abs & core exercises
Having a strong core will benefit you both in the gym and in your everyday life. While Abs & Core Exercises are rarely the most important exercises in your workout plan, they are essential for building overall strength, stability and functional movement.
The purpose of the exercises on this page is not to be an exhaustive list of all Abs & Core Exercises, it is simply here to offer you some suggestions that you may not have considered in your workout plans already.
Use these exercises as an “add on” to your existing plan, or combine them with some exercises from our other muscle group categories to make yourself a full plan.
Ab & Core Exercises Benefits
First of all, it’s worth noting that most people perform their Abs & Core exercises as a finisher at the end of their workout. That’s usually because these are smaller muscles and many of these exercises are performed with bodyweight or light weight.
The benefits of performing Abs & Core Exercises is that they help you perform all other exercises more easily. Not only will you develop a strong core, you will also improve your posture, enhance your athletic performance, be more strong and stable as well as have better balance and coordination.
Will Training Abs Give Me Abs?
Contrary to what many believe, ab exercises aren’t responsible for giving you abs. Everyone has ab muscles, sure, you can train them to get bigger, but it is a matter of body fat that reveals them or not. So if you want to reveal yours, you need to look at your diet and nutrition first. Any ab exercises you do are secondary to your diet in this instance.
So when you’re training abs, remember that you’re doing it for the benefits mentioned above. If you want to know what it will take to reveal your abs, for women it is a body fat % of approximately 15-20%, of course, everyone is different so the exact number will depend on the individual.
What Muscles Make Up Your Abs & Core?
Your abdominal muscles consist of four main muscle groups:
Rectus Abdominis: The top layer of the abdominal wall.
Internal Obliques: Side core muscles supporting rotational movements.
External Obliques: Also side core muscles supporting rotational movements.
Transverse Abdominis: Deep core muscles.
When & How Often Should I Do Ab Workouts?
It depends.
First of all, it will benefit you to understand that many key compound exercises work your abs anyway. Exercises such as squats and deadlifts, where you move far more overall weight, are arguably a much better ab workout than multiple sets of sit ups.
With all that said, Abs & Core Exercises absolutely do have a place in your workouts, and they are worth doing. Just make sure you understand how to use them to your advantage.
As mentioned at the very start of this page, Abs & Core Exercises are best used as a finisher to any workout. That means you can do them after your leg workout, chest & biceps workout, back, shoulders & triceps workout, a pull workout, a push workout… it really doesn’t matter what workout you do first, because it’s unlikely you will ever do an entire workout dedicated to Abs & Core Exercises.
So to finally answer the question; how often should you do these exercises?... As often as you like. You can do them after every workout, or you can commit to doing them just 2-3 times per week. Whatever works for you. Consider them an “add-on” to your primary plan.
What Equipment Is Best For Ab Workouts?
Some of the most common ab exercises are performed with bodyweight alone. Exercises such as Sit Ups, Planks, Leg Raises don’t require any equipment. But if you’re serious about training your abs, you will upgrade to using free weights, cables, machines and other equipment.
The types of equipment required for the Abs & Core Exercises in this database includes:
Ab Roller
Barbell
Weight Plate
Cable Machine
Pull Up Bar or Leg Raise/Dip Station
What's The Difference Between My 'Abs' And My 'Core'?
The terms "abs" and "core" are often used interchangeably, but they actually refer to different things. Your abs specifically are the anterior abdominal wall, i’e’ the 6-pack muscles. Your core is that plus a broader group of muscles that stabilise and support the spine and pelvis. Core exercises engage muscles beyond the superficial abs, including the lower back, hips, and glutes, promoting overall stability and strength.
Do Abs & Core Exercises Burn Belly Fat?
No. There is no such thing as spot reduction when it comes to fat loss, it’s all over fat loss or nothing. That’s just how our bodies work. If you’re hoping to do some Ab & Core Exercises to reduce belly fat, dont, it will not work.
Instead, focus on putting together a quality workout plan that prioritises your larger muscle groups. The more lean muscle you have, the faster your metabolism, and a faster metabolism combined with frequent exercise and a good diet will help you to reduce belly fat. That’s why bigger compound exercises, such as squats and deadlifts, that work your abs alongside multiple other muscle groups are arguably a faster way to revealing abs.
What Are The Most Effective Abs & Core Exercises
Any exercise that engages your Abs & Core is effective, what you should prioritise is the ones that you can perform good clean and consistent reps of. Start where you are and always look to progress.
For example, if you are performing simple Planks with ease, start challenging yourself with Spiderman Planks or Plank Switches. Work your way up to more advanced exercises, such as Elevated Leg Raises and the Ab Roller.
All exercises work at engaging the target muscle group, your job is to ensure that you are sufficiently challenging that muscle group so it can grow.
How Can I Use These Abs & Core Exercises To My Advantage?
An Added Boost to Your Existing Plan
As with all exercises in our database, you are encouraged to use them to enhance your existing workout, by picking out exercises for the muscle groups you want to grow and adding them to your current routine.
Build Complete Workouts
You may also make yourself a full weekly workout rotation with these exercises, but that will require some critical thinking on your part. We can give you the exercises, there is a lot of information on each individual exercise page for you to work with. But it’s up to you to take that information and use it to build the best workout plans for you. With experience this will get easier.
Building a Workout Basics
When you create a workout plan for yourself, you should start with a general plan of which muscle groups you will train on each day. If you are a beginner, keep it simple with an upper/lower body split. Intermediate and advanced lifters will move to rotate muscle groups or other methods such as push, pull, legs.
Once you know how you will train on each day, choose a key compound exercise to start with. For the sake of simplicity, let’s say you’re planning a lower body or leg workout plan. The most obvious exercise to start with is a Squat, if you don’t want to squat, you can start with a Deadlift or a Lunge. A good weightlifting workout plan always starts with a compound barbell exercise, you should work your way down through freeweight, cable and machine exercises, finishing up on bodyweight exercises all focused on the target muscle group.
Progress
Always make sure that you push yourself out of your comfort zone, as soon as you feel like you are breezing through your workout with ease, it’s time to switch things up. There are 3 things you can do in this instance:
Lift more
Change your rep/set method
Change your plan
Essentially, you should do all 3, but one thing at a time. The most sustainable results come from incremental changes over time.
Consistency
The results we want from weightlifting don’t happen overnight and they don’t happen with one single exercise, workout or strategy. You need to keep showing up and evolving. When you train consistently you get results. There are no shortcuts.
Looking for a full Abs & Core Workout?
We do have a Simply Abs & Core Workout category in our Members Zone portal, it’s part of our single muscle group series. These workouts are designed to be used as an add on to any full workout plan, or combined with other single muscle group workouts to make a complete plan. We also have a selection of Abs & Core finisher plans available in the portal. You can sample some of these plans when you sign up for a Free Members Zone account. All you need to provide is a valid email address so that we can create your secure account. Then just head to “My Zone” and you will find a selection of free plans.
More abs & core exercises coming soon...
Just so you know, this list of abs & core exercises is a work in progress and is by no means extensive. We will continue to grow this entire database for you over time, so be sure to check back for updates. Alternatively, you can join our mailing list below and you'll be the first to know about all new content we produce.