If you find doing endless crunches particularly torturous, you’ll be pleased to hear there are alternative exercises that will build core strength without being nearly as unpleasant. Meet the Pilates roll-up. It may not be as well-known as the crunch, but the roll-up is arguably even better at building strength in your core.

In the roll-up, you gradually move from lying on your back to sitting with your spine curved forward and your arms reaching forward. It’s performed slowly and with control, meaning there’s no momentum and you can’t help your abs by pulling on your head or neck. 

Although it’s hard work, I find the mindful movement can make it feel almost meditative, as you focus on peeling your spine off the mat. 

The slow and steady pace required in this exercise means your core muscles spend more time under tension. Studies such as this one published in the Journal of Physiology suggest that the more a muscle is loaded with tension to the point of fatigue the greater the protein synthesis, which can lead to muscle growth.

“The roll-up is one of my favorite exercises to do and to teach,” says Pilates instructor Millie Shiers, who teaches mat and reformer classes at Core LDN. “Practicing the roll-up can improve the flexibility of your spine and increase your abdominal strength. The roll-up also teaches your body how to control spinal articulation.”

How To Do The Pilates Roll-Up

Lie on your back with your legs extended and together, and feet flexed (toes pointing up to the ceiling). Extend your arms up with your palms facing your feet. As you exhale, lift your head and chest, slowly peeling your spine off the mat and reaching your arms forward. As you do so, slowly peel your spine off the mat. Once you’re reaching as far forward as you can, take an inhale to pause, then exhale and use your abs to gently roll down again, articulating your spine back onto the mat.

“Focus on squeezing your legs together and sliding your ribs towards your hips as you roll up,” says Shiers.

Roll-Up Modifications

If the full roll-up is too intense, there are plenty of ways to make it easier as you develop the strength to do the whole movement. “You can modify the roll-up with props to make it more accessible,” says Shiers. “One way to do this is to wrap a band around your feet and hold either end of the band—the band acts as an extra abdominal muscle. Another prop you can use is ankle weights to give you a bit more support in anchoring your lower body to the mat.”

“I also like to teach modified versions of the roll-up without props,” says Shiers. “For example, I will get clients to practice both halves of the roll-up separately—the forward flexion and then rolling down—until they can smoothly lift their body with no momentum.”

To fully master the roll-up, there are clever cues to help you do it as effectively as possible. “In Pilates, we love to make exercises as challenging as they can be by ensuring you properly connect to your muscles,” says Shiers. “To really feel the roll-up, think of pushing your heels away from you and drawing your ribs back in the opposite direction. This opposition will help you connect to your abs.”

David Beckham has shared a look at how he trains his abs with an Instagram video which shows him working through a set of hanging knee raises, under strict instruction from trainer Bobby Rich.

The exercise’s name doubles as a form guide: hang from a pull-up bar, then use your core muscles to raise both knees so your thighs pass beyond parallel with the floor. 

In the video, Rich can be heard giving the technique cue “knees up to your chest”, although Becks’ caption suggests he had more pressing matters on his mind—namely, the state of his headline-grabbing ’do. If I had hair that nice that would be my primary concern, too.

Benefits Of Hanging Abs Exercises 

Performing abs exercises on a pull-up bar is great for breaking away from the monotony core training can entail—planks, crunch variations, you know the drill. Your mid-body muscles are in for a real test too.

“You’re definitely focused on your rectus abdominis because you’re going into a flexion, but instead of flexion from the top like with a crunch you’re flexing from the bottom,” says Wendy Batts, regional master trainer for the National Academy of Sports Medicine. 

However, she warns this move isn’t for beginners. Not only do you have to be able to control your body through spinal flexion, but it also requires you to hold your bodyweight. And that’s not all.

To hit the intended range of motion, you need to be able to hang with a neutral spine. If your lower back arches (an anterior pelvic tilt), you have to move your spine to neutral before moving to flexion, and that extra movement is called compensation.

“If you can do it without compensation then I tell people it’s a great exercise,” she explains. 

“But you really need to make sure you have good lat extensibility, because if you don’t and you’re hanging you’re going to be in an anterior tilt. 

“The lower back will arch, and during this exercise you’re trying to have it do the opposite. This means you’re really not going to get full activation [of the muscles] because you have to go through a compensation first.”

If you struggle with this exercise, try starting with a knee-up, or a reverse crunch to knee-up as demonstrated below (rotation optional). 

However, if you have the strength and stability needed to do this exercise properly, Batts says it can be a great tool for developing core strength. 

“There are a lot of different variations to make it harder; sometimes one knee up at a time so you have to hang longer, or there are different rotational movements while doing it. 

“I have our athletes do it where they’ll raise their knees, kick their legs out, hold this position, and then come down. 

“There are a lot of variations to this one exercise that you can progress someone to. You just want to make sure they’re doing it correctly first, then you can have a ton of fun with it.”

For most mere mortals, abs exercises using just your bodyweight, like sit-ups and leg raises, provide enough of a challenge to encourage muscle growth and increase strength. But some, especially those looking to take their six-pack to the next level, might need to recruit additional load to keep them growing.

Enter the cable crunch. This bodybuilding favorite uses the cable machine to make the crunch exercise much more challenging. That may sound great, but it’s not the easiest movement to master and you should exercise caution before adding it to your abs workouts. 

For the dos and don’ts of this exercise we spoke with Eddie Baruta, global head of gym floor personal training at Ultimate Performance, and Cara D’Ozario, PT and owner of CGM Fitness. 

How To Do The Cable Crunch

The cable crunch is not an entry-level exercise. “It’s tough to execute because you have to really anchor your legs and hips in position to effectively target your abs,” says Baruta. When practiced correctly, he says, your primary focus should be on “bringing your rib cage towards your pelvis”. Nothing more, nothing less. 

The most common version of this tricky exercise is practiced facing toward the cable machine. For the facing away variation, see further down the page. 

The Set-Up

Connect the triceps rope attachment to the highest pulley. Start with a light load on the weight stack as you get familiar with the movement. Kneel facing the anchor point and hold either end of the attachment by your shoulders with the rope just behind your head. 

The Crunch

Lengthen your body to avoid slouching, and lock your pelvis and legs in position. Take a breath in, then slowly curl your torso forward, focusing on bringing your rib cage towards your pelvis to engage and shorten your target muscles. It’s only a small movement and you should feel the muscles working hard.

The Return 

Pause for a second at the point of maximum contraction, then slowly uncurl your torso to lengthen your abs muscles until your body is fully upright, exhaling as you go. All the power and control for the exercise should stem from your core muscles rather than your legs, hip flexors or arms.

Cable Crunch Benefits

Cable Crunch Risks

If the cable crunch is performed incorrectly, you’ll certainly know about it. “You’ll probably start to feel tension build up in your lower back,” says Baruta. If that’s the case, park your ego and reduce the weight on the stack so you don’t do any damage. 

Common Cable Crunch Mistakes

The cable crunch exercise requires good body awareness and a solid base level of fitness to get right—or else it could easily go wrong. Here are the most common mistakes our coaches see gym-goers make.

1. Harnessing Momentum

“One of the most common mistakes I see with the cable crunch—and with most abs exercises generally—is when people misuse momentum,” says Baruta. To fix this, he urges you to think about “lengthening your abs instead of allowing the weight to pull you back up” during the eccentric phase of the lift.

Baruta also suggests matching the tempo of the concentric phase of the move with that of the eccentric section. For example, two seconds down, two seconds up. “That will teach you to properly connect with the muscles you’re trying to recruit,” he says.

Once that’s mastered, you can then slightly accelerate the concentric phase of the lift to see how that changes the emphasis of the exercise. 

2. Shifting Your Hips 

Another common mistake is involving your hips in the movement. “They should remain stable throughout,” says D’Ozario. Otherwise, instead of challenging your abs, you’ll end up shifting all the emphasis to your hip flexors. 

Only crunch as low as you can without shifting your hips out of position, either forward or backward, and if your shoulders get anywhere near horizontal you’ve gone way too far. 

3. Straining Your Neck

One other common error D’Ozario has spotted is when people strain their neck in trying to generate power to initiate the move. “As you crunch forward, keep your chin tucked in to your chest,” she recommends, just like you should with standard crunches and sit-ups. 

Cable Crunch Variations

While there are many crunch variations to consider once you’ve mastered the basic crunch, here we’ll concentrate on variations of the cable crunch.

Facing-away cable crunch 

A simple variation to the classic cable crunch detailed above is the facing-away version. This means the pulley is set up slightly behind you, meaning you can more easily reach full extension at the top of the exercise. 

“The facing-away option is better if you can effectively anchor your legs and hips in position,” says Baruta. “You’ll then be able to shorten the muscles more effectively and feel the contraction in the right place. If the set-up is optimal, this will allow you to load the muscle where it is strongest, then allow it to drop off a little bit where you are weakest.” 

Standing cable crunch

For people who struggle to kneel, you can attempt this exercise standing up. Again, you need to focus on locking your hips and pelvis in position to effectively target the abs muscles. 

About Our Experts

The traditional sit-up may have fallen out fashion to an extent, but its close relation the butterfly sit-up is a common sight in CrossFit gyms. That’s largely because the sit-up is often performed poorly, with people failing to engage their abs and relying on their hip flexors instead, but the butterfly sit-up takes your hip flexors out of the equation. The result? A more focused abs hit. 

So should you swear off the sit-up forever? Not so fast, says Ryan Horton, a strength and conditioning coach and sports scientist with more than 20 years’ of experience, who we spoke to to get an expert take on promising abs exercise.

How To Do The Butterfly Sit-Up

“For a butterfly sit-up, I’m going to lie on my back and bring my feet together with my knees bent,” says Horton. “I’m going to let my knees fall out to the side like I’m doing a butterfly stretch. 

“Then I’m going to use my abs to sit all the way up, then control myself back down. Rinse and repeat until all the reps are done.”

As with a standard sit-up, the position of your arms is secondary, but Horton recommends “putting your hands together, arms extended forward, so when you sit up you’re reaching through that empty void between the knees”. This way, you can tap the floor in front of your feet at the top of each rep, which ensures you’re moving through the full range of motion. 

To increase the difficulty, Horton recommends bringing your hands behind your head at the bottom of each rep.

Butterfly Sit-Up Benefits

By letting your knees fall to the side, butterfly sit-ups “take the hip flexors out of the movement,” says Horton. Instead, it’s “the groin that’s having to engage and become a little more active in stabilizing the lower body as the upper body moves.

“The groin is something a lot of people overlook. A butterfly sit-up isn’t going to solve all your groin issues, but it is a variation that offers a little bit of extra groin engagement.”

However, this isn’t the main reason Horton uses butterfly sit-ups with his clients. He programs several core workouts a week for the athletes he works with and the appeal of the butterfly sit-up lies in the variety it offers.

“It can add freshness to your workout by being something a little bit different so you’re not doing the same thing over and over again,” says Horton, “even if it’s doing a lot of the same work and has the same benefits as the original exercise. 

“From that standpoint, I think variations are always a good thing to throw into your workout.”

About Our Expert

If this were a training montage, you wouldn’t be asking which abs exercise to bust out at the gym. The sit-up, with its greater range of motion, looks far more impressive intercut with chasing chickens and pounding punch bags than the more minimal movement of the crunch. 

But this is not a movie and you can’t fast-forward through your abs training. You have to spend your precious time doing it so it pays to know which is the most effective. We checked in with Amber Sayer, a NSCA-certified personal trainer, for her take.

There aren’t many moves that are as good for your midsection as the side plank, yet it’s often overlooked in favour of the standard face-down, forearm-supported plank. There’s nothing wrong with that – the plank is one of the best core exercises you can do – but the side plank brings other muscles into play and helps to develop strength and stability in your midsection. 

Below you’ll find all the info you need to make the side plank a fixture in your workouts, including a form guide and several great variations on the exercise.

Side Plank Benefits

The side plank works a couple of key muscle groups that are often neglected by even the best abs exercises, such as crunches. One is the quadratus lumborum, part of the posterior abdominal wall, which plays a prominent role in averting back pain. The side plank is also one of the best obliques exercises, another muscle group that can be missed with many core exercises.

The side plank is also a unilateral move, working either side of your body separately. This will help identify any weaknesses in your joints and muscles, enabling you to address them before they become chronic. If you find you can hold a side plank easily on one side and barely at all on the other then there’s an imbalance you need to work on. 

How To Do The Side Plank

Start on your side with your feet together, supporting your upper body on one forearm with your elbow positioned directly beneath your shoulder. Contract your core and raise your hips until your body forms a straight line from head to feet. Hold this position without letting your hips drop for the allotted time for each set, then repeat on the other side.

Side Plank Form Tips

1. Ensure you are balancing on the side of your foot and not the sole – this is key to prolonging stability.
2. Engage your abdominals at all times to keep the body rigid. Forget to do this and your body will probably sway and lose strength.
3. Try to keep your head and neck straight. Ideally, find a spot on the wall and keep your eyes locked on it.

Side Plank Variations

Kneeling side plank

If you’re finding the standard side plank too tough to hold for longer than a few seconds then build up your oblique strength slowly by starting with this less demanding variation. Lie on your side supporting yourself on your forearm and your knees, rather than your feet. Engage your core and hold a straight line from your knees to your head – don’t let your hips sag.

Raised side plank

Starting in the classic side plank position, raise your top arm and leg to form a star shape. Lifting an arm and a leg introduces other muscles into the hold and makes your core work harder to maintain balance. As always, don’t let your hips sag.

Gym ball side plank

Rest your supporting arm on a gym ball. The extra instability makes it tougher to hold the position. Use your core muscles to control the wobble.

Bosu ball side plank

Resting your feet or elbow on a bosu ball adds instability to the exercise, increasing the challenge to your core without being as tough a variation as the gym ball version. Although if you have both to hand (and a forgiving audience) you can up the ante by resting your elbow on the gym ball and your feet on the bosu ball.

Side plank with rotation

Adding some controlled movement during a side plank increases the challenge to your core and involves other muscles. Start in the classic side plank position and then extend your top arm towards the ceiling. Slowly rotate your torso to bring your hand under and through beneath your body, then reverse the movement to come back into a plank. Aim to keep hips raised throughout and only rotate as far as you can while keeping the movement controlled.

When most people think of abs exercises their mind naturally drifts to moves like crunches and leg raises. All of them can be great for your core, but they all only require you to move your body forwards and backwards. If you stick purely to this plane of movement (called the sagittal plane) then parts of your core will get an easy ride.

Add rotational exercise like the cable rotation to your abs training and you’ll ensure your obliques in particular are challenged. It’s a great exercise for anyone who wants a strong, functional core, but if you happen to be a golfer then it’s a must-do, since all that rotation strength translates directly to the swinging of a club. It will also help to carve out a six-pack, if that’s on your to-do list.

See related

•  The Best Obliques Exercises For A Strong Core
• The Best Cable Machine Exercises For All Levels
• The Best Abs Exercises For All Levels Of Gym-Goer

How To Do The Cable Rotation

Attach a handle to the cable machine at chest height. Hold the handle in both hands and stand side-on to the machine, with your legs wider than shoulder-width apart, but with your torso rotated and arms extended towards the machine.

Your weight will be on the leg closest to the machine. Rotate your upper body away from the machine to take the handle past your body and to the other side, shifting your weight to your other leg as you twist. Keep your arms straight as you rotate and focus on using your abs, rather than your arms, to power the movement. Slowly reverse the movement to return to the starting position.

If you don’t have access to a cable machine and want to give the movement a try, you can also do the exercise using a resistance band attached to a fixed point.

Abs exercises aren't just important for six-pack seekers visiting the gym. Strong abs are an integral part of a rock-solid core, which should be one of the goals of any fitness regime.

That’s because a strong core is the foundation upon which so many other things rest – whether that’s good posture that helps to prevent lower back pain developing from sitting at a desk all day, or the mobility and strength required to excel in sports and other activities ranging all the way from athletics to Zumba.

Using abs exercises to form a mighty midriff will also help you perform better when doing all manner of other moves in the gym. Powerhouse lifts like barbell squats and deadlifts all demand a strong core, as do agility workouts and plyometric exercises.

So the list of benefits of adding abs exercises to your gym repertoire and strengthening your core is almost endless. And who’s going to complain if you also happen to sculpt a picture-perfect six-pack at the same time?

How We Chose The Best Abs Exercises

To help ensure you have an array of abs exercises suitable for your training experience to add to your abs workouts, Coach enlisted Fitness First personal trainer Luke Chamberlain and Carl Martin, personal training manager at Equinox, for a selection of their favourite moves for beginner, intermediate and advanced gym-goers, and we’ve added some of our favourites, too.

Abs Exercises For Beginners

Plank

An all-time core classic. Hold a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles while supporting yourself on your forearms and toes.

“The plank is great for beginners and there is minimal movement so less chance of getting it wrong,” says Chamberlain.

“It’s also easy to scale – start at 20-second holds and work up towards 60 seconds. Make sure you engage your core by tilting your pelvis back slightly to flatten your lower back – a curved lower back is to be avoided.”

Hand slide crunch

Lie down with your feet flat on the ground and knees bent. Place your hands on your thighs and slowly slide them up towards your knees as you sit up.

“This does not have to be a large movement,” says Chamberlain. “Focus on closing the distance between your ribs and hips by lifting your shoulders off the floor while maintaining contact between the ground and your lower back.

“Moving the top half up puts more emphasis on your upper abs. Start with sets of five and work towards 15.”

Mountain climber

“Start in a straight arm press-up position with one knee up between your elbows and only the back foot on the floor,” says Chamberlain. “Jump the back foot off the floor and swap it with the front foot.

“Focus on pulling your stomach muscles in throughout the movement to protect your spine and add more intensity. This is a great exercise for burning calories as well as developing your abs. Start with 30 seconds of mountain climbers and work towards 60 seconds.”

Reverse crunch

The reverse crunch is even better than the standard crunch for strengthening your abs. The move keeps your muscles under tension for a longer period and hits the tricky-to-target lower abs particularly hard.

Lie down and raise your legs so your thighs are vertical and your knees are bent at a 90° angle. Contract your abs to bring your knees to your chest and raise your hips off the floor, then slowly lower your legs back to the start.

Grounded Russian twist

It’s worth mastering the basic version of this exercise because it hits the oft-neglected obliques and often fitness classes throw people in at the deep end with more difficult variations. Sit on the floor with your knees bent and heels resting on the ground. Lean back so that your torso is at 45°. Keep your chest up to stop you from hunching your back. Interlock your fingers and extend your arms in front of you. Turn your torso to the left or right, bringing your hands to touch the ground on that side. Rotate back to centre and then carry on to touch the opposite side. Once you’ve mastered the movement, make it more difficult by raising your heels off the floor and/or holding a weight.

Dead bug

The dead bug is a fine choice for beginners because it goes easy on your neck and back, which can’t be said for other abs exercises when they’re done incorrectly.

Lie on your back with your arms extended to the ceiling. Raise your legs and bend your knees until they’re at 90°. Lower your left arm towards the ground and simultaneously extend your right leg so both limbs end up parallel to the ground. Reverse the movements, then repeat with the other arm and leg. Focus on making your movements slow and controlled, spending three seconds lowering and three seconds raising. Work for 30 to 60 seconds, or three sets of five reps on each side.

Intermediate Abs Exercises

Leg raise

Lie down flat on your back on the ground. Keeping your legs as straight as possible, raise them until they’re vertical or as close as you can get. Lower them and repeat.

“This engages your lower abs, and you engage your core by flattening your lower back on the floor,” says Chamberlain.

“To make it easier, tuck your knees in and start with your legs raised, then slowly lower them towards the floor. Once you master this, start keeping your legs straight when returning to the top position.

“If you feel a niggle in your lower back then place your hands under your buttocks to help keep your lower back flat. Start with sets of five raises and work towards 15.”

Hand walk

Get on all fours and place sliders or a towel under your feet, then brace your core and walk your hands forwards, pulling your body along while twisting your hips as little as possible.

“The intensity ramps up quickly so start at 30 seconds and work towards 60 seconds,” says Chamberlain.

Abs roll-out

“Using an abs roller or a barbell with weight plates on, kneel on a soft surface and, if using a barbell hold it with your hands just wider than shoulder-width apart,” says Chamberlain.

“Start by just slowly rolling the barbell or roller away from your knees. It’s important to have your hips forward so your knees, hips and shoulders all align. Once you have control when rolling away, try to maintain hip and spine position while rolling the weights back in. Try to avoid pushing your hips in the air on the way back because this defeats the purpose of the exercise (although it’s OK to do it when starting out). This is great for improving the strength of your core quickly. Start with five reps and work towards 15.”

Bicycle Crunch

A study commissioned by the American Council on Exercise named this the best abs exercise because it provides the greatest stimulus to both abs and obliques. That’s more bang for your buck, or more aches for your effort depending on your point of view.

Lie on your back, extend your legs and hold them just above the ground. Place your fingers lightly on your temples. Bring one knee up towards your chest and twist your torso so that the opposite elbow comes over towards it. Your elbow and knee needn’t touch, but thinking of that connection between the two body parts is a good way to guide the movement of your torso. Lower both your torso and leg at the same time, then repeat on the opposite side. Keep the movement continuous and smooth for 30 to 60 seconds at a time.

Bird-dog

As with the beginner abs exercise the dead bug, the bird-dog requires you to move opposite limbs in tandem. But because you’re on all fours rather than lying on your back, it adds a degree of instability for an extra challenge.

On your hands and knees, with your hands below your shoulders and knees below your hips, raise and extend one arm and the opposite leg. Hold the position for a beat, then return slowly to the start. Alternate sides with each rep. For an extra challenge you can add a crunch, bringing your elbow and knee to meet under your torso before regrounding them.

Hanging knee raise

A precursor to the hanging leg raise (below), this pull-up bar exercise focuses on your lower abs. Hang from a bar or gym rings with an overhand grip, palms facing forwards. Brace your abs and use them to raise your knees to your chest. Pause, then lower slowly.

Dumbbell woodchop

This lift with a twist targets your obliques and is a must for golfers in particular, because working on rotational motion will help add power to your swing. Stand holding a dumbbell in both hands. Squat down and move the dumbbell over to the outside of your left thigh. Stand up and raise the dumbbell with straight arms, twisting to take it across your torso to finish above your right shoulder. In the final position you should have twisted your entire torso to face the dumbbell and be up on your toes, using your core to hold the position. Twist back to return the dumbbell to the starting position. Do all the required reps on one side and then swap.

Walking plank

Adopt the plank position with both forearms on the floor and your body forming a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles. Now push up to the raised plank position one hand at a time. Once you’re up, return to the standard plank position, again one hand at a time. Repeat, changing the hand you lead with each time. The aim is to keep your hips as still as possible – if they start to move, increase the distance between your feet to make it easier. Aim for 30- to 60-second work periods.

Flutter kicks

Sometimes known as scissor kicks, this movement will certainly feel like it’s carving out your abs. Lie on your back and raise your legs so that they’re roughly 15cm above the ground. Keeping your legs straight throughout, move your legs up and down in a kicking motion, with the movement coming from your hips. Go at a pace that’s comfortable and allows you to keep your legs off the ground for the duration, and make smooth and controlled movements. Work for between 30 and 60 seconds at a time.

Advanced Abs Exercises

Pallof press

“There are four main functions of the core: flexion, lateral flexion, isometric contraction and anti-rotation,” says Martin. “There are others – those are just the big four.”

“We tend to cover the first three with various forms of crunches (flexion), side bends (lateral flexion) and planks (isometric contraction). The Pallof press sits in the anti-rotation bracket, with a touch of isometric contraction.

“Set up a cable machine with a D-handle at about chest height. Stand side-on to the cable machine and hold the handle with both hands, fingers interlocked. The start position is holding the handle by the centre of your rib cage. Bend your knees slightly and extend the cable out until your arms are straight. Pause for a count of two – the objective here is not to let the weight on the machine pull you around, so you resist the rotation using your core. Bring the handle back to your chest and repeat for ten reps.”

Hollow body rock

“We often neglect the muscles we can't see, especially with midsection training,” says Martin. “This exercise works the inner core muscles.

“Start lying on your back – the goal is to flatten your back or push it into the floor. Maintain this position throughout the whole movement. Bend your knees and place your feet on the floor. Begin by lifting your shoulders off the floor, and at the same time lift your knees and feet off the floor to a 90° angle. While maintaining this position with your back pressed into the ground, start to rock back and forth. Start with 20 seconds to begin with. To make the exercise more challenging, you can extend the time, and also try increasing the lever length by straightening your legs and extending your arms overhead.”

Hanging leg raise with split

“This is great for lower abs development,” says Chamberlain. “Start by hanging off a bar or putting your elbows in abs stirrups. Keeping your legs locked straight, slowly raise your feet until they are at hip height. Pause for a second, then split your legs as wide as possible. Hold this position for a second, then close your legs and slowly lower them to the starting position. Start with ten reps and work towards 20.”

Rainbow slider

“Start in a straight arm press-up position with sliders or a towel under your feet. Both of your feet should be slightly to one side.

“Draw your knees in to your chest without raising your hips, then push your feet away to the other side. The slower you move, the harder this drill is. Start with ten reps and work up to 20.”

Dual weighted crunch

“Start in a tensed bowl position with your heels and shoulders off the floor,” says Chamberlain. “Balance a 5kg plate on your shins and hold a 5kg plate in your hands, arms extended overhead. Pull your knees in to your chest while sitting up until the two plates are aligned one over the other, then slowly return to the tensed bowl position with your arms extended overhead.

“You have to move slowly so as not to drop the balanced plate, which adds to the intensity of the exercise. Start at ten reps and work towards 20. Once you hit 20 increase the weight. This is a very tough exercise but it’s really gratifying when you can hit 20 at a time, plus it’s easy to scale to make it harder.”

V-sit

This tricky sit-up variation engages both the upper and lower abs, making it an efficient way to work on that six-pack. Lie on your back with your arms extended behind your head. Raise your torso and extended legs, while bringing your extended arms over your head and reaching them towards your toes.

Dragon flag

You know an exercise is hard when it makes a Rocky montage, and the Italian Stallion used the dragon flag to prepare for his bout with Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. Lie back on the bench and grasp both sides of the bench by your ears. Engage your core and lift your legs so your toes point at the ceiling. Your body should form a straight line from your feet to your chest, with only your upper chest and shoulders still touching the bench. Lower slowly back to the start, making sure your back doesn’t arch.

L-sit

While to the untrained eye this looks easy, it is L on the abs. Start sitting on the floor with your legs together and extended. Place your palms on the ground with your fingers pointing forwards. Brace your abs, glutes and legs and press through your palms to lift your body off the ground – you’re now the most uncomfortable L on the planet. Getting off the floor is an achievement in itself, but work towards holding the position for ten seconds.

Abs Exercises FAQ

To answer some of the most common queries about abs exercises, here’s Jess King, trainer at F45 Mill Hill.

If you’re looking to develop and show off a six-pack you need to put the work in – mostly outside the gym. You need to be following a structured diet that will help you reduce your body fat percentage. You’ll also need to rest and recover appropriately, especially when you consider that negatively-impacted sleep is correlated with weight gain.

But back in the gym, you need to stimulate your abdominal muscles with a careful selection of targeted exercises. You will commonly find sit-ups, crunches and their variants in many people’s programmes, but these moves tend to focus mainly on the upper abs. You neglect the lower portion at your peril. That’s where the hanging leg raise comes in.

When performed correctly, this is one of the finest abdominal exercises around. Here’s how you can include it in your routine.

How To Do A Hanging Leg Raise

Grasp a pull-up bar with your hands shoulder-width apart, using an overhand (pronated) grip. Engage your abdominal muscles and while keeping your torso stable, slowly raise your legs, keeping them straight and driving through your glutes, until they’re at 90° with your torso. Slowly lower and return to the start position.

Take extra care to keep your torso and hips still. A trembling torso reduces the level of stress placed on the abs, while unstable hips take the pressure off the core and place it on your hip flexors.

Hanging Leg Raise Variations

Hanging knee raise

The hanging leg raise is a tough exercise, so if you’re struggling with the full version you can make it a little easier by bending your knees as you lift your legs. You can also switch to this variation halfway through a set if the full hanging leg raise starts to become too difficult. It’s far better to bend the knees and carry on than have to stop mid-set.

Hanging knee twist

For this variation you start in the top position of the hanging knee raise, with your knees tucked up towards your chest. Then twist your knees to the side slowly, bring them back to the centre and take them out to the other side, then return to the centre. You can then lower your legs before bringing them up for another rep, but if possible keep your knees raised throughout to maintain tension on your abs. The twisting motion targets the obliques, which will be neglected if you stick to up-and-down motions with your abs workouts.

Hanging V-sit

In the event that you start finding the regular hanging leg raise too easy, there’s nothing stopping you from taking your legs higher for greater abs-building benefits. Keeping your legs straight, raise them to the bar you’re hanging from, then slowly lower them. Hell, if you’re able to do that why not throw in a pull-up before each rep too, superstar.

Getting and maintaining a six-pack is hard work and we’re about to make it harder. We’ve picked out six common abs moves that aren’t as effective as people think, and then provided you with upgrades or alternatives to try instead. Often this means tweaks that will keep your abdominal muscles under tension for longer, which may come as quite a shock but will help to develop your abs in double-quick time.

Upgrade the plank to plank with toe tap

Why It can be easy to “switch off” when doing planks so your hips drop and your abs muscles disengage – particularly since you do them for time, which can really drag. Adding a foot movement keeps the hips high, the lower abs engaged, and means you can count reps, rather than seconds.

How Get into the plank position, supporting yourself on your forearms with your elbows underneath your shoulders. Engage your abs, then raise your hips so that your body forms a straight line from head to heels. Without letting your hips sag, lift and move one foot out as far as you can to the side. Tap your toe on the floor, then bring it back in and repeat with the other foot.

Upgrade the sit-up to weighted crunch reach

Why Sit-ups are the most popular abs move but probably the least effective, because the muscles aren’t exposed to much tension. But the crunch reach, with added resistance, keeps the upper abs firing to keep your torso stable.

How Lie flat on your back with your knees bent, holding a dumbbell or weight plate in both hands with your arms straight. Use your abs to raise your torso, keeping your arms straight, and lift the weight as high as you can into the air. Pause and hold this top position for one second, then slowly lower your torso back to the start.

Upgrade the lying leg raise to V-sit

Why Lying leg raises do hit the lower abs hard, but not if you have any lower back niggles, while they can be quite uncomfortable to perform well. V-sits keep your lower abs engaged constantly, and work the upper abs too.

How Lie flat with your arms by your sides, legs straight and feet together. Keeping your arms straight, raise your torso and your legs simultaneously so that your fingertips go past your knees towards your shins. Slowly reverse the movement to the start, keeping your core tight and engaged throughout.

Upgrade the reverse crunch to gym ball pike

Why Unless you already have very strong lower abs, reverse crunches will end up as a rocking movement rather than a muscle-engaging one. In this upgrade, though, the abs must fire throughout.

How Get on your hands with your toes elevated on a gym ball and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line. Keeping your abs engaged, raise your hips as high as you can so your body forms an inverted V-shape. Hold this position for a second, then lower your hips to return to the start.

Upgrade the bicycle crunch to weighted Russian twist

Why With bicycles it’s easy for the abs to “switch off” as you jerk up and down and then side to side, but the addition of a weight creates resistance that needs to be managed for the duration of the set. This forces your upper, lower and side abs to be fully activated to keep your torso and feet elevated as you rotate back and forth.

How Sit on the floor holding a dumbbell or weight plate in both hands, with your knees bent and feet together raised off the floor. Holding the weight with straight arms, rotate your torso to one side while moving your knees in the opposite direction. Make sure your head follows the line of your arms. Reverse the move to the start, then rotate your torso and knees in the opposite directions, keeping your abs engaged throughout.

Upgrade the dumbbell side bend to alternating ankle tap

Why Holding a too-heavy dumbbell in one hand then bending to the side isn’t the most effective way to work your obliques (side abs). Ankle taps target these muscles more effectively, and bring the upper and lower abs in to boot.

How Lie flat on your back with straight legs and arms by your side. Crunch your torso up and bend your knees to bring your feet closer. Keeping tension on your abs, move one hand down the outside of that leg to tap your ankle, then reverse the movement and repeat on the other side. Keep reps smooth without letting your torso or feet move towards the floor.

See related 

• The Best Abs Exercises For All Levels Of Gym-Goer
• The Best Abs Workout: Circuits For Upper Abs, Lower Abs, And Obliques And Core
• Six-Pack “Rules” That Are Out Of Date

Abs Tips From The Man Who’s Been There, Done That

Toby Rowland first appeared on the cover of Men’s Fitness in his early 20s and then again aged 38, in 2018. Landing covers more than a decade apart is testament to his training philosophy and lifestyle rules, which he did us all a solid by sharing.

“I’m bigger and leaner than ever because I’ve got smarter about how I train,” Rowland says. “I’ve moved away from simply pounding the weights every session to lifting lighter for longer to avoid injury, and adding high-intensity strongman drills to the end of my weights workouts so I crank up that calorie burn to keep me lean. But more than that, it gives me a real buzz to train like this, and I’m more in love with training than I’ve ever been.”

Reduce the weight

“As I’ve got older I focus more on using lighter weights but I do more reps per set so I still get the ideal stimulus to build muscle,” says Rowland. “Lifting as heavy as you can is fine when you’re young, but over the years there’s wear and tear on the muscles and connective tissues, and it pays to lift smarter to limit your risk of injury.”

Pick pairs of moves

“I love doing supersets and working out which two exercises to do back to back. Sometimes I go for antagonistic supersets, so a chest move and a back move, or it can be a complementary superset, such as bench press then press-ups. Lifting this way is very efficient and forces you to focus on tempo and rest periods to stay in the training zone and keep every workout effective.”

Get more intense

“One of the big changes to my training is adding high-intensity strongman-style interval training drills to the end of my sessions. Doing sled pushes or farmer’s walks gets my heart rate really high and these ‘finishers’ are highly effective for getting leaner and fitter. I also get a huge endorphin buzz from them, which makes training much more fun.”

Don’t fixate on the abs

“I rarely do any direct abs work because my core is always engaged during the other lifts I do. If your abs are braced when squatting or pressing they’re going to get worked hard anyway.”

Have life balance

“I like a glass of wine but it’s about priorities: you can’t drink beer every night and still have a strong, lean body. Consistency is key, and if you train smart and eat well most of the time you’ll get and stay in great shape.”

Photography: Glen Burrows; Model: William Goodge@WModels

When you’re looking to test yourself with some harder exercises, it’s always worth referring to a Rocky montage for ideas. Whether it’s one-arm press-ups, stair sprints or corralling chickens, the Italian Stallion was prepared to go the extra mile in his training sessions.

That brings us nicely to the dragon flag, a core exercise so effective it helped Rocky prepare for his fight with Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, where he – SPOILERS – avenged Apollo Creed and conclusively proved that the USA was better than the USSR.

The dragon flag is a savage move that really tests the strength of your core. It makes a great addition to any abs workout, but only if you have the muscle control to do it effectively.

How To Do The Dragon Flag

First of all watch Rocky IV and check out Balboa’s perfect form. Marvel at how three people are content to stand and watch him do dragon flags because he’s so good at them.

Now hit the gym and find a free bench.

Lie on your back on the bench and grip the sides of the bench by your ears with both hands. Brace your core and raise your legs until your toes are pointed at the ceiling. Only your head and upper back should be touching the bench, and your body should form a straight line from your toes to your chest. Pause at the top of the move, then lower your legs slowly, keeping them extended and making sure that your back doesn’t arch.

It won’t take many reps to feel the burn in your abs, and if you’re managing to complete five or more dragon flags then give yourself a big pat on the back. If you’re struggling with the move, however, then go back to easier core exercises to gradually build the strength required. Start with the reverse crunch and standard leg raises, then move on to hanging leg raises. Once you’ve mastered those moves, return to the bench and attempt the dragon flag again.

It’s one of the most stubborn exercise myths out there – that doing thousands of sit-ups is the way to get a six-pack. In truth, six-packs are made in the kitchen, not the gym, and smashing out countless sit-ups is more likely to result in a sore lower back than a six-pack.

We spoke to Connor Minney, Barry’s Bootcamp trainer, for the lowdown on why sit-ups are not the smartest route to showy abs – and what actually is.

Do sit-ups lead to six-packs?

A sit-up is actually the least effective abs exercise you can do. Doing 100 sit-ups a day will not change your body in the slightest.

How do you get a six-pack?

You’re not going to see your abs if there’s body fat in the way, so you need to check your diet – that’s the number one thing. Once you’ve lost weight you can start to see your abs, then it’s about core training and developing the muscles.

Even if you have got body fat it’s important to have a strong core. Your internal obliques, the erector spinae, transverse abdominal – they’re the deep-lying muscles that you can’t see, but you’re not going to see that six-pack unless your core is strong.

So once you’ve sorted your diet, what exercises should you start with?

You should start by developing the core from the inside out, and the best things for the core and to see your abs are compound exercises. Deadlifts, squats and overhead presses engage every muscle in your core. That’s what I’d recommend – unless you’re a complete beginner. In that case there are exercises for the core and the abs that you can do at home. For example, holding positions like the plank and side plank. They strengthen the core muscles that surround the spine.

For beginners, a plank is a really easy, measurable thing that they can do. Aim to hold it for 30 seconds at first, and then keep practising so you’ll be able to hold it for longer and longer.

There are loads of ways to hold a plank – on your forearms, or a high plank on your hand, or a side plank on your hands or elbows. Or you can lie on your back and hold a hollow or “dish” hold. There are so many exercises you can do with just your bodyweight, or with a dumbbell or resistance band.

When you need take your core and your abs to the next level, that’s when you’ll use a barbell for those compound exercises that are going to sculpt and shape your muscles.

See related

• Six-Pack Diet: 27 Foods That Will Help To Reveal Your Abs
• The Best Abs Workout: Circuits For Upper Abs, Lower Abs, And Obliques And Core
• The Frog Sit-Up Is Murder On The Abs

How do you work on the superficial muscles?

You have to hit the core from different angles. For example, anything lying on your back and moving your legs will hit the lower abs. For the obliques you want to turn to the side.

Often you can do the same exercise and tilt your body – so if you roll slightly to the side and do leg raises, you’ll hit your obliques. If you lie on your back and do leg raises you hit your lower abs. Same exercise, different parts of the body. Angles, angles, angles.

Are sit-ups completely out then? Or can they be done in an effective way?

You can do sit-ups, but do them right at the end of your workout, because it’s the least effective abs exercise, and use variations. Lie on your back, with your feet on the floor and hands by your sides. Sit all the way up so your back is straight, then control your descent down. That’s one sit-up.

Then try bringing your legs up, bent at the knee so the lower legs are perpendicular to the floor, with your elbows wide, and crunch so your elbows touch your knees. Then as you lower again, try extending one leg out, and bring the leg back in when you sit up.

There are so many variations of a crunch, that use your legs, or different angles. If you really have to do a sit-up, think about what equipment and angles you might use to your advantage.

There is no shortage of abs workouts on the internet. But which of the dozens, if not hundreds, of abs exercises should you focus on? Which are a waste of time? And how often should you train your abs anyway?   

To help you make the most of your time, we consulted Nick Mitchell, the founder and CEO of Ultimate Performance. Mitchell is a highly respected fitness industry veteran who’s single-handedly responsible for more six-packs than you’ve had hot dinners.

With Mitchell on board, we’ve drawn up this comprehensive abs workout guide, suitable for complete novices and experienced exercisers alike. Below you will learn all about the muscles that make up the classic six-pack, the truth about belly fat, why you should build your abs workouts around compound exercises, and how to directly train your abs over the course of five weeks to guarantee progress.

Buckle up, we’re going in.

How To Get Abs

We all have abs, but for most they’re hidden beneath a layer of body fat. To reveal your abdominal muscles, most men need to have a body fat percentage of around 10% (it’s around 15-20% for women).

“If you can pinch more than an inch around your midsection, following a specific fat-loss plan will help to reveal your abs,” Mitchell says (there are more complex and up-to-date ways to measure body fat). 

That said, it’s not just about how lean you are. “Anybody with low body fat can have abs, no matter how strong or muscular you are,” Mitchell continues. “But abs on a skinny guy who can’t bench his bodyweight just isn’t impressive. For a set of abs to be truly special, you need a good level of strength and muscle across your whole body.” 

In Mitchell’s book, that means strength training.

The Abdominal Muscles Explained

Before diving head first into an abs workout, it’s worth considering which muscles make up the six-pack musculature and the various functions of the abdominals in order to train them effectively. 

The six-pack is made up of four muscle groups: 

1. Transversus abdominis: This deep-lying muscle holds your ribs in position and stabilizes the pelvic region. 
2. Rectus abdominis: This sheet of muscle is divided into segments, providing the six-pack look. 
3. Internal obliques: These broad muscles frame the six-pack, enabling side flexion and rotation.
4. External obliques: Similarly involved in side flexion and rotation, these lateral abs muscles also pull the chest down and compress the abdominal cavity to help brace your core.

“Working in unison, the abdominal muscles that make up the six-pack region have two key functions,” says Mitchell. 

1. Movement of the spine (flexion, side-bending and rotation)
2. Stabilization of the spine (resistance to flexion, side-bending and rotation)

Both functions should be drilled rigorously and regularly. “However, complex compound exercises such as back squats, deadlifts, overhead presses and pull-ups should form the cornerstone of your training plan if you want eye-catching abs,” says Mitchell. 

That’s because you can’t squat, deadlift, overhead press or pull-up without working your abs. “These movements tend to involve heavy loads exerted on the body, which requires large amounts of muscular force,” Mitchell elaborates. “And it’s this transfer of muscular force through the body that best helps develop abdominal musculature.”

The Best Abs Workout For Beginners

If this is the very beginning of your six-pack journey, it’s best to start simple and build slowly. “If abs are your goal, the majority of your training should be focused around the major compound lifts and working to get progressively stronger,” says Mitchell. 

However, if your heart is set on training your abs in isolation, there are a few things Mitchell suggests you try to keep in mind. 

1. Keep It Simple

“Most abs exercises I see people perform outside of my gyms are too advanced and often butchered in their execution,” he says. “I prefer to limit the options to two or three proven exercises, then focus on getting progressively stronger.” 

2. Consistency Is Key

“Treat your abs like any other body part split,” says Mitchell. “Think of training them just like you would for your chest or back. The last thing you should be doing is changing your workout or exercises every single session.”

3. Focus On Flexion 

“Beginners, in my view, should primarily focus on abdominal crunches,” says Mitchell. This is because they drill one of the main functions of the abdominal muscles—spinal flexion. “Crunches are a common exercise but rarely are they done right.” 

4. Finetune Your Form 

“To make the most of this effective exercise, I recommend using an abdominal crunch pad, or ab mat, that you should be able to find in most commercial gyms,” says Mitchell. “This allows for a greater range of motion—and a greater range equals greater stimulation, a greater challenge and, ultimately, a greater six-pack.” 

5. Vary The Point Of Attack

“While you shouldn’t mix up your exercises too often, I do recommend switching up the angle of attack so you don’t hit a plateau,” says Mitchell. “Perform crunches on the floor, on a bench with a slight incline and on a decline bench to keep progressing.”

6. Add Resistance

“At some point your bodyweight is unlikely to present enough of a challenge to keep you getting stronger,” says Mitchell. “That’s why it’s crucial to add load. I like to hug a dumbbell into my chest to make it more challenging. Alternatively, replicate the movement with the rope attachment on a cable machine to provide resistance.”

How To Do This Abs Workout

To put this six-step plan into action, Mitchell has devised a simple five-week abs workout built around the abdominal crunch exercise. 

Progressive overload is achieved by slightly adjusting the number of reps, tempo, resistance and angle of attack over the four weeks. After four weeks, Mitchell suggests adding a second exercise, performed as a superset with minimal rest between sets. 

You can add these core finishers to the end of your regular training session or use them as short and sweet standalone abs workouts. If doing the latter, add a five-minute pre-workout warm-up to minimize the risk of injury. 

Crunch Tips

In order to make the most of this five-week abs workout, Nick Mitchell stresses your form and technique needs to be spot-on. “You need to maintain constant muscular tension while demonstrating a high level of control, intensity and range of motion,” he says. 

It sounds simple enough, but all too often, Mitchell says, the abdominal crunch exercise is botched: “I’m always seeing people launching their body weight through their hips and not contracting their abs enough.” He suggests following these pointers. 

• Focus on shortening and squeezing your abs muscles on the way up.
• Think about drawing your rib cage towards your pelvis.
• Exhale deep and hard as you contract your abs.
• At the top of the move, pause and squeeze your abs for two to three seconds.
• Focus on lengthening and stretching your abs as you slowly descend.
• Maintain tension across your abs as you lower under control.

Week 1

1 Incline abdominal crunch

Sets 3 Reps 10-12 Tempo 3111 Rest 60sec 

Set a weight bench to a shallow 10˚ incline and use an ab mat under your lower back to increase the range of motion for the exercise. Keep your feet flat on the floor, cross your arms and tuck your chin in to your chest. Curl your upper body off the bench until your torso is almost upright, maintaining tension in your abdominal muscles throughout, then lower under control. To achieve the 3111 tempo, lower for a count of three seconds, pause for one, drive up for one, pause for one. 

Week 2

1 Weighted incline abdominal crunch

Sets 3 Reps 10-12 Tempo 3112 Rest 60sec 

Perform the exercise as above while holding a single dumbbell against your chest to increase the level of resistance. Hold the weight in both hands, with your elbows tucked in to your body. Pause for a count of two seconds at the top of the exercise, contracting your abs muscles hard to increase their time under tension. 

Week 3

1 Weighted abdominal crunch

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Tempo 3112 Rest 60sec 

This exercise should be performed flat on the floor, increasing the difficulty level. Position an ab mat under your lower back, keep your feet flat on the floor and hold a dumbbell across your chest as you curl your upper body up. Pause for two seconds at the top of the exercise, contract your abs hard, then lower slowly. Inhale as you lower, exhale as you curl up, and perform each rep with complete control. 

Week 4

1A Weighted abdominal crunch

Sets 3 Reps 10-12 Tempo 3112 Rest 30sec 

Perform the abdominal crunch on the floor, using an ab mat and dumbbell to increase the range of motion and resistance. Once all reps are complete, rest for just 30 seconds, then move on to exercise 1B. 

1B Decline abdominal crunch

Sets 3 Reps 10-12 Tempo 2212 Rest 90sec 

This exercise mirrors the incline abdominal crunch, but should be performed on a weight bench set to a shallow 10° decline so you have to fight that little bit harder against gravity. Note that the tempo is slightly different here too. Lower for two seconds, pause for two, drive up for one, pause for two. Rest for 90 seconds, then return to exercise 1A to start the second superset. 

Week 5

1A Weighted abdominal crunch

Sets 3 Reps 10-12 Tempo 3112 Rest 30sec 

Perform the abdominal crunch on the floor, using an ab mat and dumbbell, as detailed above. 

1B Decline cable machine abdominal crunch

Sets 3 Reps 10-12 Tempo 2212 Rest 90sec 

Position the head end of a weight bench next to the pulley station of a cable machine. Set the bench at a shallow 10° decline and the cable machine with a rope handle set at its lowest position. Lying on the bench, again using an abmat, grasp the handles of the rope so that your hands are next to your head. Keeping your elbows locked in position, contract your abs to curl your upper body off the bench until almost upright. Keep the weight stack light to ensure good form throughout this technical exercise. 

The Best Abs Workout Plan

Now you know how to use the crunch to progressively strengthen your core. Your next challenge will be introducing functional abdominal movements to further improve your core stability, while providing cross-over benefits for all your other lifts and any sports you play as well.  

At this stage, your abs workout exercise selection should be determined by your general strength and fitness level. The hanging leg raise, for example, is an excellent, advanced core exercise, but if your grip doesn’t allow you to hang on to a pull-up bar long enough for an effective set, it won’t provide the stimulus you need.

“You would be better off picking an exercise that allows you to target your abs in a more isolated manner without other body parts breaking down first,” says Mitchell. 

So, which exercises should you pick? Mitchell recommends including one or two moves for every major core function. “That means exercises that include flexion of the spine, such as crunch variations, side bends, rotational movements and something that will present an adequate stabilization challenge.” 

Here, Mitchell has picked his go-to abdominal exercises for each major core function, based on ability levels from beginner to advanced. 

Beginner Abs Workout Exercise Options

Intermediate Abs Workout Exercise Options

Advanced Abs Workout Exercise Options

Common Abs Workout Mistakes

Selecting exercises unsuited to your current strength and fitness level, Nick Mitchell says, is one of the most common abs workout mistakes. At best this will hamper your attempts to strengthen your six-pack muscles, at worst it could lead to injury. Here are some other pitfalls that could be scuppering your best-laid abs workout plans. 

Targeting The Wrong Muscles Altogether

The abdominal crunch is a common culprit for this misstep. “Most people fail to perform this exercise with anywhere near the level of control they should be,” says Mitchell. “I often see people launching their bodyweight through their hip flexors, or craning their neck.” Instead, keep your chin tucked in to your chest and focus on moving at a slow and controlled tempo. 

Inconsistent Exercise Selection

Dozens of abs exercises exist, from beginner-friendly planks and suitcase carries to advanced Pallof presses and wood chops—yet variety isn’t the spice of life when you’re devising the most effective abs workout. “Resist the temptation to switch up your abs exercises every single session,” says Mitchell. “Consistency and progressive overload is key.” 

Becoming Over-reliant On Your Bodyweight

Part of the fun of abs workouts is you can target your core muscles any time, anywhere. All you need is your bodyweight to challenge them through full flexion, lateral flexion and rotation. “Yet, at some point, you need to add resistance if you want to get stronger,” says Mitchell. Hugging a dumbbell or weight plate to your chest is always a good place to start. 

Working Through Only One Plane Of Motion 

Your six-pack muscles are designed to do more than simply look good in the mirror. They are responsible for spinal flexion, trunk stability and the transfer of strength and power from one side of your body to the other. Therefore, you need to train them accordingly. “For starters, that means building your workouts around the major compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, overhead presses and pull-ups,” says Mitchell. 

Abs Workout FAQs

Like all the best abs exercises, flutter kicks don’t seem very hard at all when you first start doing them. Then, after 20 seconds or so, as the tension builds in your abs, you start to realize that you’re in for a world of pain, and then 25 seconds in you absolutely will not believe how slowly those last five seconds passed.

It’s worth the momentary agony, however, because learning how to do flutter kicks allows you to work the lower portion of your rectus abdominis muscles—better known as the classic six-pack muscles—which certified personal trainer Amber Sayer says is “one of the more difficult areas to target”. 

It’s not just a move for people training to achieve a rippling midsection, either. It’s a particularly useful exercise for swimmers, since it works the muscles needed to propel yourself through the water with your legs, and flutter kicks feature in this England Rugby Sevens core workout. 

Flutter kicks sometimes also go by the name scissor kicks, but to us that implies more movement of the feet than required. A flutter really is all it takes.

How To Do Flutter Kicks

Lie on your back with your legs extended. Lift your head, neck and shoulders slightly off the floor and engage your core muscles, pressing your lower back into the floor. Lift your feet 15cm off the ground, keeping your legs extended. Move one foot up and the other down, alternating at pace while keeping your torso still—maintaining tension in the rest of your body is crucial to gaining the core benefits of the move.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

To get the maximum benefit from performing flutter kicks, correct alignment is essential. “The biggest mistake you can make with flutter kicks is that your lower back doesn’t stay pressed on the floor,” says Sayer. “You don’t want your back arching up, which I see a lot. If I can slip my hand under your lower back, this shows you need to learn how to do a posterior pelvic tilt.” 

To remedy this, lift your legs a little higher off the floor. “It won’t be as hard on the abs,” says Sayer, “but at least you’re using proper form and as you get stronger, you can lower your legs toward the floor.”

If that doesn’t work, place your hands under your lower back to support your lumbar spine.

Flutter Kicks Variations

Reverse flutter kicks

Flip yourself over for a flutter kick variation that mainly targets the lower back, glutes, hamstrings and obliques. Lie on a weight bench with your hips on the edge so your legs are free to move up and down. Hold the front of the bench for balance. Start with your legs level with the rest of your body, squeeze your glutes, then start to slowly move them up and down under control.

About Our Expert

The hanging knee raise is a tough exercise, as anyone who has ever done (or tried to do) one can testify. After just a few reps your abs start to ache, and unless your core is in cracking shape it’ll be ablaze by the end of your set.

Now imagine doing that exercise, but giving your abs absolutely no break at all between reps. That’s the garhammer raise. With the hanging knee raise you start with your legs extended beneath you, then bring them up to your chest. The range of motion in the garhammer raise is actually smaller, which might fool you into thinking it’s easier, but allowing your legs to extend fully gives your abs a small break between reps.

There are no breaks with the garhammer raise, which means it’s an absolutely excellent move for anyone looking to carve out a six-pack, or just increase their core strength. Here’s how it’s done.

How To Do The Garhammer Raise

Hang from a pull-up bar and bring your knees up until your thighs are horizontal – this is your starting position. From there bring your knees further up towards your chest as high as you can, then lower your knees slowly back to the starting position. Keep your abs engaged at all times – that’s the key to getting the maximum core benefit out of the move.

You might find that you burn out earlier in a set than you expect with the garhammer raise, such is the challenge of keeping your abs under tension throughout, but you can always switch to the standard hanging knee raise if you are struggling.

See related 

• The Best Abs Exercises For All Levels Of Gym-Goer
• The Best Abs Exercises On Pull-Up Bars Or Rings
• The Best Abs Workout: Circuits For Upper Abs, Lower Abs, And Obliques And Core

Garhammer Raise Variations

Hanging knee raise

Since we mentioned the hanging knee raise several times, it’s only fair that we make sure you know how to do one in case you do need to swap to it when your abs are screaming during a set of garhammer raises.

Hang from a pull-bar with your legs extended. Bring your knees up to your chest, then slowly lower them until your legs are fully extended again. It’s still by no means an easy exercise, and the larger range of motion involved compared with the garhammer raise will recruit more of your core muscles.

It’s generally wise to master the standard form of an exercise before you move on to any kind of variation. When it comes to the crunch, though, there’s an argument for starting in reverse.

While the crunch has gone out of fashion—even though when done correctly it’s a perfectly fine abs exercise which can actually help prevent as much as cause lower-back pain—the movement required to perform the reverse crunch is harder to get wrong. But of course, to get the abs-building benefits you want to do it right. Here’s how to do the reverse crunch. 

How To Do The Reverse Crunch

Start lying down with your arms by your sides. Raise your legs so your thighs are perpendicular to the floor and your knees are bent at a 90° angle. Breathe out and contract your abs to bring your knees up towards your chest and raise your hips off the floor. Hold for a beat in this position, then slowly lower your legs back to the starting position.

Moving slowly with complete control is key to the reverse crunch. This keeps the abs under tension for a longer period and prevents you from putting strain on your lower back, which can happen if you rush the reps. If you’re arching your lower back when lowering your legs, that’s a sign you’re not moving in a controlled fashion.

Benefits Of The Reverse Crunch

“It’s a very safe exercise,” says celebrity trainer and Lumen ambassador Don Saladino. “We’re not putting the spine into flexion.

“I prefer the reverse crunch over a traditional crunch because with a traditional crunch you can get a lot of forward head posture.”

Reverse Crunch Variations

Medicine ball reverse crunch

Place a medicine ball between your knees and hold it there throughout the exercise. The weight enhances the muscle-building benefits of the reverse crunch and will also help ensure you are performing the exercise with control.

Reverse crunch with resistance band

The key to a successful reverse crunch is moving in a controlled manner so your abs are kept under tension throughout, and adding a resistance band to the equation only increases the tension involved and hence the abs-sculpting benefits of the exercise. Attach the band at the base of a pole and loop it around your ankles so there is tension in the band when your feet are in the lowered position. Bring your knees up to your chest and raise your hips as normal, then slowly lower back to the start position, resisting the pull of the band as you do so.

Reverse oblique crunch

To switch the focus of the exercise so you target your side abs muscles, add a little twist. Set up in the same way, lying down with your feet raised off the ground, but when you raise your knees towards your chest twist them slightly to one side to contract your obliques on that side. Lower slowly and then repeat on the other side. Be careful not to twist so far to the side that you lose your balance.

It gets its name from a cardio favorite, but the bicycle crunch delivers more than aerobic exercise. This simple move will also increase your core strength, improve your posture and help prevent lower back pain.

Performed correctly, the bicycle crunch—also known as the bicycle maneuver—is a great way to target your rectus abdominis, the visible “six-pack” muscles, and your obliques, which run down your sides.

Some would even say it’s the best abs exercise. Back in 2001, the non-profit American Council on Exercise (ACE) supported a study at the Biomechanics Lab at San Diego State University that assessed muscle activity of 13 exercises using electromyography equipment. The bicycle crunch came out top for strengthening the rectus abdominis and second in the rankings of obliques exercises.

It is, of course, a terrible exercise if you don’t do it properly, so here’s how to do a bicycle crunch with perfect form. 

How To Do The Bicycle Crunch

Lie on your back with your lower back pressed flat into the floor and your head and shoulders raised slightly. Lift your legs off the floor and bend your knees. Place your hands lightly on the sides of your head—don’t knit your fingers behind or yank your head with your hands at any point during the exercise. 

Extend one leg away from you and bring the knee of the other leg toward your chest. As you do so, twist through your core so the opposite elbow comes toward the raised knee. You don’t need to touch elbow to knee; instead focus on moving through your core as you turn your torso. Your elbow should stay in the same position relative to your head throughout—the turn that brings it closer to the knee comes from your core. Think shoulder to knee as you move, rather than elbow to knee. 

Lower your leg and arm at the same time while bringing up the opposite two limbs to mirror the movement. Continue, alternating sides each time.

Bicycle Crunch Form Tips

Cara D’Orazio, certified personal trainer and owner of CGM Fitness, has contributed form tips to help prevent you making some of the most common mistakes she sees. “You want to keep the pelvis anchored,” says D’Orazio. “You don’t want to rock the hips from side to side.”

“Also, you don’t want to pull on your neck. You want to keep your chin slightly off your chest and your elbows should be going across,” says D’Orazio. “So when my right knee is up, my left elbow is going across me to the side, so that way it gets into the full oblique. Some people don’t twist enough but the hips need to stay square.”

Bicycle Crunch Variations

Standing cross crunch

This is an easier version of the exercise that mimics the movement of the bicycle crunch, but from a standing position. Bend at the waist and bring your turning arm down to meet the knee of the opposite leg, which you raise so they meet around your midriff.

Bosu ball bicycle crunch

This variation adds some instability into the mix, which makes your core work harder throughout the move. The Bosu ball has one flat side which sits on the floor, while you rest your back on the inflatable half of the ball.

To use the Bosu ball, lie down so your lower back is resting on the ball but keep your feet on the floor. Then perform the exercise as normal, twisting as you sit up to bring your elbow over to the opposite knee, but return your foot to the floor before raising the other knee. The extra effort of keeping yourself balanced on the ball will mean your core gets tired faster than with standard bicycle crunches, so don’t be surprised if you fall short of your normal sets and reps count.

About Our Expert

When looking to attain an Adonis-like set of abs, many people still turn to the classic montage method of busting out as many crunches and/or sit-ups as possible. While they’re hardly the only abs exercise in town, they form an essential part of many workouts, and the crunch in particular has wider benefits – as long as you’re doing it correctly. 

To find out more about crunches and how to do them, we spoke to Fiona Scott, head of physical performance and academic liaison at Performance Herts at the University of Hertfordshire. We’ve also asked Paul Humphries, personal trainer at TRAINFITNESS, if crunches are an effective way to build a six-pack and if there is a better method.

But first, the answer to a common question.

The Benefits Of Crunches

Scott describes crunches as a “partial sit-up” and believes it holds more value than the full sit-up. 

“You’re still training the superficial six-pack muscles – the rectus abdominis – that everyone wants to work, but equally, performing it properly will work other core muscles like the transverse abdominis, pelvic floor and, if we add a twisting movement in, the obliques too.” 

These less flashy core muscles are vital for providing stability to the spine. Keeping them strong can also help prevent back injuries by taking pressure off the lower back, both when exercising and during everyday tasks like carrying your shopping.

Scott says the rectus abdominis muscles are often overtrained in comparison with other supporting core muscles, so if you are going to add the crunch to your routine, it’s worth pairing it with leg raises. 

How To Do Crunches

You’ll only see the benefits if you perform crunches with correct technique, but Scott says it’s an exercise she often sees butchered. Avoid that fate with Scott’s form guide.

“Lie on your back with your feet flat on the ground and your knees bent at about 90°,” says Scott. “Engage your pelvic floor and transverse abdominis, keeping a small gap between your lower back and the floor.” 

No idea how to engage your pelvic floor? Our guide to Kegel exercises explains all, but in brief, tighten the muscles you use to stop yourself from both urinating. As to how much space should be between your back and the floor, Scott recommends leaving a gap just large enough to fit a blueberry. If you don’t have any fruit to hand, a finger should fit snugly. 

“This will keep those core muscles [the transverse abdominis and the pelvic floor] engaged so they’re working lightly, but not slammed on at 100%,” says Scott.

“Interlink your fingers and place them behind your head, supporting your head to avoid straining your neck. Then lift your shoulders off the floor.

“Imagine your ribcage and hips are connected by a bungee cord, and what you’re trying to do is lift your shoulder blades off the floor by smoothly bringing your ribs towards your hips.” This will help you to recruit the right muscles, which you won’t if you use momentum to swing yourself upwards.

If you feel the muscles in your neck or lower back coming into play, Scott recommends stopping and resetting. If your technique is correct, she says, “your vertebrae should segmentally curl off the floor until your shoulder blades lift off the ground”.

You can also add a twisting motion into the movement to engage your obliques – the long muscles that stretch down the sides of your trunk.   

Crunch FAQs

Crunch Variations

Bicycle Crunch

A superb core workout, this crunch variation brings all kinds of abdominal muscles into play, including the tricky-to-target obliques. Lie on the ground with your head and shoulders slightly raised and your hands resting lightly on the side of your head. Lift one leg just off the ground and extend it out. Lift the other leg and bend the knee towards your chest while twisting through the core and moving the opposite elbow towards the knee (they don’t need to touch). Lower your leg and arm at the same time while bringing up the opposite two limbs to mirror the movement.

Reverse crunch

Your lower abs are harder to hit than the upper abs, but this move targets them by using your legs for resistance instead of your torso. Keep the back of your head and shoulders in contact with the ground and lift your lower back off the floor. Bring your knees towards your chest, then squeeze your abs for two seconds and reverse to the start.

Crossover crunch

This is a variation of the oblique crunch (below), with a shorter range of motion to make it slightly easier. Lie flat on your back but with your right leg crossed over the other. Keeping your neck neutral, curl your left arm, shoulder and chest towards your middle, then lower slowly.

Oblique crunch

Hitting your core from the sides takes the focus off the muscles down the middle of your stomach and ensures that all the muscle fibres in your midriff are working. Lie flat on your back but with your hips turned so your weight is on your right. Keeping your neck neutral, curl your left arm, shoulder and chest towards your middle, then lower slowly. Repeat on the other side.

Gym ball crunch

Lying on a gym ball works your core harder to stabilise your body and allows for a greater range of movement when doing the crunch. Lean as far back on the ball as you can to arch your back in its natural range, then contract your core to bring your upper body off the ball.

Medicine ball crunch

This crunch variation improves the strength and flexibility of your arms and shoulders, as well as working your core especially hard thanks to the additional weight of the medicine ball. Lie down and hold a medicine ball in both hands above you, with your arms fully extended. Keep your arms straight as you raise your torso, the, as you come back down, take your arms behind your head so the medicine ball touches the ground. Raise the ball back to the start and go straight into another rep.

Dumbbell crunch

Adding weight and slowing down the standard crunch will give your abs a better, safer workout than doing a high volume of reps. Hold a dumbbell on your chest. Keeping your neck neutral, squeeze your abs to curl your upper body off the floor. Pause, then lower slowly.

Weighted crunch reach

You can use pretty much any weight for this exercise, as long as you can hold it in both hands comfortably. Whether you opt for a dumbbell, kettlebell, sandbell or weight plate, don’t go too heavy at first – even adding a small amount of weight to your crunches makes them very tough indeed by the end of a set. Lie on your back with your knees bent and hold the weight above you in both hands with your arms straight. As you perform the crunch, reach up with the weight as high as you can. Pause at the top of the movement, then slowly come back down, still keeping your arms straight.

Dumbbell pull-over crunch

You’ll need to build the fast-twitch muscles in your abs to get a killer six-pack, and this heavy resistance move will do the job (just make sure your core is warmed up before doing it). Lie flat, holding light dumbbells or a weight plate in your hands. Contract your core as you bring the weights and your legs together. Pause then lower slowly to the start.

Cable crunch

Driving down against the constant resistance of a cable machine keeps the muscles under tension for longer, helping them grow stronger. Use a high cable and rope handle. Lean forwards, keeping your body straight and your arms and hips locked in position, then crunch down, using your abs as the driving force. Pause, then reverse the move slowly.

If you’re going to take cues from any animal when it comes to workouts – not as stupid as it sounds, thanks to the existence of animal flow – then the bear should be near the top of your list. Have you ever seen a weedy bear? No, no-one has, and that’s not just down to their impressive intake of oily fish. Even the most pathetic of bears – the cuddly yet useless panda – is an impressive specimen and that’s achieved on a diet of bamboo.

To make your workout more ursine, the first (and, to be honest, only) exercise you should be adding is the bear crawl. It’s a simple but brutally effective way to improve core strength and work a variety of muscles all over the body, with the upper arms, chest and shoulders bearing the brunt of the action. Step up the pace with your bear crawls and it also acts as a cardio workout, making it a worthy addition to a HIIT circuit.

It’s also a move you can do anywhere, as it needs nothing more than some floor space and a healthy dose of willpower. The bear necessities, in short.

The Benefits Of The Bear Crawl

You’ll feel the strain the bear crawl places on your upper arms, chest and shoulders, but they’re far from the only muscles that’ll be aching the next day. The challenge of keeping your body stable as you pad around like a grizzly will ensure that your core strength and endurance improves with every step.

How To Do The Bear Crawl

The basic movement is simple: you have to crawl back, forward and even side-to-side without letting your knees touch the ground. Whatever direction you’re heading in, the key is to support yourself with your hands and toes, otherwise you’ll end up just crawling like a human, which is far less impressive than a bear.

Crawling forward is the easiest. Move hands and feet on the same side at the same time, so right hand and right leg, then left hand and left leg. Keep your back straight and your core engaged throughout. Space allowing, try and crawl 10 metres forward, then 10 back, for a minute or however long your favourite circuit interval is. Once you’re comfortable, try moving laterally.

Bear Crawl Variations

The Bear Squat

Continuing the bear theme with other kinds of exercise is not tricky: there are all manner of other moves linked to the powerhouse predators, some more tenuously than others (the jury’s out on the “wading into a stream to catch leaping salmon in mid-air with your teeth” regime).

One move that’s fairly hard to imagine an actual bear doing, but that is a worthy addition to any workout, is the bear squat. Start in the bear position, supported by your hands and toes with your knees off the ground. Then straighten your legs and lift your hips towards the ceiling. Once your legs are straight, slowly return to the starting position. Aim for 20 reps of this quad-buster as an excellent way to break up your bear walks.

Leopard crawl

This is also known as the beast walk or crawl, but let’s try to keep it to specific animals rather than generic beasts, shall we? The main difference between the leopard crawl and the bear crawl is the height of your hips. In the former you keep them low as you move around, whereas in the bear crawl you push your hips up to look more like a bear, and also to increase the load on your shoulders and arms. With the leopard crawl you also move opposite limbs at the same time, which will test your co-ordination as much as it does your core strength.

Bird-dog

If you want to exercise on the spot but still strengthen your core in a way that will help you perform animal crawls in the future, the bird-dog is the move for you. For those who don’t know, a bird-dog is a pooch bred for hunting, rather than one with wings. That information won’t really help with the exercise, but it’s good to know that there aren’t terrifying winged dogs flying around the countryside.

Get on your hands and knees. Lift your right arm and left leg and point them straight out in front and behind you respectively. Then bring them back down and do the same with the opposing limbs. Make sure your torso remains still and your hips stay level throughout.

Crab walk

Admittedly, we’ve dropped a long way down the food chain here, but copying the humble crab can benefit your body just as much as mimicking the mighty bear. Sit on the floor with your feet out in front of you and your palms on the floor behind you. Push your hips up, then scuttle around on your hands and feet. As with the bear and leopard crawls, muscles all over the body have to work to keep you moving in this position, with your shoulders, triceps, quads and hamstrings all feeling the heat in particular.

Crocodile walk

Perhaps the toughest movement of all, and one to attempt once you’ve thoroughly mastered the bear and leopard crawls. Start in a top press-up position and then drop your chest down until it’s as low as it would be at the bottom of a press-up. Move by bringing your knee up to your elbow, moving the opposite arm forwards at the same time. Keep your torso as close to the ground as possible as you move – you don’t see crocodiles bucking their hips up into the air now, do you?

If you’ve never used the cable machine for your abs workouts, you’re missing a trick. Many of the best abs exercises can be done using the machine, which provides constant resistance to keep your core muscles under tension throughout the movement.

Many common core exercises can be adapted to use the cable machine to increase the difficulty, including crunches, the Russian twist and the reverse crunch.

Our guide to the best cable machine exercises for your abs is split into three sections to suit all abilities and levels of experience with the machine. 

The beginner moves will get you acquainted with the benefits of crunching with additional tension provided by the cables, as well as tackling two torso-twisting exercises to work your abs and obliques.

The intermediate moves work different parts of your abs, with exercises like an upgraded cable crunch and a reverse crunch to target the lower abs.

The advanced exercises start with a tried-and-trusted core strengthener, the judo throw, and then you move on to a double-tension cable tuck crunch to target the entire abdominal area. Adding a gym ball with the cable leg raise maximises core strength and stability, before testing your obliques with the high cable woodchop. Then it’s back to the gym ball to finish off with some Russian twists.

To incorporate the cable abs exercises into your workouts you can pick out a few to do in supersets between sets of bigger full-body compound exercises, or do two to three of them as an abs-focused finisher to a core workout, cycling between the moves with minimal rest inbetween.

And if you find you take to the cable machine like a duck to water, use our guide to cable machine exercises to spend even more time on it.

Beginner Cable Machine Abs Exercises

High cable crunch

Using a high cable, kneel down and hold the handle by your head. Tense your abs and curl your shoulders down, keeping your hands in the same spot by your head. Pause at the bottom of the move, then rise slowly back to the start.

One-arm row

Stand in a split stance, holding a low cable in the opposite hand to your front leg. Twist your torso away from the machine and bring the cable in to your side.

One-arm press

Adopt a split stance facing away from the machine, holding a high cable by your shoulder in the opposite hand to your front leg. Twist your torso and press the cable out in front of your body.

Intermediate Cable Machine Abs Exercises

Low cable crunch

Lie on the ground with your feet furthest away from the machine, holding a low cable in both hands by your forehead. Curl your shoulders off the floor, pause for a moment, then lower again.

Cable reverse crunch

Lie on your back with your feet towards the machine and put a low cable handle around your ankles. Hold your legs up so your thighs are vertical and knees are bent at 90°. Curl your hips up off the floor, then lower them slowly.

One-arm cross crunch

Kneel down in front of the machine, holding a high cable in one hand in front of your face. Curl your shoulders towards your knees without letting your body twist to the side. Pause at the bottom, then rise slowly.

Advanced Cable Machine Abs Exercises

Judo throw

Stand side-on to the machine in a wide stance. Hold a high cable in both hands to the side of you that’s nearest the machine. Twist your body away from the machine and pull the cable over your shoulder, then crunch forwards, pulling the cable down.

Cable tuck crunch

Lie down between two cables, holding one handle in both hands by your head and with the other around your ankles. Your elbows and knees should be bent at 90°. Raise your shoulders and your hips off the ground at the same time, pause for a beat, then lower.

Gym ball cable leg raise

Lie back on a gym ball with a low cable handle around your feet. Grasp a pole behind your head for stability and extend your legs towards the machine. Raise your legs while trying to ensure your torso stays as still as possible on the ball.

High cable woodchop

Stand side-on to the machine, holding a high cable out to the side in both hands with your torso turned towards the machine. Twist your torso and draw the cable down and across your body, keeping your back straight and core tensed throughout.

Cable Russian twist

Lie on a gym ball on your back side-on to the machine. Turn your torso towards the machine, holding a low cable in both hands out in front of your chest. Keeping your arms straight, twist your torso and draw the cable across to the other side of your body.

If you’ve tried to sculpt a six-pack in the past, you’ll probably be more than familiar with crunches. But this exercise alone will do very little to build abs. Crunch-style moves only really target your upper abs, so you might – with low-enough body-fat levels – build a two-pack, but you’ll be four short of the full monty. That’s why it’s important to dedicate as much training time to your lower abs as it is to your upper ones, and there are few moves better for that than the hanging leg raise.

It may be one of the most basic abs moves, but it’s also one of the best because as well as working your lower abs, it also activates your entire core to develop strength in the deep-lying stabilising muscles of your midsection – and it challenges your grip and forearms too.

How To Do A Hanging Knee Raise

Hang from a pull-up bar or gymnastic rings with your body straight, using an overhand grip. Bend your knees and use your lower abs to raise your legs until your thighs are parallel with the ground. Lower under control. Aim for high-rep sets to fully fatigue the target muscles, and the slower you can perform each rep – under complete control – the better the results will be and the faster you’ll see them.

Hanging Knee Raise Variations

Hanging obliques knee raise

Switch the focus of the exercise to the obliques by raising your knees to the sides rather than straight up. The obliques, which run down the sides of the central abs, are key players when you twist your torso as well as helping to stabilise your spine. For this exercise, alternate the side you lift your knees up towards.

See related

• Lower Abs Workouts For A Six-Pack – Not A Two-Pack
• The Best Obliques Exercises For A Strong Core
• The Best Abs Exercises On Pull-Up Bars Or Rings
• The Best Abs Workout: Circuits For Upper Abs, Lower Abs, And Obliques And Core

Hanging knee twist

Another variation on the hanging knee raise that targets the obliques rather than the central core muscles. This time you keep your knees raised throughout and slowly rotate them from one side to the other.

Hanging leg raise

The hanging knee raise is a great exercise in its own right, but it’s also often treated as a way to progress towards the L-sit, which is one of the best – and toughest – abs exercises in the business. Hang from a bar with your body straight, using an overhand grip. Engage your abs and raise your legs, keeping them straight, until they are at 90° to your torso. Then lower your legs back to the start under control.

A lean and aesthetically pleasing midsection is something that many strive for and, perhaps more than any other body part, it speaks volumes about your dedication to a healthy lifestyle. In order to build and sculpt your abdominals you need to take a different and smarter approach than simply lifting heavy weights like you might to bulk up your legs or your chest. That’s because there’s a lot going on in your midsection. The abs are primarily made up of four muscles to help us move around and provide us with support:

1. Transversus abdominis: This is the deepest muscle layer. Its main roles are to stabilise the trunk and maintain internal abdominal pressure.
2. Rectus abdominis: situated between the ribs and the pubic bone at the front of the pelvis. This muscle is what forms your six-pack.
3. External abdominal oblique muscles: These are found on each side of the rectus abdominis. The external oblique muscles allow the trunk to twist.
4. Internal abdominal oblique muscles: These flank the rectus abdominis and are located just inside the hipbones. The internal oblique muscles allow the trunk to twist in the opposite way to the external oblique muscles. 

Preventing injury

Before you start your workout plan, remember you can strain your abdominal muscles from overstretching or overuse. An uncontrolled and poorly performed movement of the trunk can strain the abdominal muscles, which can be painful and difficult to manage if they occur close to ribs, pubic bone or hipbone, not to mention they will hold you back on your training.

To prevent injury make sure you warm up your muscles prior to each exercise routine and warm down afterwards.

What to eat

While taking part in this six-week abs programme, it is important to eat well. We recommend a calorie intake of around 2,500 per day for men to ensure that you actively shed fat. Follow a high-protein diet plan which includes a diet whey protein shake and high-protein snacks such as protein flapjacks will ensure you don’t lose muscle along the way. Limit your refined carbs, saturated fats, trans fats and high-fructose corn syrup. Cut out the booze too.

How to do these workouts

• Each workout circuit should be completed three times a week
• Take 30 seconds’ rest after one circuit then start again
• Rest for at least a day between workouts
• If you injure yourself, stop and continue the workout another day
• Each workout should take ten minutes to complete
• Focus on each movement and the contraction of the muscle

See related

• The Best Abs Workout: Circuits For Upper Abs, Lower Abs, And Obliques And Core
• Six-Pack Diet: 27 Foods That Will Help To Reveal Your Abs

Week One

Perform all exercises listed below (one circuit), rest for 30 seconds then repeat the circuit one more time.

Pelvic tilt

Reps 15-20 

Lie on the floor with your knees bent. Then flatten your back onto the floor and tilt your hips upwards and hold for five seconds. It’s a small movement but very effective.

Twisting gym ball crunch

Reps 10-12 each side

Sit on a gym ball and place both hands behind your head. As you crunch up make sure you lead with your shoulder as opposed to your elbow and twist your body to the opposite side. Then lower back to the start position.

Side plank

Reps 5 each side

Lie sideways on the floor with your lower arm bent to support yourself and your upper arm on your hip. Move your hip upwards off the floor so that you’re balanced on your supporting arm and feet. Focusing on keeping your neck and spine in alignment and hold for five seconds before lowering back down.

Crunch with gym ball

Reps 15-20

Lie on the floor with the gym ball under your calves and arms behind your head. When crunching upwards, focus on bringing your ribs to hips, exhaling as you contract and take care not to pull your neck or head with your arms. Hold the contraction for about 2 seconds then crunch back down.

Week Two

These exercises really work the core. Perform all exercises listed below (one circuit), rest for 30 seconds and then repeat the circuit one more time.

Gym ball crunch

Reps 12-15

Sit on your gym ball with your hands behind your head. Lower yourself down without letting your head drop or your back arch keeping the contraction and control in your abs. When you crunch up exhale.

Twisting gym ball crunch

Reps 10-12

Sit on a gym ball and place both hands behind your head. As you crunch up make sure you lead with your shoulder as opposed to your elbow and twist your body to the opposite side. Then lower back down to the start position.

Gym ball pull-in

Reps 10

Place your shins on top of your gym ball, with your body in a press-up position, supported by your hands, which should be in line with your shoulders. Then pull your legs in, rolling the ball upwards towards your arms, squeezing your lower abs in as you do so and then extending them back out to the starting position. That completes one rep.

Plank

Time 30sec minimum

Keep the whole of your abs squeezed in as much as possible, keep all pressure in supporting forearms and try not to let your bottom rise above your shoulders. Hold for 30, 60 or 120 seconds, depending on what you’re comfortable with.

Week Three

This week steps things up slightly to make them even more advanced. Perform all exercises listed below (one circuit), rest for 30 seconds then repeat the circuit one more time.

Reverse crunch

Reps 10-12

Lie on your back with your palms on the floor and feet up at a 90-degree angle. Lift your bottom off the floor while bringing your legs towards your head so that your hips go towards your rib cage. Hold the contraction for a couple of seconds then lower legs. Take care not to jerk or bounce legs up.

Gym ball jackknife

Reps 10-12

Similar to the pull-in from week 2 but more advanced, requiring more stability. Place your shins on top of your gym ball, with your body in a press-up position, supported by your hands which should be in line with your shoulders. Then rolling the ball towards your arms, push your bum upwards towards the ceiling so that your toes are flat on the gym ball and your body is in an arched upwards position. Then extend legs back out to the starting position. That completes one rep.

Side crunch

Reps 10

Lie on your side with legs on top of each other, one arm supporting your body straight out in front of you and the other hand bent behind your head. Then bring your head and shoulders slightly off the floor so that your ribs go as close to your hips as possible.

Lying alternate leg extension

Reps 12-15

Lie flat on your back and bring legs up to a 90-degree angle, taking your shoulders slightly off floor while contracting your stomach muscles, hands behind your head. Then extend your legs down to the floor alternately, taking care not to rest your leg on floor.

Week Four

This week we are going to mix things up a bit with supersets. This means completing the first exercise in superset 1 then going straight into the second exercise. Take 30 seconds rest after that and repeat. Then move on to the second superset.

Superset 1

Hip thrust

Sets 2 Reps 12-15

Lie on the floor with your arms to your sides, palm down. Straighten your legs up to the ceiling. Then use lower abs to bring hips around 1cm off the floor, squeeze for count of two then control back down.

Pull-over crunch on gym ball

Sets 2 Reps 12-20

Sit on your gym ball, and roll down so the ball is on your lower back. Then holding a weight of choice above your head, arms straight up, crunch upwards squeezing your upper abs in and lower back down.

Take 30 seconds, rest then repeat the first superset again.

Superset 2

Hanging leg raise

Sets 2 Reps 10-12

Hanging from a pull-up bar, bring your legs off the floor to make a 90-degree angle and then lower down. To make them harder bring your toes all the way to the bar.

Lateral gym ball side crunch

Sets 2 Reps 12-15

Lie sideways on an gym ball with the ball under your hip and your feet supported against a wall. Put arms to side of head and crunch up sideways using your obliques and intercostal muscles. It’s a very short movement so make sure you concentrate on lowering and squeezing your body down.

Week Five

As with week four this week includes supersets. So complete the first exercise, then go straight into the second exercise, then have 30 seconds’ rest and repeat before moving on to superset two.

Superset 1

High plank 

Sets 2 Time As long as possible

Lie on the floor, face down and then push yourself up until your arms are fully extended. You should now be in a press-up position with your body in a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles.  Squeeze your abs and glutes and hold this position for as long as possible. Rest for 60 to 90 seconds and repeat.

Twisting hanging leg raise

Sets 2 Reps 10-12

Grab a pull-up bar with your arms slightly wider than your shoulders and hang your weight. With your pelvis rolled slightly backwards, lift your knees and twist at the waist to the left. Now return to the starting hanging position and then repeat and twist to the right. Inhale as you twist and exhale as you return to the starting position. Complete 10 to 12 reps, rest for 60 to 90 seconds and then repeat.

Superset 2

Gym ball roll-out

Sets  2 Reps 10-12

Kneel in front of a gym ball with your knees around hip-width apart. Next, place your forearms on the ball, tense your core and slowly roll the ball away from you by straightening your arms. Keep your back straight and extend as far as you can without your hips dropping. Hold the extension for a moment and then bend your elbows to roll the ball back towards you. 

Gym ball pull in

Sets 2 Reps 12-15

Place your shins on the top of your gym ball and extend your arms to position yourself into the push-up position. Keep your arms shoulder-width apart and bring your knees towards your chest. Keep your back straight. Hold this position for a moment and then straighten your legs to roll the ball back to the starting position.

Week Six

By now, your strength should be at an all-time high. It’s time for supersets again.

Superset 1

Split leg crunch

Sets 3 Reps 12-15

Lie on your back with your hands behind your head and elbows out to the sides. Now raise your raise your legs perpendicular to the floor and open them out into a wide position. Now start the exercise by performing 12 to 15 sit-up from this position.

Lower body rotation

Sets 3 Reps 10-12

Place your shins on the top of your gym ball and extend your arms to move into the push-up position. Now move your shins so that your ankles are on the outer edge of the ball.  Keep your back straight and use your core to rotate at the hips. Rotate to the left and back to centre, then rotate to the right and back to the centre. Complete 10 to 12 reps in each set.

Superset 2

Scissor kick

Sets 3 Reps 20-25

To get into position, lie on your back with your knees bent and by your sides. Bring your knees to your chest then extend both of your legs above your hips. Keep your core tense and your back flat then begin to lower your legs toward the floor. Stop when you feel your back rising off the floor.

Now spread your legs wider than hip width and keep your abs tense. This is your starting position. To begin the exercise, swing your legs back in and past your midline, allowing your right leg cross over your left leg. Next swing your legs outwards into their starting position and repeat with your left leg crossing your right. Complete 20 to 25 reps in each set.

Gym ball jackknife

Sets 3 Reps 10-15

Start with your shins positioned on the gym ball and your hands underneath your shoulders so that you are in a push up position. Next bring your knees in to your chest with the gym ball and hold for a second. Now return the gym ball back to the starting position, whilst bringing your chest down to the floor in a push up motion. Push back up to the original position and repeat for 10 to 15 reps. Rest and repeat for two more sets.

Abs are made in the kitchen. This may seem like a bit of a cliché, but it really is true. Unless you are eating a healthy and balanced diet with fewer calories than you’re taking in, then revealing your hard-earned abs will prove extremely difficult. Cleaning up your diet should be the first port of call when you’re looking to develop a six-pack.

Nevertheless, you still need to work your abs muscles. The bigger they are, the more impressive your six-pack will be when you burn off all the belly fat – and not only that, but it also helps develop a strong core which is the basis of functional strength. The improvements in balance and mobility gained from direct core work will boost your performance in other exercises and everyday movements.

Where most core-specific exercises fail is by involving predominantly the inward contraction of the upper abdominal region. Directly engaging the lower abs is equally important. Some find the time to include both upper and lower abs isolation exercises in their training routine, but if you’re strapped for time or looking for a move that targets both areas effectively, then look no further than the V-sit. Here’s how to perform it.

How To Do A V-Sit

Lie flat on the ground (or a gym mat if you want to be more comfortable) with your arms by your sides. Raise your legs as high as you can, keeping them straight and together, and lift your torso up towards your thighs so you form a V-shape. Keep your back straight and try to keep your movements smooth and controlled – avoid jerking. You can keep your hands on the floor or bring them up to meet your feet. Then slowly lower back to the ground.

See related

• The Core Workout For Men Who Want Defined Abs
• The Best Core Exercises For All Levels Of Gym-Goer
• Lower Abs Workouts For A Six-Pack – Not A Two-Pack

V-Sit Variations

Modified V-sit

This variation on the classic V-sit is slightly easier because you don’t hold your legs straight during the exercise. Lie on a gym mat with your arms on the floor next to your body, your legs straight and your feet slightly raised off the floor. Keeping your back straight throughout, sit up in a controlled motion, bringing your lower back off the mat and your knees in to your chest. Keep your glutes engaged at all times so you can balance on them at the top of the movement.

Weighted V-sit

Once you’ve got to grips with the basic V-sit try adding some weight. Hold a dumbbell, kettlebell or weight plate in both hands by your chest and then lift it up towards your feet as you perform the exercise.

V-sit with twist

This variation will transfer some attention from your lower abs to your obliques – the muscles on the sides of your abs. Start by lying flat on the ground as normal, but as you lift your torso up to meet your legs twist your upper body to the right and reach with just your left arm up towards your feet. Then lower and repeat, twisting to the other side and raising the other arm to your feet.

The mountain climber is one of those full-body exercises that look simple enough, yet are painfully easy to get wrong. Like using a rowing machine and failing to synchronize your arms, legs and core, a poor set-up or poor execution can make you dread mountain climbers. 

But get the form right and remember a few simple cues to keep your technique on track and you’ll quickly see why they’re so often used by personal trainers. 

Once you realize their effectiveness for boosting your cardiovascular fitness, torching calories and simultaneously strengthening your abs, chest and shoulders, you might even learn to love them. 

To learn how to perform the mountain climber with flawless form, how to avoid common pitfalls and identify variations to spice up your bodyweight workouts, we spoke to Matt Wright, co-founder of the Earn Your Stripes fitness program and chief growth officer at The Fort Athletic Club in New Jersey, USA.

How To Do A Mountain Climber

The set-up

Start on all fours, with your hands shoulder-width apart and arms extended. From here, step your feet back to assume the top position of a push-up, supporting your weight on your hands and toes, with your core muscles engaged to keep your body in a straight line from shoulders to ankles. 

“Your hands should be positioned underneath your shoulders throughout,” says Wright. “This will alleviate any stress through the joint. And don’t forget to breathe.”

The movement

 Keeping your core braced and shoulders above your hands, bring one knee forward to your chest, then return it to the starting position as you simultaneously bring the other knee forward. Keep bringing one knee to your chest while the other returns to the starting position, ensuring the rest of your body remains stable. 

The tempo

Once you’ve nailed the basic form, try experimenting with your pace. Speed up to challenge your cardio fitness, or slow down to make your abs work harder. “When driving your knees under your body, don’t think only about what your legs are doing,” says Wright. “Emphasize pulling with your core.” 

He also stresses the need to keep your hips level. “Speed usually leads to poor form—especially causing the hips to shift above the rest of your body so keep them low.”

Common Mistakes With Mountain Climbers

The most common mistake people make with mountain climbers, especially as they tire (which doesn’t take long with this exercise), is allowing their hips to rise while the shoulders move towards their feet. You’ll know it’s happening to you because blood will start rushing to your head, compounding the effect of your heart beating furiously through your chest. Here, Wright explains why this happens and how to correct it. 

Chest shifts towards feet 

This frequently happens for the purposes of self-preservation. “People often push their hands away to help take the strain off their core and shift the weight onto their chest and shoulders, which are often stronger,” says Wright. Instead, hold firm and trust your core muscles to stabilize your body as you shift your weight forward so your hands are directly under your shoulders.

Hips lift

This tends to occur in tandem with the chest shift. Raising your hips too high, Wright says, “is an indication of a weak core”. If you can’t keep your hips in line with your shoulders and ankles for the required duration of your working set, he suggests breaking the move down into one leg drive at a time.

The Benefits Of Mountain Climbers

The chief benefit of the mountain climber exercise is in raising your heart rate. For that reason, it’s commonly included in bootcamp-style workouts where the goal is to improve cardiovascular fitness, using functional, bodyweight exercises. 

There’s no kit required, it’s relatively entry-level—so long as you heed our advice on common mistakes to avoid—and it’s ruthlessly effective. Just 30-60 seconds of well-executed mountain climbers is usually enough to have you blowing hard. 

Part of the beauty of the mountain climber exercise is its versatility. “There are so many variations,” says Wright. “The push-up to mountain climber, inchworm to mountain climber and cross-body mountain climber are some of my favorites.” Small tweaks with the tempo of the exercise can also shift the emphasis of the move, turning it from a cardio challenge into a strength exercise for your core muscles. 

“If I want to switch from cardio to strength with my clients,” says Wright, “I’ll get them to hold a plank for 10-15 seconds to start, then shift into a slow and controlled alternating knee drive for the remainder of the minute.” 

Mountain Climber Regressions

Elevated mountain climber

If you find the traditional mountain climber a little tough on your arms, shoulders and core, Wright suggests placing your hands on a raised surface like a bench or box. This lightens the load on those parts of your body, allowing you to focus on effective technique.

Mountain Climber Progressions

Cross-body mountain climber

To enlist the obliques in your mountain climber workout, move your knee towards the opposite elbow when you bring it forward and slightly rotate your torso. You should still be able to maintain a good pace while you do this, but move slightly more deliberately than you do with the classic mountain climber to ensure good form.

Gym ball mountain climber

Supporting your upper body on a fixed surface makes mountain climbers a little easier, but putting your hands on an unstable surface like a gym ball makes them infinitely harder. Trying to maintain perfect form while the ball moves beneath you increases the challenge to your core significantly. For these, focus on slow and controlled movements and build the pace gradually. 

Spider-Man mountain climber

This testing variation targets the obliques as well as the lower abdominals and will help improve your balance and hip flexibility to boot. From the top of a push-up position bring your right knee toward your right elbow. You can either tap that foot to the floor before taking it back to the starting position or keep it raised throughout the movement for an extra superhero-worthy challenge. Once your right foot is back in place, repeat the movement on your left side.

Wall mountain climber

Be warned: this advanced progression should be performed with extreme caution to avoid face-planting. Raise the stakes for your arms and shoulders by taking your feet off the floor and pressing them against a wall. Your body should now be parallel with the floor. Slowly bring one knee forward to your chest, then replace it on the wall and bring the other one forward. The pace will be slow, but the rewards will come in the form of greater upper-body strength.

About Our Expert

To build a six-pack you need to push your abs muscles to the limit to force them to grow, and there are few exercises that test your core as hard as the abs roll-out. It’s a tough move, but as with all exercises – and especially the advanced ones – the more effort you put in, the quicker and more impressive the results will be.

The big advantage of the roll-out over other abs-specific moves, such as crunches or bicycles, is that your entire abdominal region is engaged for the entire rep. The muscle fibres have to fire together to stabilise your torso as your lower and raise your chest, and the closer you can get your chest to the floor – providing you keep your abs tensed – the harder your abs will have to work.

How To Do The Abs Roll-Out

You can do the roll-out with a variety of equipment – a dedicated abs roller (if your gym has one), dumbbells (opt for round dumbbells, rather than hexagonal, for obvious reasons), a barbell or a gym ball. The movement and benefits are similar with a roller, barbell or dumbbells, but there’s an extra challenge to using a gym ball, which we’ll explain below.

First, the roller version. Kneel on the ground with the roller in front of you. Lean forwards slightly so the roller is directly underneath your shoulders, then grab the handles. Engage your core, then push the roller forwards as far as you can without breaking form – you don’t want your upper body to buckle and sag. Then roll back to the starting position. Brace your abs throughout and keep your back straight. The movement should be slow and controlled at all times.

The form is much the same with a barbell or dumbbells, except you position your hands wider – about shoulder-width apart.

Abs Roll-Out Variations

Knees up abs roll-out

You can make any version of the roll-out far tougher by being on your feet, rather than kneeling, during the movement. This increases the amount of weight your abs muscles have to control during each rep, so they work harder to keep your upper body stable.

Gym ball abs roll-out

Swap your roller or free weight for a gym ball for a version of the abs roll-out that puts less strain on your lower back but increases the core workload because you have to support your upper body on an unstable surface.

Kneel in front of the ball with your forearms resting on the top of it. Extend your arms to roll the ball away from you, using your abs to stay balanced. Roll the ball away as far as you can without losing your form, then pull it back with your forearms.

1. “Sit-ups are still valid”

What it says There’s a guy at your gym who does 500 crunches a day and has an enviable six-pack. Obvious, right?

Why it’s wrong Chances are there’s more to his physique than just his abs routine… and he might be trading off for lower-back problems down the line. Endless reps of the traditional fixed-foot sit-up just aren’t that effective – and, according to research published in the British Journal Of Sports Medicine, can compound hip muscle imbalances and hyperextend your spine.

Your new approach “Your core has evolved to keep your body stable, so movements that focus on that should be your staples,” says Skorpions Gym trainer James Adamson. “The ab wheel roll-out is a great move: you’re forced to stay slow and controlled throughout the movement, using your core to resist collapsing.” Start with three sets of five and work up.

2. “A five-minute plank is impressive”

What it says You need a LOT of grit to tough this move out for anything more than two minutes, so five makes you the Plank King.

Why it’s wrong Eventually you’ll hit the point of diminishing returns, where you’re just becoming more efficient at the movement – and relaxing unnecessary muscle – rather than actually working the muscles you’re aiming to train. Great if you’re aiming to plank for longer, not so good if you want visible abs. Also, Plank King? The current world record is eight hours one minute – no, we don’t have that kind of time either.

Your new approach Upgrade your plank by switching to the super-plank version. “Bring your elbows forwards and close together, press your feet and heels together, and brace your glutes and abs,” says Adamson. “If you can hold it for more than 30 seconds, you aren’t trying hard enough.”

3. “Twisting crunches will work your side abs”

What it says It’s not all about the rectus abdominis, bro, so target your oblique muscles (your side abs) by adding a twist at the top of your crunches.

Why it’s wrong In a study published in the journal Medicine And Science In Sports And Exercise, twisting crunches were no more effective at working the obliques than sit-ups – and put excessive force on the lower lumbar spine.

Your new approach “Again, you should train your obliques to resist movement,” says Adamson. “The offset loaded carry is a good example of a move that will get it done. Carry a kettlebell in one hand, or at your shoulder, and resist as it tries to pull you off-balance.”

4. “You don’t need targeted abs training”

What  it says Squats, deadlifts and overhead pressing tax your core from almost every angle. If you’re doing them heavy enough, there’s no need for a separate core workout.

Why it’s wrong OK, there’s some truth to this one. In testing under lab conditions, compound movements can sometimes outperform sit-ups and crunches for muscle activation. If all you want is reasonable core strength, they might be enough. But if you want more than that? Nope.

Your new approach “Tackle abs training like any other muscle group,” says Adamson. “With moderate-to-low reps, planned progression, and extra resistance if you need it.” Do include some chin-ups, though: they’re better than even weighted crunches for working your core.

See related 

• How To Get A Six-Pack
• Six-Pack Diet: 27 Foods That Will Help To Reveal Your Abs
• Lose Weight With This Four-Week Meal Plan For Men

5. “You need weight to build abs”

What it says This is new-school myth-making. Now that the 100-crunch crowd has been shown the door, there’s a craze for adding plates to traditional exercises – from loading up a plank to heavy weighted crunches.

Why it’s wrong Done smartly, adding weight can help, but it can also encourage injury – putting a brace of 20kg plates on your lower back isn’t a good idea for many people – and it’s entirely possible to make existing bodyweight moves more intense with proper attention to form.

Your new approach Before you add weight, slow the moves down and get them right. “A good example is the Russian twist,” says Adamson. “Rather than yanking yourself from side to side, keep your arms forward and parallel, feet slightly off the floor and twist slowly at the waist from side to side.” Downside: it’s not pleasant.

6. “You can target belly fat”

What it says The advice to eat certain foods or do abs moves that “target” the fat in your gut area is misguided. That said, this one is a half-truth: there’s some evidence that addressing your levels of stress hormone cortisol can stop excess fat storage, and the belly is where it’s normally deposited first.

Why it’s wrong Unless you’re already in the body fat sweet spot – sub-12% is the goal – advanced methods of targeting fat won’t do anything to reveal even your upper abs, let alone the lot.

Your new approach “Target fat loss with nutrition first, training next and more complex approaches last of all,” says Precision Nutrition coach Jess Wolny. If stress is an issue, target it with better-quality sleep by switching off your mobile an hour before bed.

Train Smarter (And Harder)

1. Train for strength

“Don’t waste your time training to burn fat,” says Nate Miyaki, a fat loss expert and author of The 6-Pack Checklist. “Your diet gives you 80% of your fat loss results, and a small increase in ‘non-formal’ activity - walking, basically – does the rest. If transformation is your goal, you should be trying to build muscle. Strength training is the best way to do this, and should be your focus. Traditional hypertrophy training is fast and efficient: train three to five times a week, six to 20 reps per exercise, for three to eight sets per muscle group.” Simple but effective.

2. Breathe

“All core training starts with breathing,” says renowned NFL trainer Joe DeFranco. “And most people don’t know how to breathe properly.” Practise the basics now: take a deep breath through your nose, aiming to fill your belly with air. You can also download the Universal Breathing Pranayama app to improve your lung and diaphragm function. “When you first do it right,” says DeFranco, “it almost feels like conditioning.”

3. Think “anti-movement”

Once you’ve mastered the basics of breathing, work on that spine stabilisation by focusing on moves where you’re resisting movement, not starting it. Planks, isolation holds and loaded carries, where you walk with a weight in one hand, all fit the bill.

4. Add NEPA if you need it

You’ll be burning most of your fat with diet – more about this below – but for an extra boost, non-exercise physical activity (NEPA) gets results without giving you hunger spikes or causing exhaustion. “Walking gives you many of the benefits of traditional cardio without joint wear and tear, repetitive strain, testosterone suppression or increased cortisol,” says Miyaki. “It’s also convenient, and a good stress reliever. Start with a 30- to 60-minute walk on your days off strength training, and ramp up until you’re doing it daily.”

5. Brace yourself

“The main role of the core is to protect and stabilise the spine while your extremities move,” says strength coach Jack Lovett. “Picture a sprinter during the 100m – his core’s firing at maximum capacity, but his midsection isn’t moving. Learning to brace correctly during barbell lifts such as squats, presses and deadlifts will build dynamic core strength.” Before any big lift, tighten your stomach as if you’re about to take a punch, then “breathe into” the move.

Use The Direct Approach

The six moves below target every part of your core. Make them the mainstay of your sessions

6. 360 plank

With your feet on a bench or in the straps of a suspension trainer, walk your hands around in a circle, clockwise and then anti-clockwise. “You’ll gain strength and control,” says Dan Little, head of fitness at Digme Fitness. “Keep your abs braced throughout.”

7. Roll-out

A cheap ab wheel’s one of the most portable, effective training devices you can buy – if you use it properly. “The biggest mistake I see is when people’s glutes shoot up in the air first,” says trainer James Adamson. “As you roll out, extend your hips. When your hands are in front of your face, your hips should be almost fully extended.”

RECOMMENDED: Barbell Roll-Out Exercise Guide

8. Gym ball pike

“From a press-up position, put a gym ball under your shins. Draw your knees towards your chest and lift your hips high to roll the ball towards your hands,” says Joe Spraggan, head trainer at F45’s Farringdon gym. “Lower and repeat. The instability provided by the ball stimulates more muscle fibres in your abs.”

9. Rolling 45

The Turkish get-up targets your entire core, but reps are time-consuming: bring it down to its constituent parts with the Rolling 45, suggests Little. “Lie on the floor with a kettlebell or dumbbell in one hand. Press it upward, then roll up and onto the opposite elbow. Pause, lower and repeat.” You’ll build co-ordination and strength.

10. Plank drag

Build your anti-rotational muscle strength with this plank upgrade. “Get in a plank position with a sandbag or kettlebell to one side of your body,” says Adamson. “Keeping your core braced, take one hand off the floor and lift it to the other side. Repeat as necessary.” Do it for time, and try to beat your rep count.

11. Crunch reach

This crunch variation brings new life to the old move. “Lie on your back with legs extended and arms above your head,” says Spraggan. “Raise your legs straight up and reach your arms towards your toes, lifting your upper back and squeezing the upper abs. Lower and repeat. This exercise uses a large range of movement and targets both upper and lower abs.” Keep it slow and controlled.

Reinvent The Classics

12. Add a resistance band to crunches

“Fix a resistance band to a secure point at around knee height,” says Spraggan. “Lie on your back facing away from the resistance band, taking hold of it in both hands and brace your arms and chest. Squeeze your hands and elbows towards each other and slowly lift your head and shoulders from the floor, rolling your upper spine away from the floor. Try to keep a consistent tension on the band as you engage your upper, middle and lower abs.”

13. Add weight to deadbugs

This Pilates move is tough enough unweighted, but adding resistance forces you to develop a bulletproof core. “Hold a weight plate with your arms outstretched and knees bent at 90˚ so your feet are in the air,” says Little. “Lower each leg alternately to the floor. Sounds easy, but the trick is to keep your lower back glued to the floor. It will want to come up, but strong abs will keep it rooted.”

14. Change your hand position for dragon flags

The Bruce Lee classic is much-imitated but rarely done well. Fix your form by adding a suspension trainer and using a shoulder stand. “Lie on your back with your head underneath the anchor point,” says trainer Niko Algieri. “Place your hands in the TRX arches at the bottom. Keeping your arms by your sides, perform a double leg raise until your feet come in line with your eyes and then lift directly up onto your shoulders. Reverse the move until your legs are at 45°, then repeat.” Pushing on the straps makes it slightly easier, but it’s still no joke.

15. Use the hip drop instead of side bends

“The classic dumbbell move can be mimicked on the TRX, but with more of a mobility benefit,” says Algieri. “Stand side-on to the TRX anchor point and hold one handle with both hands directly above your head. Keep a 90° bend in each elbow. Keeping the body taut, ‘break’ your hips outwards away from the TRX and then bring them back in. You’ll feel your obliques work overtime.”

16. Add a swing to knee tucks

“This is a fully gymnastic movement and less boring than the classic moves,” says Algieri. “In a TRX plank, start to pendulum-swing side to side. Each time you swing tuck your knees to the corresponding side. Don’t just go to the elbow – rotate the hips more and go outside the elbow for maximum range of motion and more abs engagement.”

17. Slow Russian twists down

It’s one of the most effective abs moves you can do with zero kit, but 99% of people do it wrong. “You should feel your abs light up when you do it,” says Adamson. “And most people don’t need to add weight. Sit on the floor with your feet slightly raised and your body at a 45˚ angle. Keep your arms at right angles to your body, and rotate with your torso, not from your arms.” If it’s too tough, start with your feet on the floor.

18. For planks – just try harder

If you can already do a plank for two minutes, you’re at the point of diminishing returns. Improve your efficiency by changing the leverage: from the usual start position, push off your forearms to move your feet backwards, until you feel more tension. Aim for four sets of ten to 30 seconds.

Get Your Fat Loss In A Glass

Forget the fruit-heavy smoothies – embrace these less common food combos for high-speed gains

19. Start the day right with spinach and almonds

“Always have a fruit and vegetable combo – it gives you a wider array of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and enzymes,” says nutritionist Rick Hay. “For a breakfast berry blast that aids fullness, blend 200ml of rice milk or almond milk and a cupful or two of fresh or frozen berries with a handful of spinach and five or six almonds.”

20. Use pineapple and matcha for better digestion

“Mix 300ml of lactose-free milk – almond works best – with 100g of chopped pineapple and one or two teaspoons of matcha powder,” says Neat Nutrition’s Lee Forster. “Pineapple contains digestive enzymes to decrease inflammation, and matcha is even higher in EGCG – a compound thought to have various health benefits – than green tea.”

21. Turn to purple cabbage and blueberries for performance

“Purple foods, like frozen berries and purple cabbage, are rich in flavonoids and antioxidants,” says holistic nutritionist Lee Holmes. “Purple cabbage is low in calories but high in dietary fibre and essential vitamins and minerals. Blueberries aid focus and concentration thanks to vitamins A, C and E.”

Stay On Target With Compound Moves

The movements below work your whole body – but keep your six-pack firing

22. Get going with the bear crawl

Use it in your warm-up to fire up your abs from the word go. Set up on your hands and knees, then bring your knees off the ground, keeping them slightly behind your hips – keeping your hips low will increase the abs activation. “Crawl” forward by moving one hand and the opposite foot, keeping your back flat.

23. Slow down your deadlift

“Done right, the deadlift is extremely effective in developing abs,” says Algieri. “It demands the core be constantly engaged so as to not round the back – but the eccentric or lowering phase is the most important part, since your abs will be working double time to stabilise your back.” Drop to around 50% of your usual max, and aim to spend up to two seconds lowering each rep.

24. Walk with a cross-over

Every loaded carry builds abs strength, but some do it better than others. For better obliques, “contralateral” movements – in which you load one side of the body – work best, forcing your abs to work overtime to stabilise the weight. The cross-over walk takes it a step further. “Walk with one kettlebell in the rack position against your forearm, and the other in your hand, like a suitcase,” says Adamson. “You’ll feel the tension run diagonally through your body.”

25. Add a press to your squat

One for leg day. “Set up just like a regular squat,” says Spraggan. “ Your feet should be shoulder-width apart or a little wider, knees and toes turned out slightly. Hold a medicine ball or barbell overhead: the latter will take more flexibility. As you lower your hips, keep your arms extended and make sure your chest is up. Keep your arms locked out in the same position as you return to standing. You’ll engage your abs under real-world conditions.”

26. Lunge with a twist

“Start with your feet close together, standing tall with a medicine ball in both hands held at chest height with your arms extended,” says Spraggan. “Take a long step forward, bend your front knee and drop your back knee until it almost touches the floor. As you lower, twist your torso towards the direction of your front knee. Your arms should always be level and hands in line with the middle of your chest.”

27. Push through with the one-arm press

“Most unilateral moves incorporate some degree of core control, to stabilise the weight,” says Spraggan. “But a dumbbell chest press will do it while improving your pressing. Lie on your back on a bench, feet pressed into the ground and dumbbells extended over your chest. Lower one dumbbell towards your chest, then press back up. You should be aware of the pressure changing in your feet and core in a diagonal pattern.”

Fix Your Nutrition

You’ve done the building work – now let’s get that six-pack out in the open

28. Drink more water

No surprises here – a 2016 review of studies found that better hydration is linked to weight loss. Researchers are still arguing about whether or not it increases fullness – and prevents bingeing – but it is definitely important to drink water so your liver can effectively metabolise body fat. Have a glass with every meal, and at least a sip alongside every hot drink.

29. Cut out hyperpalatable foods

The problem with the modern food industry? It wants you to eat more. Modern, heavily processed food is carefully designed to be delicious, combining fat, sugar, texture and taste to create a perfect storm of palatability. “Foods like this are empty calories,” says Miyaki. “That means you’ll feel constantly hungry, deprived and miserable. Cut down on refined carbs including flour and sugar, and fast foods that combine them with fat, and make natural whole foods your foundation.”

30. Emphasise high-satiety foods

“I’ve seen people struggle to net 1,800 calories a day when they cut out anything refined – including oils – and ate real food,” says Miyaki. “You don’t have to go that extreme, but it’s easy to stay in a calorie deficit while getting all the nutrients you need if you emphasise real food. My preferred method is what I call an ‘island-style diet’: like Paleo, but with root vegetables and rice to fuel and recover from training.” Eat animal proteins, whole fruit, sweet potatoes, vegetables and white rice.

31. Eat enough protein

“Adequate protein helps us preserve lean muscle mass while staying in the calorie deficit necessary for fat loss,” says Miyaki. “It’s also a high-satiety food, meaning it keeps you full.” In research from Purdue University in the US, men who ate a few protein-heavy meals felt fuller than men who ate more frequently – and also reported fewer late-night cravings and thoughts about food in general. Aim for 1.5-2g per kilo of target bodyweight, per day, split between your meals.

32. Think sustainable

“It doesn’t matter if you have the best plan in the world written down if you can’t follow it,” says Miyaki. “A sane diet structure is the key to sustainability. Three meals a day can work great for weight loss, as can feasting at night. My preferred structure is to stick to this, escalating your carbs throughout the day – but you should experiment to figure out what’s sustainable for your lifestyle.”

33. Track your macros

You don’t need to count calories for the rest of your life, but there are two good times to do it, says Miyaki: when you’re first starting out, and when you need to ramp things up. “I’ve had people realise their protein count is paltry or that they were eating 1,000 calories a day in refined oils,” he says. “You’ll see where the extra stuff sneaks in.” Use MyFitnessPal or a pen and paper with info from nutritiondata.self.com.

34. Cheat sparingly

Despite what you’ve been told, you don’t need cheat meals – at least on a biological level – until you’re heading towards the lows of sub-10% body fat. But if they work for you psychologically, keep them infrequent. Plan one to two cheat meals (not days) a week, and get rid of the bad stuff once you get up from the table.

Assess Your Cupboards

Have you got these store cupboard essentials on standby? If not, hit the shops

35. Coffee

The American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition discovered that the caffeine in coffee significantly increases fat oxidation and metabolic rate for up to three hours after your last sip. Drink it black or with a dash of cinnamon.

RECOMMENDED: The Health Benefits Of Coffee

36. Cinnamon

It adds flavour to coffee (or, if you’re feeling ambitious, combines with lime juice and turmeric for a solid marinade) without a calorie hit, and stabilises your insulin levels. Fresh is better.

37. Cayenne pepper

Use it to spice up chilli or sweet potato fries: according to a study published in Physiology And Behavior, it’ll curb appetite and prompt your body to burn calories.

38. Ginger

Keep the powder on hand or blend the fresh stuff into a shake. Research published in the Journal Of Exercise Science & Fitness found that a teaspoonful of it daily helped men cut an average of 4.1kg of body fat over ten weeks when combined with strength training.

39. Black pepper

Add it to eggs, veg, and everything else – a study published in the Journal Of Agricultural And Food Chemistry showed that piperine, the stuff that gives pepper its pungency, can stop the formation of new fat cells.

40. Green tea

Keep it in the cupboard: a compound known as EGCG makes it slightly superior to the black stuff for fat metabolism – plus you can make it with lemon instead of milk for an insulin-stabilising taste hit.

41. Dark chocolate

It’s the best sweet treat to keep in the fridge: plant-based nutrients known as flavanols – more prevalent in the 80% cocoa stuff – help to lower blood sugar and control cravings, while the intense flavours mean one square is enough.

42. Black beans

Keep a can or two in the cupboard because they’re a rich source of plant protein and fibre, promoting fullness and fat loss.

Choose Life(style Changes)

There are 168 hours in a week. Make sure you’re not undoing your good work from the four you’re in the gym

43. Address stress

“Keep calm” isn’t the easiest advice to follow in these troubled times, but it’ll address the build-up of cortisol, making digestion easier and sleep better. Make an “anxiety list’ of stuff that’s worrying you, cross off the stuff you can’t control, then take the first step towards fixing the rest.

44. Sleep more

Going without enough shut-eye lowers levels of the satiety hormone leptin, according to research from the Journal Of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Download the F.Lux app for all your devices to remove the blue light seeping from your screens at night, which is thought to help you rest easier.

RECOMMENDED: How To Sleep Better

45. Create routines

Better habits will make fat loss automatic – and your abs will follow. Psychologist David Neal suggests disrupting your current “bad” routines (changing your Starbucks-heavy route to work, for instance) as a starting point to making better ones.

46. Purge your kitchen

According to research conducted by Cornell University in the US, when volunteers removed TVs and comfy seating from their kitchens, they spent 18 fewer minutes there each day. You don’t have to go full Spartan, but leave your phone and iPad in another room when you eat.

47. Keep bad stuff out of sight

The simplest fix you can make: keep veg and fruit on display and bad stuff – snack bars, cereal, sweets – out of your field of vision. Research suggests you’re making a mini-decision every time you research the urge to snack, so take that decision out of your hands – and switching will come easy.

RECOMMENDED: The Healthy Late-Night Snacks Personal Trainers Eat

Add Some Supplements

They can’t do the work, but they will provide the finishing touches. Choose wisely

48. Fish oil

Having a solid omega 3:6 ratio isn’t just important for health – it’s also a key part of insulin sensitivity, which is fundamental to fat loss. Take fish oil at least once a day with food.

49. L-carnitine

L-carnitine plays many roles in the body, specifically in helping to use fat stores as fuel. You don’t need it unless you’re deficient: but if you’re dieting hard, it’s worth topping up.

50. Creatine

It helps back up your body’s stores of ATP, the fuel source for your highest-intensity efforts. If you’re in a serious strength training phase, take 5g a day alongside at least 500ml of water.

Photography: Glen Burrows. Model: Lee McLaughlin

Sometimes all it takes to get a little fitter is the imaginative application of a tea towel. No fancy equipment, heavy weights or technical fabrics, just your basic kitchen linen, coupled with a hard floor. All set? Then it’s time to try out the sliding pike.

As well as doing wonders for your core strength, the sliding pike will improve your posture, balance and general flexibility. It’s likely to be a real struggle at first to adopt a proper V position, but you’ll quickly loosen up if you stick with it.

How To Do It

Start in a press up position with your feet resting on the tea towel. You’ll need a hard, smooth surface on which to perform the sliding pike. If your flat is entirely carpeted, firstly how do you keep your kitchen floor clean, and secondly, pick up a pair of paper plates to use as your sliders. For those who get really into sliding, you can buy a pair of sliders that have one smooth and one rough side, so they can be used on all surfaces.

Browse exercise sliders on amazon.co.uk

Slowly raise your hips and pull your toes up towards your hands without bending your knees. The final position should look like an inverted V; you’ll feel the stretch in your hamstrings. Hold the pose for a beat, then slide your feet back to the start.

Make sure you keep your head in line with your spine and your core braced throughout. Aim for 10 to 20 reps in total.

Variations

For another core exercise, from the same starting position – with your feet each resting on a slider – you can transition easily into leg circles. Hold your upper body still and move your feet in wide, slow circles.

The sliding star is harder. Start from the press up position with a towel under your right hand and foot. Ease them away from you, lowering your body until your limbs are spread-eagled, taking care not to overstretch, then bring yourself back up to the start. Aim for five to 10 stars on each side.

Frogs can leap lengthy distances, are comfortable underwater and on dry land, and have no problem picking up princesses. Frogs rock, in short, and the frog sit-up is a better abs exercise than the sit-up if you want to make your abs work harder. 

That’s because the position of your legs means your hip flexors can’t do as much of the work, and as an extra bonus you can bring your torso further forward, increasing the range of motion. The result is that frog sit-ups are murder on the abs—in a good way.

How To Do The Frog Sit-Up

Lie on your back with your knees bent and the soles of your feet together so your legs form a diamond shape (this is the bit that resembles a frog, or if you can’t picture yourself as a slimy amphibian, think butterfly wings).

You can extend your arms behind your head, or keep them by your chest for an easier variation. 

Brace your core and use your abs to raise your torso, bringing your hands forward to touch the floor in front of your feet. Return to the start under control.

Frog Sit-Up Tips

It can be difficult to get into the right position if you’ve never done the frog sit-up before, and requires a significant level of flexibility to maintain correct form. If you’re struggling to get your thighs near the floor, try this stretch before you attempt the sit-up. 

Sit with your legs in the diamond position and your soles touching. Bring your feet toward your body while also applying gentle pressure to your knees to flatten your thighs to the ground. Practicing this stretch regularly will make the position for the frog sit-up come more easily.

There’s only so much satisfaction you can get out of a sit-up. Eventually, even the keenest crunchers will hanker for a new abs exercise, something a little more challenging, to ensure their core is suitably tested with each workout. For those people, perhaps the best place to turn is the jackknife (also known as the V-sit or V-up), the whole-body manoeuvre certain to leave your abs in a world of hurt.

Jackknife Benefits

As your aching midriff will no doubt testify, the jackknife is a real test for the abs. Your lower back also benefits from the manoeuvre, and you should find yourself becoming more flexible as the weeks of jackknifing go by. And one day you might even be able to keep your legs straight throughout the exercise – the optimum position.

How To Do The Jackknife Exercise

Begin your jackknife by lying on the ground, with your arms outstretched behind your head. Keep your arms and legs raised a little off the ground throughout the movement. That movement is a simple one to understand, if not to do. Contract your abs and fold in two, bringing your arms and legs together to meet above your midriff, before easing them back to your starting position.

You’re aiming to keep your limbs as straight as possible throughout, but only the most flexible will be able to maintain straight legs, so don’t be too concerned if they bend a little on the way up. Try to build the jackknife into a circuits session to really ensure that your core doesn’t get off lightly.

Jackknife Variations

Modified V-sit

The jackknife is a toughie, so don’t despair if it proves too hard to do more than a couple of reps of it at first. An easier variation that works the same muscles with less strain on the lower back is the modified V-sit.

Again, start by lying on your back with your feet raised, but keep your arms by your side this time. Then bend your knees and draw them towards your chest, sitting up at the same time, keeping your arms straight so that your hands end up by your feet. Then slowly unfold and return to the ground.

Gym ball passing jackknife

Grasp a gym ball behind your head. Pass the ball from hands to feet at the top of the move. Lower slowly with the ball clasped between your feet. Return the ball from your feet to your hands on the next rep. Passing the ball from hands to feet helps ensure that you maintain perfect form at all times.

1. Abs wheel roll-out

• Start by kneeling on the floor with your hands on the wheel handles.
• Your spine should start in a neutral position and stay like that throughout the move.
• Contract your abs and slowly roll the wheel away from you, making sure that you don’t let your hips drop and your back hyperextend.
• When you can’t go any further without compromising good form, roll the wheel back to the start.

2. Floor flag

• Start with your arms out to the sides for stability and your legs together, held just off the ground. Point your toes to maintain body alignment.
• Contract your abs, start to put some weight through your arms and raise your legs above you, using this momentum to lift your bum and lower back off the floor. Stretch up as high as you can, then reverse the movement slowly.

3. Sliding towel flye

• Start in a press-up position with your hands on the towels. With a slight bend in your elbows, bring your hands out to the sides, lowering your chest until it’s a fist’s width from the floor.
• Pause at the bottom, then bring your hands back in.

4. Medicine ball leg raise

• Grab a bar with an overhand grip and your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, holding a medicine ball between your knees.
• Raise your hips and lift your thighs towards your chest, curling your lower back underneath you.
• When your thighs reach your chest pause, then lower and repeat.

5. Medicine ball Russian twist

• Sit on the floor with your feet in the air and knees bent, holding a dumbbell in both hands in front of your sternum.
• Keeping your core braced and arms straight, rotate to one side. Then twist the other way. Return to the start again to complete one rep.

So you’ve got all the above moves dialled and you want more abs-building exercises? You’re in luck – below you’ll find three more. But before you start doing them, there’s something we want you to bare in mind: just doing these moves will boost abdominal strength rather than make your abs more noticeable.

To do the latter you’re going to want to focus on fat loss and using abs moves in very specific contexts – and the most effective way of doing that is by taking on high intensity workouts. One of our favourite high intensity protocols is IWT (Interval Weight Training) because it fires up your metabolism to torch loads of fat both during and for hours after a workout, builds masses of strength and promotes muscle growth.

A classic example of one you could do would be three rounds of 10 thrusters and a two-minute row – that’s section one, 10 snatches and a two-minute run – that’s section two, and then a 150-second TRX plank broken up into as few chunks as possible – that’s section three. Take no rest between the moves in each ITW superset, one minute between supersets and five minutes between each section.

 Anyway, back to the move we promised. Enjoy!

6) Walkout 

Stand with you feet shoulder-width apart. Hinge at the hips and bend your legs slightly to bring your hands down to the floor in front of your feet. Walk your hands forward as far as you can without letting your body sag. Walk your hands back to your feet. Keep your core braced throughout. Do at least three reps per set.

7) Hex dumbbell bear crawl 

Get into a press-up position with a hex dumbbell in each hand and feet together. With your core braced, step one hand out and then the other so the dumbbells line up, then hop your feet forward so you end up in the press-up position again. Do at least five hops per set.

8) Toes-to-bar 

Hang from a bar with your arms and legs straight, with feet together. Brace your core and use it to pull your feet up to the bar. Lower slowly under control. Do at least five reps per set.

1. Eat more yoghurt 

Eating more of the white stuff is a great way to get rid of the belly fat covering up your abs. Research has found that adults who consume three servings of fat-free yoghurt each day as part of a reduced-calorie diet lost 22% more weight, and 81% more stomach fat then those who were cutting their calories. Those eating yoghurt also managed to maintain muscle mass twice as well.

2.  Oil the machine

A recent study in the US found that merely taking fish oil supplements for a period of six weeks significantly increased lean mass while decreasing fat mass. Just make sure that the oils you’re buying are decent quality, look for ones that are not oxidised as these could do your body more harm than good.

3. Get spicy

You know when you eat a chilli? That burning sensation that rests on your tongue is from capsaicin, and as well as adding a kick to a curry it is also a great metabolism booster. There’s no need to start eating loads of the stuff, as just half a teaspoon of hot cayenne pepper will increase the amount of calories that you burn after a meal. It will also do the job of descreasing any cravings that you might have for salty, sweet or fatty foods that are likely to derail your dieting.

Find out how to lower your body fat perentage in ten easy steps. 

4. Keep upright

Try to do lots of yours abs work in a more upright position. It’s a lot more functional as there is no use in only teaching your body to activate your core when lying horizontally. Try moves like the medicine ball woodchop: Keeping your hips fixed forward, hold a 3-5kg medicine ball with your arms fully extended to one side at head height, then power it diagonally down in a wood chop action 

5. High intensity is key

Engaging in a short but intense interval workout a couple of times a week will result in a huge spike in growth hormones and testosterone levels which will give you a real boost in sculpting a perfect six-pack. Get on the rowing machine, bike or treadmill for a 10-minute blitz at the start or end of your workout.

The best six-pack moves to get you that washboard stomach. 

While there are contrasting opinions over whether crunches are effective for building a six-pack, there’s no doubt that they’re one of the most popular abs exercises, along with the likes of the reverse crunch and bicycle crunches.

One way you can ensure your crunches are effective is to introduce some weight. Progressive overload – where you increase the difficulty of an exercise over time to ensure it’s still challenging you – is a part of most people’s workout programmes, but it’s often neglected with abs exercises like crunches.

Aside from simply doing more reps, people don’t look to increase the difficulty of their core moves. This can hamper their attempts to carve out a six-pack or to strengthen their core muscles.

Adding weight is a failsafe way to progress the classic crunch, and it’s easily done by grabbing a couple of dumbbells. Ready to challenge your core? We've got a dumbbell abs workout for you to try below.

Benefits Of The Dumbbell Crunch

All the core muscles enlisted in the crunch have to work that bit harder when you add some weight into the mix. If you find that you’re smashing out a set of crunches without feeling any kind of burn in your abs, grab some dumbbells and start working those muscles properly again.

How To Do The Dumbbell Crunch

Lie on your back with knees bent, holding a dumbbell in each hand with bent elbows. Contract your abs to raise your torso, straightening your arms as your chest rises towards your knees to take the weights towards your feet. Pause at the top, then lower slowly back to the start.

It’s important that you don’t use the dumbbells to create momentum. Make sure you’re lifting yourself with your abs rather than moving the weights forwards to help swing you up.

If you only have one dumbbell to hand, or are finding the move too hard with two, you can hold one weight in both hands in front of your chest while doing your crunches.

Dumbbell Crunch Workout

Use this workout to put the dumbbell crunch into action with a challenging abs session. Aim for six circuits of these five moves, resting only at the end of the circuit.

1. Dumbbell swing Reps 15 Rest 0sec
2. Side bend Reps 15 each side Rest 0sec
3. Woodchop Reps 15 Rest 0sec
4. Dumbbell crunch Reps 15 Rest 0sec
5. Russian twist Reps 15 Rest 60sec

Instead of just cranking out ordinary crunches, mix up your abs workout with crossover crunches. By adding in a twisting movement you'll target your obliques as well as your abs, strengthening your core and tightening your stomach muscles.

How To Do The Crossover Crunch

• With your head off the mat, touch your fingers to your temples. Rest one foot on the opposite knee.
• Contract your abs to lift your shoulders off the mat, without pulling on your neck.
• Twist your torso so your elbow moves to meet your knee.
• Reverse the move slowly back to the start.

Crossover Crunch Variations

Gym ball twist crunch

Get more range on the move and work your stabiliser muscles into the bargain.

• As you rise up twist your torso to one side
• Alternate sides with each rep

Bicycle crunch

Do this move quickly to exhaust your abdominals fully.

• Crunch up and bring your right elbow to your left knee. 
• Twist your torso from side to side while pumping your legs back and forth.

One-arm cable cross crunch

Head to the cable machine to work your abs and sculpt a six-pack with this twisty crunch variation.

• Hold a high cable in one hand.
• Use your abs to pull the handle down, not your arm.
• Draw your elbow to your opposite knee to create the twist effect.

More Of The Best Abs Exercises

• Five Great Abs Exercises For Women
• The Best Abs Exercises On Pull-Up Bars Or Rings
• Bodyweight Abs Exercises
• Cable Machine Exercises For Abs

• Lie on your side with your arm in front and bend your knees.
• Touch your fingers to your temples.
• Use your side abs to crunch up sideways.
• Hold for a second at the top of the move, then lower slowly back to the start.

Variation: Gym ball oblique crunch

Get a greater range of movement by wrapping your body around the ball.

• Lie sideways and curl your body round the ball.
• Jam your feet against a wall for support.

Variation: Dumbbell side bend

Vary the resistance you place on your obliques by using a dumbbell.  

• Holding a dumbbell in one hand and lean to that side.
• The lean as far as you can to the other side without leaning forward or back.

Medicine ball curl up

Sets: 3  Reps: 10
The medicine ball adds resistance to fatigue your muscles. Holding it above your head increases the lever length, which also makes the exercise harder.

• Curl up slowly without throwing your shoulders forwards.
• Lower your torso under control and maintain tension in your abs.

Gym ball dumb-bell Russian twist

Sets: 3  Reps: 8 each side
The dumb-bell works your side abs as your core fights to stabilise your body on the insecure platform of the gym ball

• Don't let your core collapse or your lower back round as you rotate.
• Avoid bouncing up from the ball as you lower.

Decline sit-ups

Sets: 3  Reps: 12
Doing this bodyweight exercise quickly will exhaust the abs fully and safely without you having to use added resistance at the end of the workout.

• Crunch up without pulling on your head or neck.
• Don't over-extend your lower back on the way down.

Incline knee raises

Sets: 3  Reps: 10

Lifting your legs up an incline increases the time that your lower abs are under tension for an improved training effect. 

• Lock your arms into place and avoid pulling on them as you lift your legs.
• Lower your legs slowly but stop them before they cause your lower back to arch. 

Decline sit-ups

Sets: 3  Reps: 10

The decline bench moves your centre of gravity so that your abs have to work harder to crunch your torso upright, placing more tension in your upper abs.

• Engage your abs to crunch up and avoid pressing your ankles into the bar.
• Keep your shoulder blades together and don’t roll your shoulders forwards.

Gym ball leg scissors

Sets: 3  Reps: 8 each side  

Holding the gym ball up calls on your abs, while rotating them recruits your side abs to power the move.

• Lift the ball off the floor using your abs and keep your core braced.
• Slowly rotate to one side and then the other by engaging your side abs.

Dumbbell overhead lunge

Sets: 3  Reps: 8 each side
Your abs are under tension throughout this move – they stop your upper body from tipping forwards. Using your upper and lower body together will burn calories. 

• Step forward into the lunge, keeping your knees, ankles and hips in line.
  
• Keep your arms in line with your torso throughout.

Tornado chop

Sets: 3  Time: 40 seconds

You side abs are targeted with this high-velocity move that will keep your heart rate high enough to burn fat.

• Use a weight that you can hold at the same height for the whole move.
  
• Keep your shoulders back and do as many reps as you can in the time allowed.

Dumbbell diagonal raise

Sets: 3  Reps: 8 each side

By keeping your arms almost straight you ensure that the force lifting the weight comes from your abs to maximise muscle fatigue.

• Rotate and lift the weight while keeping your arms almost straight.
  
• Do each rep slowly to remove momentum from the lift.

Medicine ball lunge chop

Sets: 3  Reps: 8 each side
Holding the down position of a lunge activates your legs and core to stabilise your weight while your obliques rotate dynamically.

• Keep a slight bend in your arms and use your torso rather than your arms to power the move.
• Rotate your shoulders, torso and hip together.

Gym ball plank

Sets: 3  Time: 20-60 seconds
By resting on the gym ball’s unstable surface in a challenging static position, you demand more from your core and put your abs under greater tension.

• Brace your abs throughout and don’t allow your hips to sag.
• Take long, controlled breaths to extend your rep time.

Gym ball crunch to press

Sets: 3 Reps: 10
Using the gym ball allows you to hit your abs across their whole range of motion.

• Curl your torso off the ball and then press the weights straight out.
• Keep your abs tight as you lower to stay in control of your momentum.

Reverse crunch

Shaun Stafford, personal trainer
'The reverse crunch forces your abs and obliques to work really hard. Start on a flat bench and aim for 8-12 reps. Once you can do three sets of 12 with perfect form, increase the angle to increase the difficulty.'
Visit shaunstaffordtraining.com.

Weighted crunch

Rob Burr, Phoenix Fitness Group
'The abs respond better to being overloaded than they do to performing hundreds of sit-ups. Lie on a gym ball while holding a heavy weight plate on your chest and crunch for three sets of 8-12 reps.'
Visit phoenixfitnessgroup.com.

Woodchop

Neil Odell, Premier Training International
'The woodchop stimulates the entire abdominal region in a more functional way than crunches. Alternate between high and low, horizontal and reverse woodchops in sets of 6-12 reps.'
Visit premierglobal.co.uk.

Gym ball jackknife

Chris Mundle, Destination W1
'Start in the plank position with your back flat and a gym ball under your feet. Roll the ball towards you, tightening your abs into a crunch, and hold for five seconds. Do 15 reps. This is great because it works your shoulders and arms too.'
Visit destinationw1.com.

1 Don’t do sit-ups

'Jamming your feet under a bench and lifting your chest up to your knees works your hip flexors, not your abs,’ says Kriss Tottman, director of HealthPro Personal Training. ‘Crunches are a better exercise but they’re just one of a range of moves you need to do to get a six-pack'

2 Work your whole body

'Don’t focus solely on abs moves in your quest for a six-pack,’ says Paul Campey, a master trainer at Virgin Active. ‘Using your core in larger movements such as squats or deadlifts creates great stimulus for both deep-lying stabilising and outer-core muscles.'

3 Hit your absfrom all sides

'To build strong abs you need to hit them from different angles,’ says Tottman. ‘Standard crunches will only make your top four abs look good. To hit the lower ones you need to do exercises such as reverse crunches. And you should target your obliques, the muscles on either side of your six-pack, with rotational exercises such as twisting crunches.'

4 Save your abs until last

'You should never jump straight into the abdominal part of your workout,’ says Campey. ‘Doing these moves before big lifts, such as squats, can fatigue your core muscles, which means you’ll reduce the amount of weight you can lift when you’re working the big muscle groups.'

5 Keep cardio short and intense

'Don’t just go for long steady-state runs,’ says Tottman. ‘Do hill and speed intervals, too. You’ll work your body more explosively and burn more calories in a shorter space of time, meaning you’ll get rid of that layer of fat covering your abs.'

6 Don’t forget deep-lying muscles

'If your deep-lying core muscles can’t remain stable during an exercise, your outer muscles will never be as strong as you want them to be,’ says Tottman. ‘To work your inner stabilisers, try doing exercises such as the plank.'

7 Eat right

'Save your non-fruit and non-vegetable carbs, such as pasta, rice and bread, until after your workout,’ says Campey. ‘They causes your body to produce more insulin, the processing of which increases the level of fat stored under the skin.'

8 Think about posture

'You can develop your six-pack while you're just sitting at your desk,’ says Campey. ‘By maintaining good posture throughout the day you can activate the deep-lying stabiliser muscles, such as the transverse abdominals and internal obliques.’ You heard the man – now sit up straight.'

If you're looking to hone your midriff with isolation exercises, but have been training for a while, you may need to add an extra challenge. Increase the intensity with these intermediate and advanced abs exercises using a barbell and dip bars, allowing you to hit your abs from more angles.

Intermediate Abs Exercises

Add more variety to your abs workout with this intermediate barbell and dip bar workout – these four moves will help you sculpt yourself a six-pack to be proud of.

Uneven side bends

• Place a weight plate on one end of the bar only, securing it with a collar
• Begin with the bar resting on your shoulders and the weight on the right side
• Brace your core and dip slowly to the right 
• Return to the start
• Once you've completed your reps, change the weight to the left side and dip to the left

Barbell rollout

• Kneel in front of the barbell and grasp it beneath your shoulders
• Lean forward as far as you can pushing the bar in front of you
• Return to the start keeping your back straight throughout

Hanging knee raise

• Hang from a pull-up bar or rest on dip bars with feet hanging down
• Draw your knees up to your chest
• Hold for a moment and lower slowly to the start without swinging 

Hanging side twist

• Hang from a pull-up bar or rest on dip bars with your feet hanging down
• Draw your knees up and twist to the side
• Lower slowly to the start and repeat to the other side

Advanced Abs Exercises

Barbell rotation

• Stand with a barbell across the backs of your shoulders 
• Rotate your body to one side keeping your back upright 
• Rotate back and forth using your abs to control the movement
  

Hanging leg raise

• Hang from a pull-up bar or rest on dip bars with your feet hanging down 
• Keeping your legs straight, raise them out in front of you 
• Pause at the top and lower slowly to the start

You don’t need to use weights for your abs workouts, but adding a little resistance can help once bodyweight moves cease to pose a challenge. Head to the racks in your gym, or browse our selection of the best dumbbells, and try this dumbbell abs workout or add some of the exercises below to your training. 

Punch up

• Hold dumbbells with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Turn your body to one side and perform an upper cut.
• Twist to the other side and perform an upper cut.
• Alternate sides with each rep.

Standing Russian twist

• Hold a dumbbell straight out in front of your chest.
• Turn your torso round to one side.
• Twist from side to side powerfully keeping your back upright.

Weighted crunch

• Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, holding a dumbbell by your chest.
• Curl your shoulders off the floor, keeping your lower back in contact with the mat.
• Pause at the top and lower slowly to start.

Punch-up crunch

• Hold dumbbells and lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
• Curl your shoulders off the floor and punch straight out with one hand
• Return slowly to start and repeat with your other hand on the next rep.

Weighted corkscrew

• Hold a dumbbell between your feet and raise your legs to vertical.
• Lift your hips off the floor and push your feet towards the ceiling.
• At the top of the move, twist your feet to one side, lower and repeat on the other side.

Woodchop

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell in both hands.
• Keeping your back straight, bring the dumbbell to the outside of your thigh.
• Twist your torso and bring the dumbbell up and over the opposite shoulder.

You don't need an expensive gym membership or fancy equipment to have toned abs. In fact you can sculpt yourself a six-pack using these bodyweight abs exercises that don't require any kit and can be done anywhere. 

From planks to crunches and everything in between, these simple beginner and intermediate abs exercises below will fire up your core and tighten up your abs.

Beginner Abs Exercises

Plank

• Ensure your elbows are directly beneath your shoulders
• Keep your body in a straight line from head to heels
• Hold the position for as long as you can

Crunch

• Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor
• Curl your shoulders off the floor, keeping your lower back in contact with the mat
• Pause at the top and lower slowly to the start

Reverse crunch

• Start with your thighs vertical and knees bent at 90°
• Lift your hips off the floor and curl your knees towards your chest
• Pause at the top and lower slowly to the start 

Lying criss-cross

• Place your hands under your bum for stability
• Hold your feet a few inches off the floor with straight legs
• Cross your feet over and under for as long as you can manage

Crossover crunch

• Place one foot on the opposite knee
• Curl your shoulders off the floor and twist your body so your elbow touches the opposite knee
• Pause at the top and lower slowly – repeat on the opposite side

Side plank

• Make sure your elbow is directly beneath your shoulder
• Keep your body in a straight line from head to feet
• Hold the position for as long as you can

Intermediate Abs Exercises

Legs up crunch

• Lie on your back
• Keep your thighs vertical and your knees bent at 90°
• Curl your shoulders off the floor
• Pause at the top and lower slowly to the start 

Two-point box

• Start on all fours
• Raise the opposite arm and leg straight out
• Pause at the top, lower slowly to the start and repeat on the other side 

Leg lower

• Start with your legs pointing straight up
• Place your hands under your bum for support
• Lower your legs slowly to just above the floor and return to the start

Hip raise

• Start with your legs pointing straight up
• Lift your hips off the floor and push your feet towards the ceiling
• Hold for a second and lower slowly to the start 

Side crunch

• Lie on your side with your upper hand touching your temple
• Curl your torso upwards as far as you can
• Pause at the top and lower slowly to the start

Single leg over

• Start with one leg pointing straight up
• Place your hands on the floor either side of you for support
• Rotate your lower body until your foot is just above the floor, then return

More Of The Best Abs Exercises

• Five Great Abs Exercises For Women
• The Best Abs Exercises On Pull-Up Bars Or Rings
• Cable Machine Exercises For Abs

1. Train the abs like a muscle

“The biggest mistake people make with the abs is that they forget it’s just like any other muscle,” says strength and conditioning coach Nick Grantham. “They’ll go in and do 200 reps of an abs exercise every day and then wonder why they get a hernia.” To build your abs, do ten to 15 reps and increase the intensity by adding more sets. Leave one day in between abs sessions to allow the muscles to recover.

2. Do static holds for core stability

“Your muscles have slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibres but when you hold a weight in a static position you use both sets of fibres,” says Lee Archer, director of Pro Fitness. This means you can improve the overall strength of all the muscles used to stabilise the lower back and hips in one exercise, such as the plank, as long as you remember to hold the position for at least five seconds.

3. Add resistance to crunches to build muscle

“Use resistance you can handle, so start with a dumbbell or medicine ball across your chest and keep the weight close to your body,” says Grantham. “As you progress, you can extend your arms or raise them above your head to create a longer lever and make the exercise harder. If you get into trouble then you can bring the weight back towards you and all of a sudden it will seem lighter.”

RECOMMENDED: Crunch Exercises For Building A Six-Pack

4. Do more than crunch

Grantham trains athletes with an all-round course of exercise. “When I put together a core training programme I look at hitting all of the movement patterns. So I start with a flexion exercise such as a crunch, then I do something with extension like a superman. After that I introduce lateral flexion with a side bend, then I have a rotational exercise. Finally I do a static hold like a plank or a bridge.”

5. Use a Swiss ball

“When you train in an unstable environment you recruit a lot more muscle tissue, putting microscopic tears into it and when it repairs itself this leads to muscle growth,” says Sean Singleton, expertise coach at David Lloyd Leisure. You can also use a wobble board or Swiss ball to progress a core exercise and make it harder, preparing your muscles for adding resistance later on.

RECOMMENDED: Gym Ball Exercises That Everyone Should Be Doing

6. Target your lower abs

“The lower section of the abs is the one that’s most difficult to hit and you will need some specific exercises,” says Grantham. “Most people can reveal a four-pack at the top but it’s getting the six-pack that’s hard. My choice would be a reverse crunch with your legs up on a Swiss ball or just straight up into the air.”

RECOMMENDED: Lower Abs Workout

7. Do core stretches

“Flexibility training is important to recovery because if you stretch the muscle you lengthen its range of motion and open it up so that your blood can re-supply it fully,” says Singleton. Lie face down on the floor with your hands just underneath your shoulders, then push up with your arms to bring your chest off the floor and push your hips into the floor. For your obliques, stand upright with feet apart and go over to one side. For your back, sit on your lower legs and bend forwards, stretching your arms across the floor.

8. Get your diet right

To build muscle you need to eat between 1.5g and 2g of lean protein per kilo of bodyweight every day. “Then you’ll get a six-pack by doing exercises – but you may not see it,” says Grantham. “To see it, a man has to get down to 10% body fat, and to lose fat you’ve got to burn more calories than you take in. Increase the amount of exercise you do combined with a sensible diet.”

9. Prioritise your training

If you want to get a six-pack you’ll need to devote separate sessions to train your abs so that you hit them when you’re still full of energy. Never try to do an abs session before a heavy lifting workout because you can exhaust the muscles in your core, which could be dangerous. However, it’s OK to do an abs session before a run if you need to.

10. Slow down your reps

“Muscle will grow only if it spends time under tension,” says Grantham. “If someone does 30 reps in 30 seconds he’s actually putting the muscles under tension for only 30 seconds. If you get someone else to do three sets of ten reps but each rep lasts ten seconds, they triple the time under tension and get the better strength gains.” Try to count to three on the way up, hold for a count of two, then count to three again on the way down.

11. Train standing up

If you do all your abs and lower-back workouts on an exercise mat, you are switching one side of your body off while you work the other. If you then try to use your core as a single unit during sport or hard cardio effort, it will not have been trained to do this and you risk injuring yourself. So do standing abs exercises that involve rotation using a medicine ball or cable machine, such as the woodchop.

RECOMMENDED: Cable Machine Exercises For Abs

12. Do short cardio intervals

Steady-state training will burn fat but only very slowly over a mammoth session. “If you want to lose fat and keep lean muscle mass then do intervals,” says Grantham. By pairing high-intensity efforts with rest in between, you work for less time at a higher intensity to burn more calories. You also boost your metabolic rate so that you’ll still be burning calories four hours later when you’re sitting watching TV.