Your ab workout routine may include the worst ab exercise ever, and you might not even know it. The best ab exercises engage your muscles to strengthen them throughout each movement, but what if these core exercises are static?
Find out what’s the worst ab exercise you can do and how to make it more effective here.
The Worst Ab Exercise and It’s Not What You Think
The Plank
You should stop doing the static plank exercise because it’s not an optimal exercise for improving your core strength. It may only be effective for a minute but after that, your body is tired and you’d often shift to an incorrect form.
This will take away the focus on your abs and shift towards your shoulders, legs, and lower back instead. Ditch the static plank right now and try these other planking exercises below.
Alternative Plank Exercises
Implementing shorter movements with plank exercises will contract the abs to strengthen them. These three alternative plank exercises add movement to a static plank to keep your abs engaged.
1. Hard Planks
Hard planks will keep your ab muscles engaged throughout each short movement. This will help keep the focus on your core muscles.
How to do a hard plank:
- Lie down on your stomach with your elbows propped up on the floor.
- Flex your abs.
- Then lift your body upwards until it forms a hollow curve.
- Bring it back down to the floor.
- Repeat this for a timed period or 4 sets of 15 reps.
2. Advanced Plank
An advanced plank requires you to drive your lower back upwards as high as you can. This short movement will give you a deep contraction in your abs.
How to do an advanced plank:
- Start in a static plank position.
- Then roll your lower back upwards (higher than what you’d do in the hard plank) while flexing your abs.
- Return to the starting position.
- Repeat this movement for a specific time period or 4 sets of 15 reps.
3. Twisting Side Planks
A lot of people do side planks to strengthen the sidewalls of their abs, but adding these short movements to the side plank will continually contract the muscles and build more strength.
How to do a twisting side plank:
- Start in a side plank position, with your right elbow propped up on the floor under your right shoulder.
- Then twist your left shoulder inwards towards your chest while rotating your body along with it. Do this until your body faces the floor.
- Bring down your left arm on the floor.
- Twist your left shoulder back up until you’re in a side plank position again.
- Repeat this for 4 sets of 15 reps, and then switch to the other side.
Watch this video from our YouTube channel V Shred to find out more about why this is the worst ab exercise:
The worst ab exercise tests your endurance without strengthening the abs. Abs work to stabilize your spine. Your core muscles help with lifting movements and short movements like squats, pull-ups, and bench press exercises.
This set of muscles also plays a role in enhancing your reflexes. This is why you need to do the right planking exercises that will strengthen your core muscles.
Looking for an in-depth theory of getting hardcore shredded abs? We’ve compiled a whole list of workouts and exercises you can do to make your abs leaner and stronger, and then we put it all in an easy-to-use, easy-to-read program just for you. Click here to check out our “Six Pack Shred” program!
Have you tried these three alternative planks? Share your experience with us in the comments section below!
Up Next: What is Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness And How To Treat It