Abdominal exercises are useful for building the abdominal muscles. This is useful for improving performance with certain sports, back pain, taking punches. Abdominal muscle exercises are known to increase the strength and endurance of the abdominal muscles as well. It has been a highly disputed topic whether or not abdominal exercises have any impact on the reduction of abdominal fat. The study by Vispute et. al. found that in fact doing abdominal exercise does not reduce abdominal fat. To reduce abdominal fat one must create a deficit in energy expenditure and caloric intake, doing abdominal exercises alone were not enough to reduce the girth of the abdomen.
 

Abdominal muscles have many important functions such as contributing to breathing, they are responsible for the acts of coughing, and sneezing. As well as maintaining posture and speech in a number of species (Iscoe, 1998) The anterior abdominal wall is made up of 4 muscles—the rectus abdominis muscle, the internal and external obliques, and the transversus abdominis."The two internal muscles, the internal oblique and the transverse abdominis, respond more to increases in chemical or volume-related drive than the two external muscles, the rectus abdominis and external oblique; the basis for this differential sensitivity is unknown".