7 best bodyweight ab exercises to add to your core strengthening routine

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You don’t need heavy weights to strengthen your core muscles from home, just add these seven ab exercises to your core routine. Although weights are effective at adding intensity, bodyweight ab workouts can work these muscles hard.

Bodyweight training, like a calisthenics workout, naturally engages your core muscles and helps build functional strength, keeping your body moving with better efficiency and less chance of injury. A strong core also helps all exercisers lift heavier with better posture and run with better economy, amongst other benefits.

If you enjoy home workouts or prefer scaling back on the best gym equipment, these seven ab exercises should be staples in your gym routine. Here they are.

I program bodyweight training into any client's routines regardless of their experience level because you should always be able to move with your own bodyweight properly before you start picking up kettlebells, barbells or the best adjustable dumbbells.

My rule of thumb — everyone who can (and does) exercise without limitation should learn to do one bodyweight pull-up, push-up and squat supporting their weight. Obviously, there are exceptions.

You don’t have to isolate your core muscles with sit-ups or crunches, either. Plenty of compound exercises that recruit multiple muscle groups simultaneously activate these muscles.

The payoff is a stronger torso, supporting quality and safe movements like flexion, extension and rotation during workouts. You can also expect increased power and endurance and better postural control.

If you prefer weight training and made it this far, check out the 5 best kettlebell exercises for beginners for more ideas.

We’ve included exercises that target various core muscles, not just your abs, so you’ll find your six-pack muscles, obliques (that run down your waist) and lower abs feel the burn. We also activate the deeper muscles responsible for stabilizing the spine, which are the most important muscles to keep strong.

Strengthening and building muscle will give you more definition, but repping out hundreds of crunches and sit-ups alone won’t make a huge difference to your appearance — that comes down to diet, consistency and lifestyle choices. Find out why you can't see your abs yet, despite working out if that sounds familiar.

The move improves core and shoulder stabilization and works the entire body, including your arms and shoulders.

How:

This burpee variation is kinder on your lower back and doesn’t require chest-to-floor motion. The move develops strength, speed and explosive power and works multiple muscle groups, including your shoulders, chest, core, and legs.

How:

Avoid rounding through your spine or hyperextending your lower back, and practice landing toward your heels, not the balls of your feet. Here’s what happened when I did 80 sprawls every day for a week.

The variation targets the obliques, transverse abdominis, the stabilizer muscles in your shoulders, and the muscles in your back using rotation similar to a rinsing motion. Find out how to do plank hip dips in detail here.

How:

A take on the v-up, the move is killer on the obliques. Oblique v-ups adopt a side-crunching motion to torch your waist and test stability.

How:

Flutter kicks hit the lower abs and hip flexor muscles, activating your lower back. The move also requires core stability to stay in a crunch position throughout.

How:

The Sorenson Hold is an isometric exercise that requires your body to stay in a neutral parallel position with your chest lifted. It primarily strengthens your posterior chain muscles located down the back of your body, including the lower back, glutes, core, hip flexors and hamstrings.

How:

Replicate the move without a GHD machine with your thighs supported on a bench or box. Place a dumbbell between your feet or ask a friend to hold your legs.

A popular yoga move, the fallen triangle combines a triangle pose and side plank to torch shoulders, arms, glutes, obliques and abs, stretch the pectoral muscles and hips and activate your legs and back.

Yoga teachers can program the move in various ways, so here’s one way to do a fallen triangle.

How:

For an extra challenge, practice lifting your left leg away from the ground with a bent knee, then extend the leg away from you.

If you’re brave enough, some people enjoy elbow-to-knee crunches from this position. I know, right?

Ah, the age-old question — can you shred fat from ab exercises? Unfortunately, you can’t decide where to lose fat, regardless of how many targeted ab exercises you choose to do. So, if a website or personal trainer tells you you only need an ab workout to torch fat and nothing else, run far, far away.

Your genes, lifestyle choices, sleep and stress all play a part and the decisions you make in the kitchen. Unsurprisingly, you’ll need to find some balance and consistency with diet and exercise. Sadly, for many people, the stomach is the most stubborn place to lose fat from.

But it is possible, and the answer isn’t drastic. Making small changes to calorie intake, adopting a consistent exercise routine and incorporating more activity into your day can support sustainable weight loss — find out more about NEAT and weight loss here.

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Sam Hopes is a level III fitness trainer, level II reiki practitioner, and resident fitness writer at Future PLC, the publisher of Tom's Guide. Having trained to work with mind and body, Sam is a big advocate of using mindfulness techniques in sport and fitness, and their impact on performance. She’s also passionate about the fundamentals of training and building sustainable training methods. When she's writing up her experiences with the latest fitness tech, you’ll find her writing about nutrition, sleep, recovery, and workouts.

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