The Best Ab Exercises That Are Actually Worth Your Time

You’ve done the 10-minute ab videos. You’ve held a plank until your arms shook. And somewhere around crunch number 47, you started wondering if any of it was actually doing anything. What if the problem was never your effort — but the exercises you were told to do?

Let’s fix that. Here are the best ab exercises that earn their spot in a busy week, plus the honest truth about what core training can and can’t do.

Jump to a sectionIn this article7 sections

1. What Your Core Actually Does
2. The Belly Fat Question (Let’s Be Honest)
3. The Ab Exercises Actually Worth Your Time
4. What About Crunches and Sit-Ups?
5. How to Actually Fit This Into Your Week
6. Actionable Tips You Can Start This Week ✅
7. The Bottom Line

What Your Core Actually Does

Here’s the thing most workout videos skip: your core’s main job isn’t to fold you in half. It’s to keep you stable while everything else moves.

Think about carrying a heavy laundry basket down the stairs. Or picking up a kid who has suddenly decided to become a sack of potatoes. Or catching yourself when you step on a toy in the dark. Your core is doing the work in all of those moments — and none of them look like a crunch.

That’s why the smartest ab training focuses on anti-movement. You’re teaching your midsection to hold its position under load. Resist the arch. Resist the twist. Resist the fold. That’s what carries over to real life.

I coached track and field athletes for years, and later spent a long time in martial arts — Wing Chun, boxing, jiu-jitsu. In every one of those, the strongest people weren’t the ones with the flashiest ab routines. They were the ones who could stay braced while chaos happened around them. That’s the skill worth building.

The Muscles Involved

You’ve got a few key players 💡:

• Rectus abdominis — the “six-pack” muscle. It flexes your spine (crunches, sit-ups).
• Obliques — the sides. They handle rotation and side-bending, and resist both.
• Transverse abdominis — a deep, corset-like muscle that wraps around your midsection and helps stabilize your spine.
• Erector spinae and glutes — part of the posterior chain. Your core doesn’t stop at your belly button.

Training only the front is like building half a bridge.

The Belly Fat Question (Let’s Be Honest)

I’m going to be straight with you, because this is where most ab articles quietly lie.

Doing ab exercises will not reduce belly fat. ❌ This idea is called spot reduction, and research has looked at it repeatedly. Working a muscle doesn’t pull fat from the area on top of it. Your body decides where it loses fat based on genetics, hormones, and overall energy balance — not on which muscle you fatigued yesterday.

So why train your core at all?

Because a strong core makes you more capable. Better posture under load. More power when you push, pull, or carry. Less wobble when you’re tired. It supports your back and hips as you age. And for women moving through perimenopause and menopause, when muscle mass and bone density naturally shift, staying strong through the middle matters more, not less.

That’s the real payoff. Not a flatter stomach — a more durable body.

The Ab Exercises Actually Worth Your Time

These are chosen for one reason: they give you a lot back for a small time investment.

1. Dead Bug

Lie on your back, arms straight up, knees bent at 90 degrees. Slowly lower one arm overhead and the opposite leg toward the floor. Return. Switch sides.

Why it works: It teaches you to keep your lower back flat while your limbs move — the exact anti-arch skill your spine wants. It’s also joint-friendly and beginner-appropriate.

⚠️ Common mistake: letting your lower back pop up off the floor. If it does, don’t reach as far. Smaller range, better control.

2. Plank (Done With Intent)

Not a plank where you stare at the clock and sag. A plank where you’re actively squeezing — glutes on, ribs down, elbows pressing into the floor.

Why it works: It’s anti-extension training and it’s free. Nothing required but floor.

💡 Coach tip: If you can hold it for two minutes, you’re not making it harder — you’re just getting good at waiting. Add a challenge instead: elevate your feet, or reach one arm forward.

3. Suitcase Carry

Pick up one heavy thing — a dumbbell, a kettlebell, a loaded grocery bag — and walk with it at your side. Stand tall. Don’t lean.

Why it works: Your obliques fire hard to keep you from tipping. This is possibly the most useful core exercise there is, because it’s literally something you already do. Walk 30–60 seconds per side.

4. Pallof Press

Anchor a resistance band at chest height. Stand sideways to it, hold the band at your chest with both hands, and press straight out. The band wants to rotate you. Don’t let it.

Why it works: Anti-rotation. It’s the move that most directly translates to catching yourself, changing direction, and carrying awkward things.

5. Hollow Body Hold

Lie on your back, press your lower back into the floor, lift your shoulders and legs slightly. Hold.

Why it works: It builds full-front tension and teaches control. Gymnasts build entire careers on this position.

⚠️ This one isn’t beginner-friendly. Start with knees bent and hands on thighs, and only extend as your control improves.

6. Loaded Compound Lifts

Squats. Deadlifts. Overhead presses. Farmer’s carries.

Why it works: A compound movement — one that works multiple joints and muscle groups at once — demands serious core bracing to protect your spine. If you’re strength training already, your core is getting worked whether you named it “ab day” or not.

What About Crunches and Sit-Ups?

Here’s where I part ways with the internet.

Crunches aren’t evil. They aren’t “bad.” They train spinal flexion, which is a real thing your body does — every time you sit up in bed, you’re doing one. The rectus abdominis flexes the spine. That’s its job.

The issue is opportunity cost. If you’ve got seven minutes, hundreds of crunches is a poor use of them compared to a dead bug, a carry, and a plank. And repeated high-volume spinal flexion isn’t the best fit for everyone, especially if you sit hunched at a desk all day.

Use them as a piece of the picture, not the whole thing.

Exercise Type	What It Actually Trains	Best For	Watch Out For
Crunch / Sit-Up	Spinal flexion (rectus abdominis)	Adding direct ab volume	High reps, neck strain, poor carryover
Plank	Anti-extension, bracing	Beginners, home training	Sagging hips, endless holds
Dead Bug	Anti-extension with limb movement	Beginners, back-friendly work	Lower back arching
Pallof Press	Anti-rotation	Real-world stability	Needs a band or cable
Suitcase Carry	Anti-lateral flexion, grip, posture	Everyone, especially busy people	Leaning toward the weight
Squats / Deadlifts	Whole-body bracing under load	Building overall strength	Form matters — start light

How to Actually Fit This Into Your Week

You don’t need an “ab day.” Honestly, you probably shouldn’t have one.

Try this instead:

• Pick 2–3 moves from the list above.
• Do them 2–3 times a week, tacked onto the end of a workout or slotted into a gap in your day.
• Aim for 5–10 minutes total. That’s it.
• Progress by making moves harder, not longer. Add weight, add range, slow the tempo.

Progressive overload — gradually asking a bit more of your body over time — applies to your core just like your legs. Holding the same plank for the same 45 seconds for two years isn’t progress. It’s maintenance.

Actionable Tips You Can Start This Week ✅

• Do the grocery test. Next trip, carry the bags one at a time, one per side, standing tall. That’s a suitcase carry. It counts.
• Add 90 seconds to an existing workout. Dead bug + plank. Done. Don’t build a new routine — attach to one you already have.
• Film one set. Your phone will show you the back arch you can’t feel.
• Brace before you lift anything heavy. Take a breath, tighten like someone’s about to poke your stomach, then move. This one habit does more than any ab circuit.
• Swap one crunch set for a carry. Same time, more return.
• Stop counting to failure. Stop the set when your form breaks, not when it hurts. Sharp pain is a stop sign, never a badge.

The Bottom Line

The best ab exercises aren’t the hardest ones or the ones with the most views. They’re the ones that teach your body to brace, stay steady, and hold its shape when life gets heavy — and the ones you’ll actually do on a Tuesday when you’re tired.

You don’t need a 30-day challenge. You don’t need to earn anything. You need five focused minutes, a couple of times a week, done consistently for a few months. That’s not exciting. It’s just what works. Small, boring consistency beats a perfect program you abandon by week two — every single time. 💪

This article is for general information only and isn’t medical advice. Please talk with your doctor or a qualified fitness professional before starting or changing an exercise program — especially if you’re pregnant or postpartum, have diastasis recti, are managing back or joint pain, have an existing medical condition, or are returning after a long break from training.

Keep going: this article is part of my complete fitness guide. For every guide, free tool, and honest review, organized by where you are stuck, visit the Weight Loss Hub.