If you were to suggest 1 abs exercise, what would it be?

Hi Mitchell,

I want to include a caveat to my answer - please consider that since I prescribe exercise to treat disease, I'm used to working with incredibly deconditioned people with significant chronic disease. Keeping that in mind, my favorite ab exercise to recommend is what I call a standing crunch. If while standing, you tuck your pelvis under you (try placing your hands on your lower back, palms against your body, fingers pointing down and pushing down towards your butt with your finger tips; you should start to feel your hips come under you), bringing your navel inwards, towards your spine. You should feel your abs contract, and you might also find yourself standing a little taller. Hold the contraction for as long as you can tolerate, perhaps just starting with 10-15 seconds, and then relax. Just remember to breathe; people tend to hold their breath when doing this exercise.

This isn't a very intense exercise, and you probably won't feel your abs becoming incredibly fatigued quickly, but the thing that I really like about this exercise is that you can do it literally anywhere, and if throughout the day you remember to try to contract your abdominals pretty regularly, you will start to see a training effect and at the very least, it will be a good supplement to more intense ab work you might choose to engage in the gym.

I hope this helps!
Lauren

Medicine ball crunch on a decline bench! I can definatley feel the burn when I do it! If you have good core strength theres lots you can do using the swiss ball, I am yet to master the one where you put your feet on the ball whilst starting like a press up,and bringing your legs in towards your chest..whilst still balancing on the ball...apparntly it's really good for engaging all parts of your abs?!

I like planks and you can increase the intensity by slowly raising and lowering your hips without touching the floor...do these for a minute or two and even those with very well-conditioned abs will "feel the burn"!

simple one is gymnastics dish shape, just holds as long as you can 3 or 4 times, constant isolation :)

My trainer gets me using TRX for my abs. The best one is my feet hanging in the TRX straps, in a press up position and drawing my knees into my chest. Hard but I really feel it. x

If you are in decent shape i'd recommend Hanging leg raises, if you cannot do them captain chair leg raises. Where you are on a dipping station with back support, slowly bring legs up to past hip height, this will help with the hip flexion associated with lower ab development, then slowly lower for a count of 3-5 depending on the strength of your abs, do 3 sets of 10-15 reps.. If you can. Let us know how you get on.

Planks

I'm going with mark. Planks they not only stregthen your core but also you back and glutes. They are also less stressful on your lower back than all those crunches and leg raises.

Hey mitchell,

I know i've had my two pence already or in your case (2 cents - being american and all) however, whilst the plank is a fantastic exercise, i've reviewed your profile and came to the conclusion the plank maybe not be suitable for yourself. It says you a college athlete - semi-professional football player.

Just for pure function.. how often do you statically contract your abs during a game? My answer.. Never.

The best thing for you in this sense would maybe be woodchops, at least then you are working your anterior chain in a functional manner with the correct rep range/sets you could get some cracking obliques which would stand you in good stead on the football field rather than training them isometrically.

I'd go 3 sets of 12-15 reps both sides, go from low to high, just past knee level and then up above the shoulder. Imagine you are doing an X through your body, you want to follow those contours. and then after those three sets..high to low. No rest whatsoever, then come back here telling us that your abs don't feel the burn. Perfect for a quick oblique workout. More so.. functional!

Hanging/Lying Garhammer raises

Hanging leg raises...hands down

Squats with the bar at the front - beat that!

Plank on Ball & Stir the Pot

I'm just adding one more to the bag of tricks... I just did this one for the first time the other day and was surprised by the effectiveness I felt from it... Here is a link with instructions on how to do it...

I'm going to throw in Romanian Twists!

I like it Tim!

AND

I just started doing weighted hanging leg raises

I'm loving wood chops and kettlebell swings, I know thats two but done right they hit the abs good!

It's probably got other names but I know it as "Iron Crosses" - you lie on your back on the ground, raise your legs up straight in the air, bring your head off the floor, then slowly lower your legs to one side keeping them straight as you can, stop just before they touch the floor, hold for a second then bring them back to centre, repeat on the other side. They're pretty killer and you can always add weight between your feet if its too easy (though I wouldn't think it will be). Just keep them slow as otherwise you're relying on momentum which isn't going to do you anything. Works your whole ab area. Enkoy! :)

In terms of best return on investment in terms of time, I'm a great believer in the use of the Bosu. This is like a fitball cut in half which sits on a disc on the floor. There's many exercises which can be performed on a Bosu but what I like about it is that you can feel the effect very quickly in the abs and they are pretty safe to conduct ie it's hard to get them wrong. There's heaps of stuff on YouTube to show you some exercises, enjoy!

Holy be-jesus Dan! That's going to be my laugh for the day. Awesome find there!!

If had to pick one core exercise, it would be standing wheel rollouts (1-arm or 2-arm) with double wheels
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only one................. corkscrew reverse curls they are goooooooood ;-)