Seven Home Gym Exercises that Work Your Abs

So, you’ve invested in a home gym. Now you get to tackle the challenge of creating a workout circuit that will increase your fitness level, burn calories, and offer a full body workout. The area most people like to start with when they get a home gym is the core or abs.  The question is, which home gym exercises work the abs most effectively?

Crunches

Depending on your home gym machinery, you may have inverted tables for crunches. If not, a workout pad will suffice. You can do crunches in many variations to work upper and lower abs and oblique muscles.

Butterflies

If you have a home gym machine that has a butterfly option, you have in your hands the key to core strengthening. Butterflies are mainly considered a chest or back exercise but your posture and the way the muscles work together provide an effective upper ab workout as well. Turning your lower body to one side while doing butterflies will also work the oblique muscles, thus giving you a better ab workout.

Ab Wheel Extensions

An ab wheel is an inexpensive yet invaluable tool for a home gym. The simple rolling forward and back movement helps tighten all abdominal muscles while building strength and flexibility. The key to this exercise is to be in control and use your core muscles to pull your body back to the starting position after allowing the wheel to stretch you forward.

Hanging Leg Raises

Using your pull up bar to perform slow and steady, controlled leg raises is a great way to work out your abs. Full leg extension, bent knee lifts and side lifts offer a variety of muscular workouts for the abs and obliques.

Exercise Ball Sit-ups

Using a stability ball or exercise ball offers more flexibility and the challenge of maintaining balance while doing sit-ups or crunches.

Decline Hip Raises with Twist

Using a decline bench and very controlled lift and twist hip raises help to target the obliques in a way that will improve flexibility and strength while toning and shaping muscles.

Rotating Plank Pushups

The plank position is great for ab toning. Combining this position with a pushup and a twist offers more targeted strength training for the abs as well as shoulders and chest.

Your home gym has many options for getting your whole body in shape. After you come up with a great ab workout, it’ll be time to plan for legs, weight lifting and cardio!