Ab workouts at home, no equipment
An ab workout at home with no equipment — crunches, raises, a side plank and dead bugs — that takes about 15 minutes.
Your abs do two jobs: they bend and rotate the trunk, and they brace it to stop movement. A full core workout trains both, with crunches and leg raises for bending, twists for rotation, and planks, dead bugs and Pallof presses for bracing.
With no equipment, you make exercises harder by changing leverage instead of adding weight: raising your feet, using one limb at a time, slowing down, or pausing at the hardest point. Everything here needs only your body and, at most, a sturdy chair, a table or a doorframe.
At-home ab workout
Move straight from one exercise to the next; rest after the last.
Dead Bug- Sets
- 3
- Reps
- 8–10 each side
- Rest
- —
Reverse Crunch- Sets
- 3
- Reps
- 12–15
- Rest
- —
Air BikeThe bicycle crunch.- Sets
- 3
- Reps
- 20 total
- Rest
- —
Side Bridge- Sets
- 3
- Reps
- 20–40 s each side
- Rest
- —
Tuck Crunch- Sets
- 3
- Reps
- 15
- Rest
- 60 s after the round
Can’t do one of these?
Machine taken or training somewhere else? Each of these has substitutes that work the same muscles.
Tips
- Curl your spine on crunches and leg raises. If only your hips move, your hip flexors do the work instead of your abs.
- Treat abs like any other muscle: pick a rep range, and add load or reps over time once it gets easy.
- Breathe out hard as you crunch or brace. It pulls the ribs down and makes the abs work harder.
- When you can do more than 20 good reps, move to a harder variation instead of adding more reps.
Run this workout in SPLYT
Every exercise here is in SPLYT’s library. Save the workout as a template, log your sets on iPhone or Apple Watch, and next time your weights are already filled in from what you lifted.
92 ab exercises you can do at home
Every one links to step-by-step instructions and a demonstration. Swap any of them into the workouts above.
- Air BikeBody weight
- Dead BugBody weight
- Side BridgeBody weight
- Tuck CrunchBody weight
- Reverse CrunchBody weight
Hanging Leg RaiseBody weight
FlagBody weight
Sit-upBody weight
CocoonsBody weight
Curl-upBody weight
Butt-upsBody weight
InchwormBody weight
3/4 Sit-upBody weight
Bottoms-upBody weight
Frog CrunchBody weight
Front LeverBody weight
Half Sit-upBody weight
Pelvic TiltBody weight
Questions
How many ab exercises can you do at home with no equipment?
SPLYT’s exercise library has 92 ab exercises you can do at home with no equipment, including Air Bike, Dead Bug and Side Bridge. Each one links to step-by-step instructions and a demonstration.
How often should I train abs?
Two to four short sessions a week is plenty. The abs recover fast, but they also work in every heavy squat, deadlift and press.
Will ab workouts give me a six-pack?
They build the muscle, but whether it shows depends on body fat. Training them makes the abs more visible at a given body fat, and diet decides the rest.
Can you build muscle at home without equipment?
Yes, if each set ends close to failure. Bodyweight training builds muscle as long as you keep moving to harder variations as you get stronger.