Exercises for abs
149 exercises that train abs, primary or secondary. Tap for technique and tips.
Your core muscles support nearly everything you do — not because it sounds good, but because it's true. Rotation, stabilization, pressing power: they're at the heart of every lift, every throw, and every movement pattern that demands control.
Here you'll find 149 exercises spanning everything from bodyweight and barbell to cable machine, kettlebell, and medicine ball. The breadth means you can tailor your training to whatever equipment you have access to — and switch up the stimulus when your body adapts.
Start with the fundamentals
Bodyweight exercises are the obvious starting point and deliver far more than most expect. 3/4 situps and hip thrusts with bent knees build control through a complete range of motion, while air bikes and alternating heel touches add a dynamic component without requiring any equipment.
Once you've developed foundational strength, you can progress to the ab wheel or body-ups — both demand that your core work actively throughout the entire movement, not just at the top.
Barbell and cable — more load, more control
The barbell opens up exercises like barbell ab wheel rollouts, bench roll-outs, and barbell side bends. The rollout variations are demanding: they load the core eccentrically and require you to maintain a neutral spine throughout the drag.
The cable machine provides constant tension throughout the range of motion — something free weights can't match. Cable crunches, cable reverse crunches, and cable wood chops are three distinctly different stimuli, and stability ball cable crunches with rotation challenges your obliques in a way most standard crunches miss.
Variation with kettlebells, medicine balls, and more
Kettlebell training demands rotation and lateral stability in ways isolated machine exercises rarely do. The advanced kettlebell windmill and bent press are technically demanding but deliver a unique stimulus for your entire lateral chain.
If you want more explosive work, medicine balls and stability balls serve well as supplements — and for those willing to try something genuinely heavy, atlas stones are a solid challenge. Your core adapts quickly, so variation in equipment and movement direction is what keeps your training productive over time.