10 Best Ab Exercises for Men
Achieving a rock hard six-pack is a goal for many who dedicate their time to health and fitness- but how easy is it? The pursuit of perfect abdominal muscles can be tricky, and it definitely isn’t something that can happen overnight.
These days abs have become a true testament to dedication and perseverance in the workout world. Though, there’s more to gain in exercising this muscle group besides their aesthetics. Whether you want to lift heavier, run farther, hit harder, or balance better, all strength stems from your core.
Though gaining a set of abs can be a lot of work, it’s not impossible, and thankfully this guide is here to help you get started. Below you’re going to find some of the best ab exercises out there, outlining techniques that can be implemented in both a standard gym or an at-home workout set up, as well as key tips for understanding more about this muscle group. Let’s get started!
What Are Your Abdominal Muscles?
Before you begin your journey to a stronger set of abs, let’s take a deeper look into what makes up your abominable muscle group. Your abs are a key muscle group, working to support your trunk, allow for movement, regulate abdominal pressure, and they hold all your organs in place. Even if you’re not actively working on your abs, they are putting in the work daily to support you as you move through the world.
In the fitness world, your “abs” generally refer to the more visible, superficial muscles on the outer core of your abdomen, not the whole of the muscles that keep you stable. You ab muscles are located between your ribs and pelvis on the front of your body and can be broken down as follows:
Transversus Abdominis: Your transversus abdominis works to stabilize your trunk and maintain your internal abdominal pressure. This is your deepest layer of muscle, located underneath your rectus abdominus.
Rectus Abdominis: Your rectus abdominis works to move your body between your ribcage and your pelvis. It is located at the front of your abdomen, between the pelvis and your pubic bone. These muscles are what you associate with a six-pack, as they are the bumps and bulges on display when you picture abs.
External Oblique Muscles: Your external obliques are located on either side of the rectus abdominis. These muscles work to make your trunk twist, but to the opposite side of the external oblique, that is contracting. This means that when the right external oblique is contracting, it’s working to turn your body left.
Internal Oblique Muscles: Your internal oblique muscles are located on either side of your inner hip bones, acting in the opposite way to your external oblique muscles. This means when you turn your trunk to the left, the left internal oblique and the right external oblique contract at the same time.
Must-Know Ab Workout Tips
Before working on your new ab routine, it’s best to keep these things in mind:
Use Proper Form
It’s important to ensure that you are keeping proper form when performing ab exercises! When done improperly, bad form can lead to injuries and tears, putting a serious halt in your workout regimen goals.
When performing any ab exercise, make sure you hold tension in your core, pulling your belly button towards your spine and contracting your abs with each rep. Perform slow movements with good control, and always ensure you support your neck and head when needed. Never pull on your head during an exercise, and avoid pulling your chin in tight to your chest to avoid neck strain.
Slowly Introduce New Sets
The pursuit of perfect abdominal muscles has led to many a fad workout, inspiring people to attempt 200 crunches a day right from the get-go. If you are just starting to introduce abdominal exercises into your routine, take the time to slowly ease them in. Start with a small set number of reps, and week by week, slowly increase the intensity by adding more. By doing this, while leaving time to recover between workouts, you’ll be able to achieve results without risking an injury. Remember, slow and steady wins the race!
Take Your Rest Days
As we said above, while it can be tempting to embark on a once-a-day style workout routine, it can put a lot of pressure on these muscles and, in the worst case, cause an injury. I’m not just talking strains or minor tears- overworking your abs can lead to more serious setbacks, like lower back pain, spine issues, or even a hernia.
It’s important to know how much you can work out before it does you more harm than good. Whether you’re new to exercise or a seasoned pro, be sure to give your muscles the adequate time to heal between your sets. When doing core-specific exercises, try not to do them more than two to three times a week, with a day of rest in between. If you can’t resist the urge and need to work in some form of exercise daily, figuring out how to properly work out while sore is something you should prioritize.
Don’t Forget to Breathe
It’s tempting to hold your breath when you’re giving it all during an ab routine, but it causes more harm than you know. Be sure to keep breathing during these exercises, inhaling and exhaling with each movement. Perfecting your deep exhale can help you maintain the core tension you need to really work your muscles. Match your deep exhale with a deep inhale to ensure you’re still getting oxygenated blood to the muscles that need it. This may seem small, but you’ll be doing your body a lot more good than you would holding your breath.
Change Up Your Routine
Planning different variations of your ab workout routine for a more well-rounded regimen is beneficial in the long run. You may have your favorite exercises to use but diversifying your approaches can help you ensure you’re not accidentally excluding any muscle movements to truly define your shape.
This doesn’t have to be too complicated! You can make small edits to existing moves in your routine if you’re not looking to memorize a wide variety of different exercises. For example, you could try multiple variations of old reliable exercises like curls, crunches, or planks to target new muscles with different kinds of movements.
Adjust Your Diet
Diet is key if you want visible abdominal muscles. Fitness experts say that to achieve the washboard look, men typically need to get down to 10% body fat for them to be visible. If this look is your goal, burning fat should be a key priority when it comes to your health routine, as you need to burn off more calories than you consume to lose body fat. Getting online or busting out the cookbooks to look for some new healthy meals is a great place to start on your ab journey!
The Ten Best Ab Exercises For Men
Ready to get to work? The moves we’ve outlined below are a great place to start. While some of these exercises do rely on some forms of gym equipment, we have included many beginner moves that can be performed with body weight alone. Whether you are just beginning to work on your abs, or you’re a bodybuilding pro, there’s something for everyone to be found here:
1. Plank
The dreaded plank is a classic technique for building better abdominal and core muscles, engaging both your rectus abdominis and the muscles that follow your pelvis and spine up to your shoulders. Adding a plank to your routine can help to strengthen your overall core while building stronger abs. Be sure to use a mat or other comfortable flooring when doing a plank. If building a home gym, it could be worth looking into options for optimum gym flooring if planks become a regular part of your routine.
- While on all fours, extend your entire body length, resting your forearms and your toes. Your legs and core should be raised off the ground, back straight, head relaxed, and looking down.
- Flex and engage your ab muscles, sucking your belly button towards the back of your spine. Make sure you are keeping your body rigid and your spine in a neutral position. Your feet should be straight, heels over the balls of your feet. Your hips should be shoulder-width apart, and your back should be straight, not curved.
- Hold your position for 10 seconds or any other desired length. Keep breathing.
- Release the position and rest back on the floor.
2. Dumbbell Side Bend
A dumbbell side bend may appear easy, but don’t let it fool you! This is much more than leaning side to side. This exercise works especially well to target your obliques, stretching out the often ignored side muscles in your core. Be sure to use a weight level appropriate for you and keep your abs tight for maximum results.
- Stand straight, feet hip-width apart, with a dumbbell in one hand, palm facing inward.
- Keeping your spine straight, bend your side, holding the dumbbell as far to the side as you can.
- Hold your position for a second once you’ve gone down as far as you can go, then return to your start position.
- Repeat the move on either side.
3. Medicine Ball Slam
Medicine balls slams are perhaps one of the oldest exercises in existence, but its perseverance over the years has been for a good reason. Part of its longstanding appeal is its simplicity- this exercise is hard to mess up, making it perfect for even the most inexperienced person. Just be sure you’re using the correct weight for you. Though you may be tempted to go big, an 8-10 pound ball is good enough to exercise without risk of injury.
- With your knees slightly bent, standing shoulder-width apart, hold a non-bounce medicine ball overhead.
- Throw the ball down, in front of your feet, as hard as you can. Catch the ball if possible.
- While throwing, engage your abs, contracting your muscles.
- Lift your medicine ball back to the starting position and repeat.
4. Russian Twists
The Russian Twist can help to strengthen the planes of muscles along your sides, mixing it up from more parallel exercises like crunches or sit-ups. This move can also be great for toning shoulders and hips, making it a great addition to any full-body routine. While you can do a variation of this move with just your body, we recommend adding in some kind of weight. A medicine ball, weight plate, or dumbbell will do!
- Sit on your sit bones with your feet off the floor, creating a V shape with your body.
- In this position, hold your weight of choice with both hands, centered at chest level.
- While tightening your abdominal muscles, hold your weight chest level as you twist left and right. Tap your weight to the ground when you reach the side of each twist motion.
- Repeat.
5. Hanging Knee Raise
This bodyweight exercise is excellent for building core strength along with stamina and endurance. It’s also a great choice to target your lower abs if you’re working on your deep V and will help you build up your grip and bulk up your forearms. Upper body strength is key here, needed for hanging from the exercise bar during these raises, so this move may not be best for a beginner routine.
- Grip a pull up bar, standing shoulder-width apart.
- Keeping your back and body straight, and keeping your legs together, lift your knees towards your chest until they are at a 90-degree angle.
- Lower your legs slowly, close to your start position but not touching the ground. Repeat movement.
6. Kneeling Ab Wheel Rollout
Though it’s called an ab rollout, this exercise is great for your entire body, engaging multiple muscle groups. With an ab rollout, you can engage your abdominal muscles, work on balance, stabilize your spine, and utilize your upper arms, chest, and shoulder muscles with each movement. Ab rollouts are great for more than just ab day and will do wonders to improve core strength and overall balance.
- Start in a kneeling position, holding your ab wheel in both hands with your arms straight. Your head should be parallel with the wheel, back rounded out, and tailbone tucked in.
- Roll the wheel forward, pushing your body forward with its movement, straightening your spine.
- Once fully extended, contract your ab muscles.
- Pull your ab wheel back towards you, re-entering your starting position. Repeat.
7. Barbell Back Squat
Though many consider the barbell back squat to primarily be a leg building exercise, it has many benefits for your abs as well. Be sure to take care to keep your entire body engaged and balanced if doing this move, as it requires a lot of ankle and core stability to maneuver. It could be worth your while to build up to this exercise with some classic bodyweight squats before jumping into something advanced like this.
- Set up your barbell to be just below shoulder height, with appropriate weight
- Stand under the bar, feet shoulder-width apart, with the bar resting at the top of your back. The bar should not touch the back of your neck
- Grip the bar wide, arms behind you, removing it from the rack
- With the bar in your hands, bend at the knees, keeping your back straight. Squat until your thighs are parallel with the floor
- Slowly raise your body back up, concentrating your weight on your heels, until you are in your starting position. Repeat
8. Side Plank
A side plank is a great exercise for strengthening your obliques, as well as engaging your chest, shoulders, and hips. If you’re looking to build up your strength and core to decrease issues like back pain, this is a great move to master! When performing this exercise, be sure to keep your head and neck straight and keep your ab muscles as rigid as possible.
- Hold yourself up on your side, feet together, forearm below your shoulder. Be sure you are balancing on the side of your foot, not the sole.
- Keep your core muscles rigid, hips raised off the ground, holding your body in a straight line.
- Hold the position for as long as possible. Repeat on the opposite side.
9. Crunch
Crunches are an exercise fundamental and have been a go-to ab workout for decades. This move is great for targeting the rectus abdominis, toning the muscles directly along the front of your torso. If gaining the look of a classic six-pack is your goal, this is the exercise to take you there. This move is both simple and effective, making it great for even the most novice user.
- Lay down on the ground with your knees bent, back, and feet flat. Keep your arms either behind your head or crossed over your chest.
- Inhale, keeping your abs rigid, as you lift your shoulders off the floor by 1-2 inches.
- Once up, exhale, hold, and slowly lower back down.
- Repeat steps.
10. Leg Raise
Another simple yet effective move, a leg raise is great for building strength in your hips and lower back. If you work any kind of office job where you spend a lot of time sitting, this move can help build strength to decrease back pain. If you find doing a leg raise a little too easy, you can always add more challenging elements. Try holding a medicine ball between your feet if you’d like a bigger challenge.
- Lay down flat on the floor, arms at your sides.
- Keeping your legs together, lift them up, so they are straight as possible, pointing at the ceiling.
- From this posting, slowly lift your hips, raising your pointed legs as far as possible towards the ceiling.
- Lower them back down until your hips are hovering over the ground.
- From here, raise your legs again, repeating the exercise.