I Tested 30 Ab Exercises - You Only Need These 2

Start your free 2 week trial of BWS+ here: https://bws.plus/26a What is the best ab workout and the best ab exercises? In this video I'm tested 30 popular upper ab exercises, lower ab exercises, and all kinds of ab workouts to find what is actually best. Sit-ups started poorly: they're easy to load, but the floor limits the stretch and EMG showed the hip flexors taking over through the second half. Crunches reduced that hip-flexor involvement, but still couldn't provide a deep stretch. An ab mat or rolled-up towel fixed that and pushed it to A-tier. Next, crunches on a lat pulldown machine. The unassisted version gave stability and a deep stretch but was very hard. With the cable assisting, Dennis went from being unable to do a clean rep to a set of 10 — our first S-tier exercise. Next, the lower abs. Technically, your abs are one continuous muscle, so you can't truly isolate your upper and lower abs. But certain movements did seem to place more demand on different fibers. Whether that actually leads to more growth in one region hasn't been directly studied, so it's still a hypothesis rather than an established fact. Standard lying and hanging leg raises performed poorly because the hip flexors did most of the work. Straightening the legs made it worse: ab activation increased only slightly while hip-flexor activity jumped 40%. The fix: instead of just raising your legs, curling your pelvis into a C-shape brings the abs in. A bar behind the body added stability, and a Captain's Chair gave the same option when grip was the limit. Planks can teach beginners to brace and stabilize the spine, but they don't stretch the abs or move through a full range of motion, and they're hard to overload. The RKC plank nearly tripled my ab activation through full-body tension but shares the same limits. Then, harder movements. The dragon flag produced the highest upper- and lower-ab activation yet, but that doesn't necessarily make it the best exercise for building abs. The abs work almost maximally to hold the body rigid, not through a deep stretch or full range of motion. The Garhammer hold was interesting. Hanging your hips off a bench and holding your legs near the bottom puts the abs under huge tension while stretched. Some newer research in other muscles suggests stretched-position isometrics might produce similar muscle growth to full-range-of-motion reps. But the hold is hard to overload and still lacks a full range of motion. Turn the hold into Garhammer raises and you get the deep stretch, progression, and movement we want. They also produced the best lower-to-upper-ab activation ratio we'd seen so far, earning them S-tier. Reverse crunches offered a more beginner-friendly alternative. Adding an ab mat or rolled-up towel lets the abs stretch farther at the bottom — also earning this version S-tier. We also tested the usual ab workout moves: the ab roller, bicycle crunches, V-ups, butterfly kicks, mountain climbers, and dead bugs. Most were limited by hip-flexor involvement, a lack of stretch, or no way to overload them. Finally, cable crunch variations. Regular kneeling cable crunches are easy to progressively overload but give little tension in the stretch and let you cheat by moving your hips. Facing away from the cable fixes both. On the lat pulldown machine, facing away, raising the seat pad for support, and opening into a full stretch made one of the most stable setups in any abs workout at gym. After all 30, my best ab exercises if I could pick just 2: for the upper abs, both should use face-away lat pulldown cable crunches. For the lower abs, beginners should use reverse crunches with an ab mat, while advanced lifters should use Garhammer raises. 0:00 - 1:29 Sit-Ups 1:29 - 2:04 Crunches 2:04 - 2:41 Crunches with Ab Mat 2:41 - 3:30 Unassisted Lat Pulldown Crunch 3:30 - 3:56 Assisted Lat Pulldown Crunch 4:38 - 5:22 Lying Leg Raises 5:22 - 5:44 Hanging Leg Raises (Bent-Knee) 5:44 - 6:28 Hanging Leg Raises (Straight Leg) 6:28 - 7:27 Hanging Leg Raises (Curved Pelvis) 7:27 - 8:39 Hanging Leg Raises (With Bar) 8:39 - 9:20 Captain’s Chair Leg Raise 9:20 - 9:59 Plank 9:59 - 10:50 RKC Plank 10:50 - 12:12 Dragon Flag 12:12 - 12:29 Front Lever Raises 12:29 - 13:56 Garhammer Hold 13:56 - 14:37 Garhammer Raises 14:37 - 15:22 Reverse Crunch 15:22 - 15:51 Reverse Crunch With Ab Mat 15:51 - 16:53 Ab Roller 16:53 - 17:38 Bicycle Crunches 17:38 - 17:45 V-Ups 17:45 - 17:52 Butterfly Kicks 17:52 - 17:59 Mountain Climbers 17:59 - 18:31 Dead Bugs 18:31 - 19:17 Kneeling Cable Crunches 19:17 - 19:41 Kneeling Cable Crunches (Facing Away) 19:41 - 19:56 Standing Cable Crunches (Facing Away) 19:56 - 20:45 Lat Pulldown Cable Crunch 20:45 - 21:27 Lat Pulldown Cable Crunch (Face-Away) 21:27 - Final Results