Don’t Do These 5 Abs Exercises. Train Your Six-Pack This Way Instead.

FITNESS SOCIAL MEDIA is a firehose of dumb workout advice—specifically for ab training. From five-minute core workouts to miracle exercises no normal person can pull off to barbell movements that plain don’t work, there’s a near endless stream of junk that won’t get you any closer to your six-pack goals.

Below, we highlight five ab exercises that aren’t worth your time. We also provide you with an alternative (or two) for each dumb movement, courtesy of Men’s Health’s Fitness Director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S.

“Your core serves many different functions—from twisting to bracing to flexing your spine—and how do we train it? By skipping the Instagram stupidity and focusing on what works,” Samuel says.

5 Abs Exercises to Skip—and 5 Alternatives for Core Training

Crunch

Why: “These are a staple movement, but they’re not actually challenging your abs through a long range of motion, they’re not providing a lot of tension, and they’re only working your abs in the flexed position,” Samuel says.

Do This Instead: Cable Crunch

Instead, Samuel likes the cable crunch because it lacks the issues the standard crunch poses. You can load the cable crunch (using a cable tower) to increase the tension. You’ll achieve a much longer range of motion (thanks to the kneeling position). The cable crunch also challenges anti-extension (as the cable challenges your abs in the stretched position).

How to Do It:

• Set the pulley of a cable machine to its highest setting and attach a rope handle.
• Select the weight you want to use and then grab the rope with both hands and drop to your knees.
• Scoot back a few inches, bring the rope near the top of your head, and then crunch your head toward your hips. Think about pushing your belly button to the ceiling and rounding your back.

Long-Duration Planks

Why: “As much as we think planks are amazing for the people who can hold them for five, 10, 15 minutes and land in record books, note this about the guys holding the planks: They do not have terrific six packs, they do not have impressive core strength, and these aren’t the people showcasing rotational power,” says Samuel, citing an important responsibility of your core. The traditional plank loses its value after 45 seconds or so, he notes—so you’ll want to level-up and progress with something other than more time spent in the position.

Do This Instead: Plank with Shoulder Taps or Long-Lever Plank

Adding movement to your planks challenges your core dynamically, allowing you to reap more benefits in a shorter period (30 seconds to a minute). Your core will rotate and brace as you bring one hand off the ground to tap the opposite shoulder. “Once you advance and understand you can hold and control a plank for 60 seconds, you want to move onto moves that will build your core—and that’s not the world record plank,” Samuel adds.

Plank Shoulder Tap

How to Do It

• Get in a high plank position with your hands set underneath your shoulders.
• Brace your core, and then raise your right hand to touch your left shoulder.
• Return your right hand to the floor and repeat on the other side.

Long Lever Plank

How to Do It:

• Start in a high plank position, squeezing your shoulder blades, abs, and glutes to create tension.
• Extend your hands further above your head, keeping your palms flat on the floor. Fight to maintain solid posture (tights abs, butt down) in this lengthened position.

Side Bend

Why: Because of the position of the load and the other muscles involved in the side bend (arms, shoulders, and traps), Samuel says it’s too easy to be effective and doesn’t target your core muscles enough.

Do This Instead: Overhead Pallof Press

“Instead of side bends, do the overhead Pallof press,” says Samuel. “It produces similar tension for our obliques and abs—which is what you think you’re getting during the side bend—except it’s a lot easier to stay focused [on the muscles] and the placement of the load over your head keeps more tension on your abs during the entirety of the set.”

How to Do It:

• Set the pulley of a cable tower so that it lands in the middle of your chest when you’re kneeling tall.
• Grab the pulley, with a D-handle attached, and take a few steps away from the pulley so the cable is tense. Hold the handle with both hands at chest height.
• Press the cable overhead.

Reverse Crunch

Why: The reverse crunch is a popular and accessible exercise to target your lower abs. And while it does technically hit that area, Samuel says, “This move is also easy to cheat on and to avoid creating proper core tension with… you wind up doing this movement too fast and not getting anything out of the reverse crunch.”

Do This Instead: Hanging Leg Lift

Samuel says the hanging leg raise (or any hanging variation) is a more challenging move that viciously targets your lower abs. “The great thing here is that we have tension on our abs, and we can maintain tension on our core at the bottom of the exercise.” Note that the hanging leg raise is more difficult to do than the reverse crunch, so you’ll do far fewer reps, but they’ll be more effective.

How to Do It:

• Grab a pull-up bar with both hands. Squeeze your shoulder blades, abs, and glutes to create full-body tension.
• Raise your legs up toward your head, keeping your knees locked out.
• If that’s too difficult, bend your knees and drive them toward your head.

Bicycle Crunch

Why: Samuel says this movement is way overhyped. We lauded dynamic movements earlier in this article. Still, the bicycle crunch is dynamic in all the wrong ways, and, as a result, “there are too many moments in the bicycle crunch where there isn’t tension on the abs,” Samuel says. Very often, we don’t maintain the hollow position while we’re doing the bicycle crunch, and if we don’t maintain that, then there’s tension coming off of our core. “

Do This Instead: Front Rack March or Half-Kneeling Kettlebell Windmill

The front rack march is an equally dynamic and far more effective replacement to the bicycle crunch that challenges your core using balance. Samuel also likes the half-kneeling kettlebell windmill, which is more static compared to the march, but takes your core through a long range of motion that includes flexion and rotation.

Front Rack March

How to Do It:

• Clean two kettlebells so you’re holding them in the front rack position.
• Squeeze your shoulder blades, abs, and glutes. Keep your back straight. Drive one knee up toward the ceiling. Return it to the floor and then drive the other up.
• Keep alternating between driving your right and left knees up for either a set period of time or reps.

Half-Kneeling Kettlebell Windmill

How to Do It:

• Getting into a half-kneeling stance, with your legs positioned wider than you would for other exercises.
• Raise or clean the kettlebell to your shoulder before pressing it overhead. Avoid arching your back by squeezing your abs. Keep your eyes focused on the kettlebell throughout the movement.
• Push your butt back; as you’re doing this, your chest will begin rotating to that side. Squeeze your shoulder blades tight, and lower your opposite elbow to the ground.
• Once you’ve lowered as much as you can, pause for a beat, then reverse the movement.