I need to change up my routine a bit. My current ab exercises are getting old and i'm not feeling the "burn" like I used to. Currently I do the decline bench with and without a light weight, bicycles, planks, & captains chair sometimes (not my favorite to do - hurts my arms). Any new and exciting ideas for me??
Thanks for your help!

I try to rotate my ab routine weekly since, for some odd reason, my abs seem to adapt ridiculously fast to each workout, so I alternate between fewer reps with weighted exercises (cable crunches, crunchs with a plate, etc.) and higher reps with non-weighted routines (leg lifts holding a yoga ball between your feet, etc.)

One specific exercise you could try adding in that I love/hate is using a medicine ball, and I have no clue what it's actually called, but sit on the ground with the ball behind you, rotate as far to your left as you can, pick it up and, turning at the waist (and mentally focusing on your core) rotate over and put it behind you as far to your right side as you can. Pick it up and go back the other way.

Another tip that helps when I start plateauing in terms of strength and progress is to take time off and let your abs rest. I usually find that, after a week off, my muscles respond especially well when I start the routine back up.

Jericho is about to rail on the benefits of the ab wheel, which I am all for, but I tend to break up the movement into its three parts:

1) Low abdominal pull in, 4s10-12 with heavy weight. Lay on the floor, chain or use the dip belt to connect your feet to the cable weights, then pull in your legs.

2) Serratus crunch. 4s10-12 with heavy weight.

3) Decline weighted sit-ups, 4s10-12

4) Side bends

5) reverse hyperextensions

These seem to work well, I am a firm proponent in training abs with heavy weight and low reps (10-12) if your goals is to move heavy shit. Why do endless crunches if your goal is to support one squat rep with 500?

having trouble picturing the low abdominal pull in. maybe because i don't know what a dip belt is!! do you have a link that shows this exercise? and what are reverse hyperextensions?
you definitely succeeded in giving me new exercises - i've never heard of these!

Hyperextension

For the low ab pull in, imagine it as a roman chair leg lift only laying on the ground with weight attached to your feet. Your feet are attached to the cable weights with either a dip belt or chains, whatever is easiest.

I do these where you are in a sort of V position. You sit and lean back a bit, then pull your feet in and extend them. If you have trouble balancing, you can put your hands on the ground behind you.

Also, you can do this same sort of thing with your hips rotated over to one side or the other. These work my abs and obliques really well.

The closest I come to an ab workout is squats; worked up to 2x5x225 today.

Grats shawn on the Squats.

For Abs:
http://www.shapefit.com/training.html

Pick your poison

;)

Thanks for the link Shawn. I guess I've just never seen a need to do that many ab exercises. I do hanging leg lifts once in awhile when I'm feeling ambitious, but between squats, deadlifts and about 5 hours of tennis plus some racquetball and basketball every week I just haven't seen the need to add anything more. A 6 pack isn't my goal. <10% bodyfat and the endurance to play 2 three set matches in a day (common in tennis tournaments) is.