Your Ticket to Six-Pack Abs: 41 Ab-Strengthening Exercises

It’s easy to forget about your waistline once sweater season hits. You’re all, “Why should I do crunches when all of my hard work will just be hidden underneath a thick layer of wool for four months?” And, “Really, what difference will this basket of beignets make?” Then May hits and suddenly you find yourself faced with the prospect of putting on a bikini (eek) and frolicking on the beach for a week. This is when you come to the unsettling realization that the bulge around your mid-section is not just “some weird thing that this sweater does.”

To help you avoid a rude awakening come spring, we’ve found plenty of ab exercises to keep you busy from Halloween thru Cinco de Mayo. Most of these exercises can be done at home without any equipment so, no excuses. Enjoy!

Standing Ab Exercises

1. Rotating Knee Lift with Medicine Ball
2. Toe Touch
3. Standing Leg Raises
4. Side Knee Crunch
5. Standing Oblique Crunches {Note: This exercise can be done with or without a dumbbell.}
6. Wall Slide (Slide 10)
7. Burpees
8. Squat Thrust with Twist
9. Single-Leg Instability Pump

Mat Ab Exercises

10. Front Plank
11. Side Plank with a Twist
12. Side Plank Cancan
13. Reverse Plank
14. Plank with Arm Lift
15. Plank with Arm and Leg Lift
16. The Spiderman Plank
17. Stir the Pot Plank
18. Crab Walks
18. Pilates Jack Knife
20. V-Sits
21. Bicycle Crunch
22. Scissor Crunch
23. Side Crunch
23. The C-Curl
25. Frog Lift
26. Reach-Up
27. Oblique Twist {Note: This exercise can be done with or without a medicine ball}
28. Ballet Twist
29. The Cobra
30. Reverse Curl
31. Quadruped Extension
32. Leg Raises
33. Dumbbell Pushup Row (Slide 2)
34. Glute Bridge March
35. Single Leg Stretch
36. Trunk Twist Note: This exercise can be done on a mat instead of on bleachers
37. Pulldown Extension
38. Climb Up

Seated Ab Exercises

39. Abdominal Hold
40. Seated Leg Raise
41. Seated Leg Tuck