What exercises do you do to strengthen your core and develop abdominal muscles?


I've got a little set of exercises I do, but I'd like to hear what other options are out there.

I know planks are the big thing now ... but I've discovered I can't do them because of an arthritic foot. I'm also not quite clear how they strengthen the core.

I don't usually worry about my side muscles, though I should. Supermans and straight leg raises. But mostly hovers on the bike and trial position on the bike during the "basement months".

Once you strengthen your core, you'll notice better power delivery. Especially in a must-go situation.

Squats, bicycle manoeuvre, burpees, mountain climber. The latter two are pretty strenuous. In general I favour whole-body exercises rather than concentrating on a single muscle group.

I also have a series of yoga-based stretches that bring the abs and lower back into play so are essentially core exercises.

I stick with few basic exercises:

- kettlebell exercises work my entire core and posterior chain
- front squats and standing overhead press with a barbell or kettlebells
- various TRX exercises are great for strengthening your core
- push ups and pull ups also hit your core besides being great for upper body
- hanging leg raises are great
- L-Sit on parallel bars

Core training has become a circus act at a lot of gyms and people do all kinds of ridiculous moves and waste their time...My advice is to choose few basic exercises which have proven to produce results and stick with it.

As I have been googling some of these exercises, I came across this ...

8 Common Exercises That Aren?t Worth Your Time | Arnold Schwarzenegger

I will add that I am doing an overall weightlifting thing most evenings ... just kind of building a strength base at this point. And my good ol' crunches are having some effect. It could be that I just need to be patient.

But I have always had trouble building the lower abs. I can get a 4 pack going, but never a 6.


And as I mentioned before, anything that involves bending my right foot from the ball of the foot to the toes is out. So no planks, no pushups ... the arthritis is just way too painful.

There is a valid modified plank using your knees instead of your feet. Being it's an isometric exercise position is key.

I've moved to a bodyweight workout on non-riding days, which is working well for me:

The Ultimate 90-Day Bodyweight Training Plan | Breaking Muscle

I also throw in a 3 minute plank routine for good measure:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXavwEMPpBc

Achieving a visible six pack is mostly about diet. Exercise alone will not do it. Low body fat percentage around your waist will help to make those muscles a lot more visible...Some things to consider:

- a perfectly sculpted and visible six pack is not an evidence of a strong core
- core has only one purpose, to provide stability/support and protection to your back and vital organs
- training for strength and performance should take priority over training for looks and looks will follow
- choose exercises which engage you entire body, especially your posterior chain
- a strong functional and visible six pack is usually the result of following a good diet and workout routine
- you can also have very strong core without you six pack showing perfectly

Crunches, side planks, hip thrusts and push ups really helped me with some back/disc issues.

Other than proving that you're skinny, a six-pack isn't much good for cycling. Ever have sore abs from cycling? I've never heard of it, but it you do, then ab work is probably good. Otherwise, it's your posterior chain that gets a workout on the bike, and your back is the upper anchor for that. Sore back complaints are legion here at BF. I do 5 times as much back work as ab work.

I like, in no particular order:
Lat pull-downs w/arched back
Horizontal row
Bent-over dumbbell rows
Dumbbell deadlifts
Back machine
Barbell squats
Seated unsupported dumbbell presses

The only thing I do at the gym that's really ab-centric is leg lifts in the Roman chair. Note how her knees come up above her hands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dbUfm0FC4I
This particular exercise imitates pedaling. One-legged pedaling also works the lower abs.

For bodyweight stuff, I still like Core Advantage.

Currently I am doing these:

- Hanging knee raise on rings (top position hold) - 5 sec. hold per rep, eventual goal is 3 sets of 12 reps. This is preparatory towards an L-sit, which I can't do yet. Once the hanging knee raise goal is achieved, I'll start on the next difficulty level, which is single-leg hanging straight leg raise. After that is the double-leg.
- Skin the Cat on rings.
- Tuck Sit to Tuck Bent Arm Stand on parallettes.

It's true all the ring exercises hit the core one way or the other, but these are the ones that hit them hardest for me.

In the recent past, I was doing tuck swings, assisted inverted pushups, plank-to-tuck swings, one-leg shoulder stand holds, mountain climber holds, etc. on the parallettes. Those all hit the core too.

I learned all these exercises by following GMB's Rings One and Parallettes One programs. Each has fairly clear progressions from really basic exercises (eg. pushups on knees, reverse rows, assisted pullups (feet on ground), etc.) to ever more difficult ones.

I have limited equipment to work with.

No lat pull down ... no pull up bars (not that I could use them if I had them) ... no Roman Chair ... nothing hanging ...

Just a bench with a couple attachments and free weights. And I'm using all of that.


In answer to a couple questions/comments:

Yes, I have had sore abs from cycling ... from riding the tandem. Evidently I use my abs a lot for balance on a tandem.

Yes, I am going for looks. I want a strong core too, of course, but I'd like to look it. I've kind of got the bodybuilding bug again. Now that I'm back down to my usual size, I'd like to bulk up a bit and it has begun. I've got biceps! And in the abs area, I've got a 2-pack.

Yeah, that is pretty much what I do, with variations. Plus some flys and squats, some work with bands. The nice thing is that you ca do this any place, though I stay focused better at the gym.

I just joined CrossFit to change things up, so I'll be doing more on the rings and ropes.

Here's a core strengthening exercise that does not require equipment - the Hollow Body Hold:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlDNef_Ztsc

You can make your own parallettes on the cheap with PVC pipe and the like. They take little space and are easily transportable. Just a thought.

Even if you can't do pullups, you can still use a pullup bar for hanging knee raises, then later, hang leg raises - these are proven core training exercises that just work, much more effective than situps/crunches. If you weigh under 250 lbs. you could get a pullup bar that you can put on a doorway in a couple of seconds. Just another thought.

My gym ...

This is what I've got to work with ...

You could probably hang rings from that rafter. I prefer wood ones because they feel pleasant to grip and readily absorb sweat from my hands, whereas my plastic rings accumulate sweat and can thus get slippery. I have these: https://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-wood-rings

Sorry to hear about your foot. That rules out mountain climbers (not great on the floor, but great on rings), ab rollouts, and like you said pushups on the rings (pushups on knees though should be fine w/ some kind of padding under the knees), which are also really great for the core. You could however still do hanging knee/leg raises, then later work on the L-sit.

You could also check out the Power Wheel - this might be a more useful addition to your gym than rings unless you also want to work on your pullups, skin the cat, etc. I have an older version of it. Lifeline | Power Wheel. It's most useful when you strap your feet into it - this should take a lot of load off your feet... and put the load on your core and hands instead. You can do all kinds of core exercises with it. Just walking your hands with the feet strapped in is a killer core exercise, especially walking backwards!

Lying down or sitting on a workout bench isn't going to strengthen your core a lot. You need to start doing exercises which involve using your whole body, to lift, support and stabilize the weight which you're lifting...I see you have a bar and a bunch of plates, that's a good start... There are a lot of functional exercises you can do with just a barbell and a few plates.

- barbell rollouts ( this exercise will kill your core )
- deadlifts ( develops full body strength, with emphasis on posterior chain and core )
- standing overhead press ( this exercises requires a strong, rigid core to stabilize the weight )
- front squats ( holding the weight in front of you will hit your core very hard)
- weighted lunges while holding plates in you hand ( very good for glutes, hams, quads and core )
- weighted step ups
- weighted sit-ups

You can also do bodyweight exercises for you abs:

- lying bicycle exercise
- flutter kicks

My massage therapist gave me a book entitled Manual of Structural Kinesiology that shows where muscles attach and what they do. Since muscles have two ends, every muscle can move either end or both at the same time so that it is not always clear cut what a particular muscle can do. Also, muscles can function in combinations with other muscles which also clouds their function. For example, a hanging raise will involve the psoas group will raise the thigh but since the upper attachment point is to the vertibra, the movement will tip the pelvis and this tipping itself is prevented by the abdominals. If abs are not strong enough or have enough endurance, say toward the end of a long ride, back pain is a possibility. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psoas_major_muscle

There are a number of muscle groups that attach to the pelvis and are responsible for many different types of movement. Maintaining a strong core is good for cycling but also for many other types of movement including getting groceries into the house.

TRX and yoga

You are right in that it is next to impossible (nor desirable anyway) to isolate the abdominal muscles - especially to get them to work without involving the hip flexors. However, there are reasons trainees are advised to master the hanging knee raises first, before moving on to the hanging leg raises, and this is one of them. The risk of damage to your back is still greater when you do crunches/situps compared to hanging knee raise.

Here is Dr. Michael Yessis' take on it:
Hanging Leg Raise - Dr. Yessis SportLab

Although involvement of the hip flexors has been negatively criticized by many “experts” this involvement should not be feared. The abdominal and hip flexor muscles have a close working relationship and are always involved together. You cannot eliminate one or the other contraction in movements of the legs or pelvic girdle.

I did a very quick and simple abs/core workout today, took about 20 minutes:

-- tuck-sit followed by an L-sit on parallettes
-- suspended crunches on TRX
-- suspended hamstring curls on TRX

I have an impingement in one shoulder, so I've been working on doing long hangs. I've done hand work all my working life, but my grip strength is still crummy. Over a few weeks, I've worked up to doing 3 X 60" X 30" hangs. Goal is 10 X 60" X 30". Not easy, at least not for me. I ran across this video demoing hanging ab work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb-xofLVoo0
Note that he's using lifting grips, probably Harbinger. If I had to do that instead of Roman Chair, that's what I'd use.

I went alpine skiing two days ago, first time this year, big moguls with soft snow. I noticed today after my hour on the rollers that my abs were a tiny bit sore, so I planked for 5 minutes, just to see. First plank I've done in probably 18 months. Anyway, just saying that dumbbells, squats, and hanging knee raises will get you a long way with core. For cycling, you want the hip flexor involvement. That's how you lift that rear leg.

I left out Romanian deadlifts in my list above of core work. I haven't been doing them this year. Don't have time to do everything. They're really good, though.

Exercise ball.

Start with it soft, sit on it. Wear socks so your feet will slide, and using your abs, slide back and forth. That will get your lower abs.

That's one of the few comments here I actually understood!


Back in the day when I was into bodybuilding and training with a coach, even an exercise ball would have been radically different. For abs, there were crunches. And that was about it.

I'm trying to figure out a) what some of these things are ... and b) how some of them apply to abs.


[HR][/HR]

I need some of you (not you, late, I know what you're talking about) to post links so I can see what you're talking about.

A lot of info was thrown out there - enough that it might be overwhelming.

Feel free to ask more questions - I'm sure we'll be happy to answer as best as we can.