5 ab exercises proven better than the crunch

Your core or trunk is comprised of various muscles, such as the external and internal obliques, transverse abdominus, and erector spinae. There are more, however, the muscle most people are interested in building is the rectus abdominus (a.k.a. the “six-pack”).
The function of the rectus abdominus is to flex the lumbar vertebrae, a collective term for the five vertebrae located between the rib cage and the pelvis. Basically, it’s your six-pack’s job to bring the rib cage to the pelvis or vice versa.

The most common exercise performed to build and strengthen the rectus abdominus is the crunch, which makes sense. To perform a crunch is to simply execute the function of the rectus abdominus (i.e. pull the rib cage towards the pelvis) from a lying position. However, recent research performed by the American Council on Exercise indicates that the crunch may not be the most effective exercise to get bulletproof abs.

The researchers conducted the study on 30 men and women with various training backgrounds. Electrodes were attached to the test subjects to measure the muscle activity of the rectus abdominus while they performed 13 different ab exercises. Using the crunch as the baseline for comparison, the researchers found five exercises that showed significantly more muscle activity in the rectus abdominus. The top five exercises along with the percent increase in muscle activity over the crunch are as followed:

Bicycle Abs: 148%
Captain’s Chair: 112%
Stability Ball Crunch: 39%
Vertical Leg Crunch: 29%
Roll Outs: 27%

So does that mean you shouldn’t do crunches any more to build a six pack? Definitely not! Depending on how the training routine is program, crunches can still be an effective abdominal exercise. Also, remember that diet is the biggest factor to displaying a washboard stomach. ‘Cause if there’s a “load of laundry” (read: fat) on that washboard, ain’t no one gonna see it!