toning and streghtening abs?

Try crunches...those are good. I also like the ab-slide if you got one. But the best are doing crunches properly.

Yup good old fashion crunches, side bends, torsion twist, leg raises, and lots of it is needed. My gym instructor told me that the abs or midsections are the "core" of our body, so developing it would contribute greatly to overall fitness. So he recommends that if going to the gym or in off days, do the above exercises frequently. And oh yes, that holding your gut routine also helps a lot. Try this, whenever you eat, compress your stomach slightly and hold it throughout the course of the meal, do this often and you'll soon find out that you'll be eating less and feeling full immediately. There was also a book I read recently that explain that if a part of the body is subjected to stress (like hitting sharply and in fast repetitions) would cause blood to circulate in that area and thus burn fat. But it's like hitting yourself intentionally. I have tried it for a while and it seem to work. But if these sounds to sadistic, just go with the regular abs exercises.

My doctor told me a good one that really doesn't require a lot of effort. You pull in your stomach muscles and hold them tight for a count of 10 and pretend there is a marble in your belly button and thrust it out. Do this several times throughout the day and it helps.

ok, lay on your back on the floor, now crunch your body together at same time (lift knees to chest while putting face to knees).Keep doing this, but do not let your upper back or your feet toch the ground untill you are done.

Well there are always crunches but there are torso twists you can do (along with leg/knee lifts). You can also practice holding in your gut to get the torso and abs going that way. Its a little bit, but it is something to do.

there a work out tapes you can get that target the area. I know the sit ups help allot or other forms of sit ups. or belly dancing does allot of ab and stomach strengthening.