Strengthen Your Core With These 11 Moves For Upper Ab Workouts

Why it’s great: The isometric contraction when performing the hollow hold creates a stronger ability to brace. Ab bracing is vital as this helps protect your spine from all you throw at it. 

How to do it:

1. Lie face up on the floor with your arms extended overhead and your legs straight. 
2. Press your lower back into the ground and engage your abs while simultaneously lifting your legs and upper body off the floor. 
3. Hold this position for time.

Why it’s great: Because you’re walking your hands out during the plank walkout, you are training the entire core and upper abs dynamically and strengthening them in the extended position. 

How to do it:

1. Get in a push-up plank position with your hands underneath your shoulders, glutes engaged, and spine neutral. 
2. Without letting your hips sag, walk your hands forward as far as you can while maintaining good form.
3. When you have reached your stopping point, walk back to the starting position and reset and repeat.

Why it’s great: When performing the bicycle crunch, you bring your elbow to the opposite knee, which trains the hip flexors, upper and lower abs, and obliques. When done quickly, this exercise is almost like performing cardio. 

How to do it:

1. Lie face up on the ground with both legs extended and your toes pointed at the ceiling.
2. Place both hands behind your ears and lightly grip the back of your head.
3. Twist to your right side, bringing your right elbow and your left knee toward each other simultaneously. Return to the starting position.
4. Twist to your left, bringing your left elbow toward your flexed right leg, then return to the starting position.
5. Alternate sides for an even number of repetitions. Your legs should look like they are riding a bike.

Why it’s great: Sit-ups are a functional move that work your entire core. They can help improve your posture as well as flexibility and range of motion in your spine and hips.

NOTE: The McGill curl-up is a great exercise to train instead of the sit-up if you suffer from lower back pain because it minimizes stress on the lower back while increasing the endurance of the upper abdominals. 

How to do it:

1. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground about hip-width apart. To give you more stability, you can place your feet under a piece of furniture or have a partner hold them down. 
2. Place your hands behind your head or cross them over your chest, whichever is more comfortable for you. 
3. Slowly lift your upper body off the ground while keeping your neck neutral and your core engaged. 
4. When you are fully upright, slowly lower back down to the starting position and repeat.

Why it’s great: The ab rollout will strengthen your upper abs in the extended position and improve your core’s eccentric strength. 

How to do it:

1. Get on your hands and knees and grip a barbell or ab roller with both hands shoulder-width apart and your hands directly underneath your shoulders. 
2. Roll the ab wheel forward, keeping your arms straight as you round your upper back and tuck your hips under to straighten your spine.
3. Lower your hips and chest toward the ground while contracting your abs to keep your spine neutral. Try not to let your lower back arch too much.
4. Squeeze your lats and pull yourself back to the starting position. Reset and repeat.

Why it’s great: When the weighted dead bug is performed with a weight, like a kettlebell or weight plate, this puts extra tension on your upper abs, shoulders, and lats. The weighted dead bug is a fantastic movement for the chest, too. 

How to do it:

1. Lie on the ground with your legs straight, holding a weight plate or a kettlebell over your chest. Lift your legs off the floor and bend your knees to 90 degrees.
2. Ensure your lower back is neutral and take a deep breath before you start.
3. Exhale while extending one leg straight out until it is floating just above the floor. The other leg should remain flexed in a 90-degree angle and the weight held steady over your chest. (You can make this move harder by lowering the plate or kettlebell behind you as you extend your leg).
4. Return to the starting position and repeat with the opposite leg.
5. Keep alternating sides for an even number of repetitions.

Why it’s great: Hanging leg raises are a beginner-friendly ab exercise that will target your upper abs and improve your grip strength. 

How to do it:

1. Hang from a pull-up bar with a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip. 
2. Pull your shoulder blades together and engage your core as you press lift your knees up toward your chest without using excessive momentum. 
3. Slowly lower your legs down and reset and repeat.

Why it’s great: Not only will the toes to bar exercise strengthen your shoulders, upper abs, and back, the more extensive range of motion (compared to the hanging leg raise) is excellent for building upper ab muscle. 

How to do it:

1. Hang from a pull-up bar with a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip.  
2. Keeping them together and as straight as possible, raise your legs until your toes touch the bar between your hands.
3. Slowly lower to the starting position and reset and repeat.

Why it’s great: There is a reason why this exercise was one of Bruce Lee’s favorites. It’s a challenging full-body exercise that crushes the upper abs in a good way. 

How to do it:

1. Lie flat on your back and hold a squat rack, weight bench, or other sturdy object above your head. 
2. Contract your core to roll your weight onto your shoulders, lifting your legs straight up over your upper body, keeping your body weight on your shoulders and upper back, until your feet point to the ceiling. 
3. Slowly lower your legs toward the ground with your core and glutes engaged. 
4. Pause, return to the starting position, and repeat.

Why it’s great: The dumbbell pullover is an old-school bodybuilding exercise. This exercise trains the upper ab, chest, lats, and serratus anterior through a large range of motion for increased size and strength. You can make it focus on your core more by performing it with only your shoulders on a weight bench so the rest of your body is forced to stabilize. 

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How to do it:

1. Lay face up on a weight bench, holding a dumbbell.
2. Press the dumbbell over your chest, then lower your arms behind your head while maintaining a slight bend in your elbows. 
3. Keep lowering the dumbbell until you feel a stretch in your chest, upper abs, and lats. 
4. Pull the dumbbell back over your chest, then pause, reset, and repeat.  

Why it’s great: Using a cable machine allows you to safely add more weight than other weighted crunch variations. The constant tension from the cable machine allows your upper ab muscles to work harder for better size and strength potential. 

How to do it:

1. Place a rope handle attachment on a cable machine. Get down on your knees facing the weight stack, then grip the rope with both hands behind your head.
2. Crunch forward, bringing your forearms down to your knees and your head almost to the ground. 
3. Pause, slowly return to the starting position, and repeat for desired reps.