7 Best Upper Abs Workout (Quick 10 Minute Exercises)

My favorite thing about the dumbbell crunch is that it's super beginner-friendly. I suggest picking a lightweight to start with

Here's how you do this exercise:

1. Set yourself up on an exercise mat and lie down flat on your back.
2. Hold a small dumbbell with your arms crossed over your rib cage.
3. Place your feet flat on the floor with your knees at a right angle.
4. Slowly start the weighted crunch by keeping your spine in a neutral curve.
5. Once you get to the seated position, slowly lower your body back down again.
6. Add more strain by keeping your legs straight.

If you've already built up some strength in your abdominal muscles, I recommend this exercise as the next step up from the regular crunches.

Here's how you do this exercise:

1. Lie flat on the exercise mat and place your hands behind your head.
2. Lift your legs in the air with your knees at a right angle so that your calves are horizontal to the ground.
3. Pull your upper body up towards the knees so that your shoulder blades and lower back lift off the ground.
4. Touch the sides of your knees with your elbows and slowly lower down again.

This is an excellent move that combines leg raises with sit-ups.

Here's how you do this exercise:

1. Lie down flat on a yoga mat with your legs extended in a straight line.
2. With your arms extended above your head, slowly lift your feet up as high as you can with your legs remaining straight.
3. Lift your body off the ground and reach for your toes.
4. Try to hold the top position for a second before lowering back down again.

These are a nice step up from regular crunches, but you'll need a decline bench.

Here's how you do this exercise:

1. Set up the bench at about a 30-degree angle and secure your feet.
2. Keep your knees bent at about a 90-degree angle and lie down until your back is fully supported by the bench.
3. Lift your upper torso towards your knees with your hands behind your head.
4. Once your elbows touch your knees, slowly reverse your body back down again.

This is one of the tougher sit-ups you can do, and I suggest leaving these for a time when you've built up enough core strength.

They are essentially the opposite of the hanging leg raise.

Here's how you do this exercise:

1. Ideally, use a secure inversion table or a pull-up frame with ankle straps to secure you upside down.
2. Let your body hang down with your arms straight.
3. Slowly pull your body upwards as far as you can and try to reach for your knees and toes.
4. Go as far as possible and then lower yourself down again, and keep track of how far up you can get to measure your progress.

This is a good exercise that you can extend to your entire core muscles with a slight modification.

Here's how you do this exercise:

1. Lay down on a yoga mat with your feet flat on the ground.
2. Hold a medicine ball with your hands above your head, resting it on the ground.
3. Keep your arms above your head and lift your body up into a sitting position.
4. To target all of your core, throw the medicine ball against a wall in front of you with both hands and then catch the rebound.
5. Now, slowly lower yourself back down again until the medicine ball touches the ground above your head.

Our final exercise is an isometric hollow hold that you need to time.

Here's how you do this exercise:

1. The starting position is on a yoga mat with your back on the ground and your knees tucked up to your chest.
2. From here, slowly stretch out your legs, keeping your feet about a foot off the ground.
3. Stretch out your arms above and behind your head at the same time and hold this static ab position for as long as possible.

You don't exercise every other body part every day, so don't do it for your rectus abdominis either.

This is especially the case with an intense exercise routine where your muscles need some time to recover [3].

That's why I recommend working on your abs three times a week with a day to rest in between.