3 standing ab exercises

Your abdominal muscles are often referred to as the ‘abs,’ and they reside in your anterior (front) torso. Strengthening and building your abdominal muscles are essential for your overall strength, stability, and balance.

Without strong abs, you might find it difficult to perform general day-to-day activities like lifting, squatting, pushing and pushing. You require a strong core for all of these different functional movements, and although you can still perform each of these actions without strong abdominal muscles, you could be at a higher risk of injury if you do so.

For those of you who enjoy strength training, having strong abdominals will improve your performance and strength in a number of lifts. For athletes and sportspeople, a strong core is absolutely essential for agility, balance, speed and stamina on the field.

Three exercises to build your abdominal muscles

So, how can you build a strong core?

There are lots of different exercises that you can do to strengthen your abdominal muscles, and you don’t need to use heavy weights to do so. Here are three great standing ab exercises to try that use only your body weight.

Standing side crunches

This exercise targets your side abdominal muscles called the obliques. You don’t need any additional weight to perform this movement. However, if you wish to progress further down the line, you can choose to hold a dumbbell or kettlebell.

Standing up tall, lean your body to the side without twisting your torso. Extend down until you feel a stretch on the opposite side of your body and then return to the starting position using your core to pull you up.  Repeat this for around 15 reps on both sides.

Standing crunches

For this exercise, all you need to do is stand up tall and lift your legs up towards your chest one at a time. Alternate between each leg to work each side of your abdominals. This exercise will work your front abdominal muscles by forcing you to stabilize your whole body as you lift each leg.

Single leg deadlift

Although the single-leg deadlift is often performed using weights, such as a barbell or kettlebell, it’s also a highly effective abdominal exercise when you use only your body weight. To perform single-leg deadlifts, stand up tall. Drive your hips backward and bend forward as you lift one leg up behind you.

Use your core to pull yourself back up to the start position as you lower your leg and stand up.  Repeat for the desired number of reps before moving onto the other leg.  This exercise requires a fair amount of balance so you might what to lightly hold onto something stable with one hand when first trying this exercise.