There are hundreds of pages claiming the best exercises for core, some of which are all body weight and others include a variation of weights, medicine balls, resistance bands, etc. There were a few pages I ran across that sort of rebutted any and all core exercises as they claimed that a healthy tummy consisted of a healthy diet and doing core workouts wouldn’t help with any of the stomach toning. Most people, on the other hand, continue the path down combining a healthy diet with ab exercises to get the most beneficial outcome. However, because there are so many exercises out there for the best ab workout, it can get a little tough to determine what exercises will give you the greatest benefits, especially if you are running low on workout time.
I have compiled a list of some of the top fitness blogs & accounts that give their two cents on what the best ab exercises are. I have also included links to every article I am mentioning. If you find an exercise you want to try on one of these websites, simply click the link to the corresponding article the exercise is in and there will be a detailed demonstration on the exercise of your choosing.
Note: There are articles I pull from that have more than 10 exercises. I will be simply pulling from the first 10 they listed to include in my own blog. This is not to say that the other exercises included in the article are not good, however! Feel free to try any of these other listed exercises if you find one you like.
- Ab Wheel Rollout
- Arm-High Partial Situp
- Barbell Rollout
- Barbell Russian Twist
- Swiss Ball Crunch
- Dip/Leg Raise Combo
- Flutter Kick
- Front Squat (w/ weight)
- Horizontal Cable Woodchop
- Leg Raise
- Hanging Leg/Knee Raise
- Machine Crunch
- Cable Pallof Press
- Kneeling Cable Crunch
- Decline-Bench Crunch w/ Medicine Ball
- Squat
- Decline Russian Twist w/ Medicine Ball
- Ab-Wheel Roll-Out
- Exercise-Ball Pike
- Plank
- Abdominal Hold
- Side Crunch
- The Hundred
- Opposite Arm and Leg Raise
- Prone Plank
- Squat Thrust w/ Twist
- The Climb Up
- Ballet Twist
- Single-Leg Stretch
- The Cobra
- Bicycles
- Captain’s Chair Leg Raise
- Exercise Ball Crunch
- Vertical Leg Crunch
- Torso Track
- Long Arm Crunch
- Reverse Crunch
- Crunch w/ Heel Push
- Ab Roller
- Plank
There are several different exercises from these 4 articles. However, the general muscle movements are fairly the same and just have one tweak here or there to make the exercise easier or harder.
I have compiled one final list combining all of these exercises/incorporating a few of my own that would essentially target the area they are getting at. One would think, if four different articles are recommending very similar things, wouldn’t the compiled list they create be the ultimate ab workout?
- Bicycles
- Crunches (w/ or w/o medicine ball)
- Medicine Ball Twists
- Leg Raises
- Squat
- Sit-ups
- Straight arm crunches/star touches
- Side-Plank
- Ab-Wheel Roll Out
- Flutter Kick/V-Hold
Challenge of the Day: Try at least 3 new exercises in your ab routine today! Though you may be doing the standard crunches, you may find that one of these variations is more enjoyable than what you have been doing previously. Trying new things and working your body in different ways is a good thing.
Keep Crunching!
-Kiera
