15 Best Ab Exercises for Women to Get a Toned Stomach

Gone are the days of chasing rock hard abs — now, feeling strong overall is the ideal fitness mission to embark on, and improving your core strength is important for more than the bragging rights or aesthetics.

A strong core makes it a little easier to move through our days. “Training and strengthening your core is so important. Our core provides stability for our body, which leads to improved posture, decreased risk of injury and improved balance and stability. It’s also a huge staple for preventing back pain, and it benefits our exercise performance,” explains Tatiana Lampa, NASM, personal trainer and owner of Training with T.

Most of your usual tasks — like lugging groceries, reaching something on the top shelf, tying our shoes and doing housework or gardening — involves our core, so the stronger those muscles are, the better you’ll be able to move through the day. On the flip side, a weaker core can end up causing you issues that you might just brush off as an ordinary part of life, such as pain in the neck, shoulders, or back, poor posture or balance and getting hurt more often than seems normal.

When you consider the fact that our core encompasses muscles around the midsection, as well as the back, spine and pelvic floor region, it makes perfect sense that this central chunk plays such a crucial role in how our entire body feels and functions.

Most of us don’t love ab exercises, but don’t try to rush through your core workout to be free of it quicker. Slow is always best when it comes to core exercises, so keep these tips in mind when doing your crunches, planks, and more:

• Perform each move slowly, with control. This allows you to focus on the correct form, ensures you get the max benefits from all your hard work and makes you less likely to tweak something.
• Breathe through each movement. “This activates your core, lengthens the spine and helps you grow an overall awareness of core strength (much like what you strive for during yoga or Pilates),” says Gail Barranda Rivas, personal trainer, fitness instructor, and functional strength coach in New York City. Inhale deeply and exhale through your mouth by gently blowing air out.

Our fitness experts in the Good Housekeeping Institute Wellness Lab teamed up with top trainers and professional athletes to bring you the best ab exercises to add to your fitness routine. Whether you’re looking for ab workouts at home or ab workouts at the gym, these ab workout moves have options for everybody and any workout venue.

Try this format for a great routine at home (and remember that it’s important to consult with your physician before you start any new exercise regimen):

10-minute ab exercise routine

• Pick three moves from the exercises listed below.
• Perform the movement for 30 seconds on, 15 seconds off.
• Repeat four times through for each movement to complete one full set.
• Rest for one minute in between sets before switching to the next movement.