Top 10 ab exercises revealed

It's long been debated - what are the top ten abs exercises? Everyone has their favourites, but this tends to be based more on personal preference than anything else.


People want to know what's the most popular and what's the best! Now, you can sort the top ten abs exercises thanks to researchers at the Biomechanics Lab at San Diego State University.





The researchers looked at 13 different options, from traditional crunches through to more complicated activities that required equipment.



The abs exercises were then ranked based upon the amount of muscle stimulation they produced in both the rectus abdominus (the muscle that runs along the front of the abdomen) and the internal and external obliques (the muscles that extend along the sides of the abdomen).


Using the traditional ab crunch as a baseline, for which we gave it a nominal rating/score of 100, a number of key exercises are ranked as follows on the next page.


This provides you with a simple and easy to understand ranking of how effective certain exercises are in context of their benefit to your fitness plan & workout.

Abdominals workout - charts

For the best and 'worst' abdominals workouts why not check out our comprehensive charts below. They show scores relative to a base reference of 100 for stimulation of the two key muscle groups - the Rectus Abdominus and Internal / External Obliques
 

Rectus Abdominus

	Exercise	Score
1	Bicycle Manoeuvre	248
2	Captain's Chair	212
3	Exercise Ball	139
4	Vertical Leg Crunch	129
5	Torso Track	127
6	Long Arm Crunch	119
7	Reverse Crunch	109
8	Crunch with Heel Push	107
9	Ab Roller	105
10	Hover	100
11	Traditional Crunch	100
12	Exercise Tubing Pull	92
13	Ab rocker	21

Internal and External Obliques

	Exercise	Score
1	Captain's Chair	310
2	Bicycle Manoeuvre	290
3	Reverse Crunch	240
4	Hover	230
5	Vertical Leg Crunch	216
6	Exercise Ball	147
7	Torso Track	145
8	Crunch with Heel Push	126
9	Long Arm Crunch	118
10	Ab Roller	101
11	Traditional Crunch	100
12	Exercise Tubing Pull	77
13	Ab rocker	74

A difference of less than 25% is not significant, so the key to interpreting these results is to look for the big differences.

Ab exercises - close up

A closer look at the ab exercise charts shows that some of these differences are quite dramatic - the leading exercises being anything from two to three times more effective than the basic crunch, and up to ten times more effective than the worst!

Indeed, the ab rocker, so beloved of gyms and health clubs, came in last in both tests, registering as only 10% as effective as the Bicycle Manoeuver and the Captain's Chair for working the rectus abdominus!

In general, the researchers found that exercises that require constant abdominal stabilization and body rotation generated the most muscle activity in the obliques.

When the results of the two muscle groups were combined, the most effective exercises were the bicycle manoeuver, followed closely by the captain's chair. If you're looking to purchase a piece of home exercise equipment, note that crunches on a swissball ranked third overall.

Interestingly, although crunches on an exercise ball scored lower on the ECG scores than the top two exercises, they also generated significantly less activity in the rectus femoris, (one of the four quadriceps muscles, required for hip flexion) leading researchers to conclude that they are arguably, the best overall exercise.

However, not all the various crunches fared so well, with both the long arm crunch and the crunch with heel push barely more effective than the traditional crunch.

Abdominal workouts and fitness plans

The researchers suggested that abdominals workouts as part of your fitness plans are best served up as a combination of several of the exercises from the top-third of the list. Then doing a five-minute session daily.

Obviously this is sometimes not completely practical, however we have pulled together what this means below to give you a cheats guide to what to do next - workout your abdominals!

Exercise Ball crunches :: view the exercise
 

The Captain's Chair
 

Bicycle Manoeuvres :
 

Reverse Crunches :
 

Vertical Leg Crunches
 

The beauty of having a variety to choose from is that if an exercise is uncomfortable or doesn't feel right, you can easily do another. In addition, using a variety of movements will work different muscles and combat boredom.

In summary :

Regularly working your abdominals will improve your posture, reduce lower back pain and is essential for long-term health and well being.

Of course, if a six-pack is your goal, bear in mind that it takes more than just exercise - you also need proper nutrition and a well-balanced exercise routine to uncover those abs!

So what are you going to do? Keep doing the same old exercises and fitness workouts you've always done, or focus on those that are demonstrated to show results?