Ab exercises

How to train your abs

Your abs have four jobs, and good core training covers all of them. They bend your torso, as when you sit up: crunches, the cable crunch and the reverse crunch. They resist your back arching: the plank, the dead bug and the ab wheel. They rotate your torso and stop it rotating: the Pallof press and the cable woodchopper. And they keep you upright to the side: the side plank and the dumbbell side bend.

Leg raises, such as the hanging leg raise, train both your abs and your hip flexors and are among the hardest exercises here.

Your abs are also trained by heavy lifts like squats and deadlifts, where your torso has to brace. Whether they show, though, depends more on how much fat covers them than on how much you train them.

Common mistakes

• Pulling on your neck. In crunches your hands should support your head, not pull it forward.
• Sagging in the plank. Squeeze your glutes and draw your belly button in. When you can't hold the position, the set is over, not when the time is up.
• Only one kind of movement. Pick at least two of the four jobs each week.