5 Ab Exercise Alternatives for Men to Do Instead of Crunches

Crunches aren’t always exciting, which is where ab exercise alternatives come in handy. The more alternatives you do, the more you will be able to add to your core exercise routine.

Before doing core exercises, you must understand why it’s important to strengthen the abdominal muscles. Primarily, the abdominal muscles provide balance and stability during compound movements. Therefore, a strong set of core muscles is always recommended.

You can learn more about the importance of strengthening core muscles here.

---

Ab Exercise Alternatives Instead of Crunches

Crunches are the most common core exercises. Therefore, adding ab exercise alternatives to the mix is a brilliant way to ensure that your muscles do not hit a plateau because of the same movement.

On that note, here's a look at five such exercises:

---

1) Hanging Leg Raise

Hanging leg raises are one of the top exercises to build strong core muscles. However, they're an advanced movement, so you need a strong grip and strong forearms to them.

Ideally, you can begin with lying leg raises and build your strength before moving to advanced variations. You need to strengthen your back as well to avoid swaying back and forth during the exercise.

Find out how to do hanging leg raises here.

---

2) Mountain Climber

Mountain climber is a simple yet effective exercise. You can use it to build your core muscles along with boosting your stamina.

You need to be on your palms throughout the exercise, which means you will be strengthening your shoulders as well.

Here is a guide for mountain climbers.

---

3) Ab Rollout

Ab rollout is an advanced movement among ab exercise alternatives, and you mustn’t try it until you’ve done exercises that strengthen your core and back.

To do ab rollouts, you will need an ab roller. However, some use barbells and weight plates to do ab rollouts. You can try to do this exercise as a beginner as well, but don’t push yourself to a point where you can’t use your core muscles to pull yourself back.

In the ab rollout exercise, it’s essential to pull yourself using the ab muscles instead of your hands or back.

---

4) Side Plank

If you’ve focused on core muscles, the sides are a part of it too and mustn't be ignored. The top pick for sides are oblique crunches, and in ab exercise alternatives that aren’t crunches, you can focus on side planks.

Side planks enable you to work on the muscles that connect the side muscles to the middle and give your sides the tapering shape.

You can find out how to do side planks here.

---

5) Push-up to Jack Knife

A push-up to the jack knife isn’t only a core muscle exercise, but also a cardio exercise among the ab exercise alternatives.

To do this exercise, you need to go into a push-up position. Lower your body for a push-up, and when you push yourself up, take a slight jump, and spread your legs.

Meanwhile, you can use a simpler version where your stamina isn’t as widely tested. Lock your legs on a yoga ball or TRX strap, and pull your legs towards you while being in a push-up position.

---

Bottom Line

Ab exercise alternatives can help you sculpt strong core muscles, along with ensuring you do not exert too much pressure on the same area of a muscle group by doing the same exercise.

Regardless of whether you do crunches or alternatives, you need to give your core muscles the rest needed to recover and become stronger. So, don’t work on your core every day.