The Best and Worst Ab Exercises

The best, and most common abdominal exercises were put to the test by researchers at the Biomechanics Lab at San Diego State University. The researchers wanted to compare the muscles activation and engagement in the most common abdominal exercises to find out if there are actually good and bad exercise for muscle building, and to learn if any of the ab equipment on the market does, in fact, work better than basic body weight exercises.

The research study was one of the first, and most comprehensive, studies that was widely promoted and is still used today to compare the pros ad cons of some of the most common ab exercises. The study included the most common thirteen abdominal exercises and popular ab exercise equipment of 2001. The researchers then ranked each exercise for muscle stimulation while the exercise was performed. Objective muscle activation measurements were obtained with electromyography (EMG), and were measured for each of the follow muscle groups: