I don’t know about you, but strengthening your core without weights sounds like an efficient way to fit ab work into your routine.
Rather than deciding between free weights and gym machines to chisel your core, why not use your bodyweight and try three abs exercises instead? These moves can be scaled to suit your ability, whether you’re familiar with core workouts or not.
Below, I reveal my three favorite bodyweight ab exercises, how to do them and the benefits of strengthening your core without weights.
What are the three abs exercises for strengthening your core?
These exercises are gymnastics-inspired and show up in many gymnastics skills and drills. As athletes, gymnasts are well known for their incredible core strength and sculpted bodies — a combination of lean muscle and low body fat percentage.
Calisthenics (a form of bodyweight training) and gymnastics walk hand-in-hand using bodyweight to perform strength-based movement, which is the definition of functional training.
To possess a truly strong core, you’ll need to work various muscle groups that wrap around your torso and extend to your hip flexors and glutes. These include deeper stabilizing muscles like the erector spinae, transverse abdominis and internal obliques, and more superficial muscles like the rectus abdominis and external obliques.
Read our abs versus core muscles guide for the lowdown on your core and a refresher on how to engage your core properly before you try the moves below, which are used by elite gymnastics and feature in the calisthenics world.
1. Dragon flag
Dragon flag isn’t positioned as a beginner-friendly exercise, so I recommend checking out our guide to the best core exercises for beginners if you’re completely new to training your abs.
Dragon flag tests your ability to hold an extended position without moving using isometric muscle contraction. For this reason, the exercise builds stability and activates the deeper core muscles I mentioned earlier.
If you’d like to give dragon flag a try, follow these instructions to the letter:
- Lie on your back and grab a pole (or similar) behind you with both hands. You could use anything non-moving, like the bottom of a sofa
- Bend your elbows and knees and place both feet on the ground
- Brace your core, slightly tuck your pelvis toward you, then lift your feet away from the ground
- Roll up through your spine and extend your legs into the air overhead, pointing your toes as you drive upward
- Continue until only your shoulders and upper back are resting on the ground, then hold the vertical position with legs extended toward the ceiling
- Squeeze your abs and glutes, and hold
- Slowly lower to the ground again, rolling down your spine to rest on your back.
If you prefer to practice reps, hold the top position, then slowly lower your legs toward the ground and up again. Squeeze your legs tight together and keep your body completely straight. Your upper body should remain lifted with your lower back away from the ground and only your legs moving up and down.
You can make the move easier by bending your knees into a tucked position or increase the intensity by holding your legs further away from your body, lower toward the ground.
2. Long lever plank
The long lever plank requires you to hold the starting position of a push-up with your arms extended as far in front of you as possible. Look to achieve a slightly hollow hold body position without bending your elbows.
I strongly recommend a grippy floor or use chalk or grip gloves to ensure you don’t slip.
- Start in a push-up position with your wrists beneath your shoulders and hips aligned with your shoulders
- Brace your core and glutes
- Walk your hands in front of you while keeping both arms extended
- Continue as far as you can, staying on the balls of your feet with feet together or hip-width apart
- Slightly tuck your pelvis under and push your upper back toward the ceiling
- Hold the position, keeping your chin slightly tucked toward your chest and legs as straight as possible.
3. V sit-ups
A V sit-up will help you progress toward toes-to-bar, L-sits and other calisthenics exercises.
V-sits develop deeper core strength and target the hip flexors, abdominals, lower abs, lower back, quads and hamstrings while improving trunk balance and core stability. They can be scaled in a few ways, so I recommend following the steps below.
- Start on your back with arms extended overhead and legs extended away from you
- Slightly tuck your pelvis and chin under and brace your core
- Lift your arms and legs away from the ground at the same time to create a hollow shape with your body (think the shape of a banana)
- Drive with your core muscles and lift your legs and arms toward each other to touch overhead, bringing your chest and thighs as close together as possible
- Lower back to the starting position with control.
You can make the exercise more accessible by bending your knees into a tucked position as you crunch your knees to your chest. Otherwise, keep your legs extended and touch the ground next to your hips with both hands instead of reaching toward your toes. Imagine the action of closing a book while you perform this move.
What is the difference between core stability and core strengthening?
A truly strong core is a stable core, meaning you can move without compensating elsewhere, like using your hips, lower back or pelvis to drive movement. The best ab exercises will build core strength, but to keep your form in check, you must develop enough stability to perform the movements properly to work the target muscles.
How do gymnasts strengthen their core?
Gymnasts literally throw their bodyweight into the air and hold themselves in remarkable positions for a living using speed, coordination, balance, strength and stability. Their regimes reflect this, including strength training, mobility, bodyweight training and gymnastics drills.
They must be able to drive powerful movement using their powerhouse center — their core — plus train the fast-twitch muscle fibers that create and sustain powerful and explosive motion. A mixture of calisthenics workouts and ab training can help you build a stronger, more stable core just like a gymnast, if that’s your goal.
More from Tom's Guide
- Skip the gym — build full body strength at home with 1 dumbbell and 5 moves
- I'm a personal trainer — instead of push-ups, try this exercise to strengthen your upper body and core muscles
- I did 100 butterfly glute bridges every day for two weeks — here’s what happened to my lower body
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