Best Abs Exercise
If you walk in to your local fitness club and ask one of their personal trainers what the best abs exercise is they will probably tell you crunches. Though the trend is finally changing to more efficient ab exercises I am still amazed at how little some professionals know. Realistically, how often do you find yourself lying on your back, mustering all of the strength that you can gather, in order to get off of the floor and to a standing position? My guess is that you answered, rarely. Then why do so many personal trainers and magazine experts seem to think that you need to spend your time doing millions of crunches to uncover your cleverly disguised six pack abs? Personally, I think it is ridiculous and a waste of time. So, I am going to give you 4 basic litmus tests you can apply to any exercise to determine whether it is the best abs exercise.
First, in order to understand what the best abs exercise is, we must first understand how the abdominals really work and what they were designed to do. When you look closely at the structure of the abdominals you notice that they are oriented much like a corset. We have muscles that run up and down, diagonal and side to side.
The rectus abdominis runs up and down and is responsible for the six pack look and for preventing excessive hyperextension of the trunk. They are also responsible for flexing the trunk or bending forward. However, this is not that difficult when you are standing upright because gravity helps. The two groups of oblique muscles run diagonally and help with stabilization of the spine and with rotation of the trunk. And finally, the transverse abdominis acts like a belt to stabilize the spine and aid with rotation of the trunk.
So basically, the abdominals stabilize the spine, rotate or prevent rotation of the trunk, flex the spine and prevent hyperextension of the spine.
I am now going to uncover for you 4 ways to determine whether the best abs exercise you like to do is, in fact, the best abs exercise.
1. The best abs exercise works the entire body. Therefore, abdominal exercise should be a total body movement. To ensure that your abs exercise is the most effective you should make sure that you are standing or that your feet are at least on the ground. There are still some quality abdominal exercises where you are not standing straight up, like a push up or mountain climbers. These are effective because your feet and hands are on the floor and you have to stabilize your trunk in order to perform the movement. Most movements that we do with our arms and legs require that we stabilize our trunk with abdominals first. The bottom line is to stick with exercises that put your feet on the floor.
2. The best abs exercise will stabilize the trunk while allowing movements with either the lower body or the upper body. The degree to which the abdominals are worked depends on the intensity of the activity and how many of the roles that the abdominals perform are used. For example, an upper extremity movement that requires stabilization of the trunk is going to be less demanding than an upper extremity movement that requires stabilization and rotation of the trunk.
3. All of the muscles of the abdominals will need to be recruited to work properly – NO isolation (crunches). In order to achieve maximum stabilization and efficiency the abdominal muscles will fire together. Our bodies rarely ever work in isolation, so why would we train in isolation if what we want is a fully functioning body that is ready to take on the stress and challenge of everyday life? The only exception that I see is if you are training in bodybuilding, but realistically that is a very small population.
4. The best abs exercise will require multiple planes of movement. Do you want to know how to increase the intensity of any abdominal exercise? Add another direction of movement to it. That means that it challenges our forward to backward motion (sagittal plane), side to side motion (frontal plane), and rotational motion (transverse plane) all at the same time. I call this 3 dimensional abdominal training.
Now compare your best abs exercise to the 4 qualifications that I just gave you and see how it compares. Just because an exercise doesn’t meet all 4 requirements doesn’t mean that it is a bad exercise, it just means that it can be improved or that there are more effective ones. An exercise that does meet all 4 requirements is going to work you harder. That means better results in less time.
Here are 4 of my best abs exercises:
1. Sprints: I know you are probably thinking that isn’t even an abdominal exercise. I would agree that it typically isn’t thought of as an abdominal exercise. However, how many sprinters do you know that don’t have ripped abs? This is also a great interval training exercise to reduce the amount of fat that is disguising your six pack abs.
2. Push Up Variations: From the most basic to the most advanced version of push ups, this is one of the best for training abdominal stabilization. Add intensity to a push up by introducing a new plane of motion.
3. Mountain Climber (a push up with a twist): This is a variation of a push up that can be a really intense exercise. Not only does this involve a traditional push up but you are adding a transverse movement with your legs while minimizing the width of your base at your feet. Try this one with your feet on a stability ball and tell me you don’t get a good workout. Another variation is called the Spiderman.
4. Kettlebell Swing: This one involves swinging a kettlebell, dumbbell, or weight plate up and down in front of you as if you were going to launch it straight up in the air. Add a diagonal movement to it and you have a woodchopper.
Now for the ultimate abdominal workout – Interval Training Style!
Pick your favorite 4 best abs exercises.
Choose an appropriate work to rest ratio and time.
Rotate from one exercise to the next during your work session.
It’s essential that you give a maximal effort during the work period.
Here’s an example using the above exercises.
Interval training workout protocol
20 second work
40 second rest
8 cycles / reps
Sprint for 20 seconds then active rest for 40 seconds
Push ups for 20 seconds then active rest for 40 seconds
Mountain climber for 20 seconds then active rest for 40 seconds
Kettlebell swing for 20 seconds then active rest for 40 seconds
Repeat this cycle 2x for a total of 8 minutes. I guarantee that if you are working hard you will get an amazing workout. Try changing the work to rest ratio or time and see what results you get.
The fun thing about using interval training as your workout protocol is that you can add enough variety that it seems like you are never doing the same workout.






