, or you’ll DIE the next day. You’ll DIE!!! The best part about having so many exercises in your arsenal is that you’ll never get bored. Eventually, you’ll know all of them by heart and you can decide which to do as you’re working out.

If you know of any other great ab exercises, lemme know! I tried to make sure that you could do all of these alone, without any equipment, because let’s be honest: in this economy, joining the gym is just not necessary. You don’t need a personal trainer or a special machine to get abs like a Speedo model. All you need is either a) a healthy desire to strengthen your core, or b) a deep fear that people notice the muffin-top you sprouted over the holidays.

(Questions about any of these exercises? Leave me a note in the comments and I’ll respond post-haste.)