The only 2 f*cking ab exercises you will ever need

Everyone wants abs. And by abs, I mean solid, rock-hard abs with a decent amount of muscle. I’m not talking about abs while being malnourished — that doesn’t count.

You know the famous saying, right?
"A six-pack on a skinny dude is like big breasts on a fat chick — it doesn’t count."
And hey, sorry if that offends anyone — it’s just my sense of humor. Haha.

Alright, let’s get back on track.
If you’re starting your journey toward a six-pack for the summer and you’ve never had solid abs in your life, chances are you’ll come across ab routine videos.

You know the ones I’m talking about — crunches, planks, windshield wipers (or whatever they’re called), mountain climbers, all mashed together in a 5-minute "killer" workout.
They’re everywhere. You can’t avoid them.

But do they work?
No.

Let me tell you why ab routine workout videos are absolute garbage.

Why ab routine workout videos are absolute garbage

Yeah, I fucking hate them.
Why?

Because they give you false promises. They claim (either directly or indirectly) that you’ll get thick, visible abs just by doing these routines.

But here’s the kicker — you won’t.
If you want to develop your ab muscles, you’ve got to treat them like any other muscle. They need hypertrophy. That means you need to increase resistance or weight in your ab training to effectively grow the muscle.

None of the exercises in those ab routine videos offer that. And if they do try to include resistance, it’s usually unsafe as hell — you could easily pull a muscle trying to go heavy without proper progression.

Most of those routines are just endurance and core stability exercises. So sure, maybe they help a little with cardiovascular conditioning, but honestly? You’d be better off going for a solid walk than doing those hard-ass ab circuits.

Some people might argue that these routines help build the smaller muscles around the core. And yeah, that’s true. But then I have to ask — why are you even training abs?

If your goal is to build those deep, invisible core muscles, cool — do those routines.
But let’s be real: if you’re being completely honest with yourself, you want rock-hard, chiseled abs. You want that sharp, aesthetic six-pack.

And if that’s your goal, just skip those ab routines entirely.

Truth is, you only need two exercises in your whole damn life to build visible, chiseled abs. Once you’ve got that foundation, then you can think about training the smaller core muscles — if you even care at that point.

But before we jump into those two exercises, we need to talk about something way more important — even more important than the exercises themselves.

Your body fat percentage.

Abs are only visible at a certain body fat percentage.

There are two main factors that decide whether you have visible, chiseled abs or not:

1. Your ab muscles

2. Your body fat percentage

The bigger your abdominal muscles are, the better they can poke through whatever body fat you have. So yeah, if you’ve got thick-ass abs but a relatively high body fat percentage, there’s still a chance they’ll show.

The flip side is also true — if you’ve got super low body fat but barely any ab muscle, you’ll still have visible abs… they just won’t look impressive.

Whether either of those actually looks good is subjective. But knowing you? You want visible abs and to look great at the same time. So here’s my answer for you:

• If you’re male: aim for 10–15% body fat

• If you’re female: aim for 15–20% body fat

Why those numbers?
Because around that range, you’re not gonna look too skinny or too bulky — you’ll look balanced. And that’s the whole point, right? You want to look good with abs, not just have abs for the sake of it. You want aesthetics, not imbalance.

So how do you get there?

Dieting and movement.
That’s it. Simple.

Now, real talk — dieting is kind of distorted these days. In my honest opinion, you just have to eat healthy and you’ll naturally lower your body fat to the point where you look awesome with abs. It’s only called “dieting” now because the average person’s diet is straight-up trash.

I’m not gonna dive deep into how to diet here. You can read this article on how to lose fat while maintaining muscle mass — it breaks it down well.

Here it the article: https://loc-ng.com/blogs/fitness/how-to-lose-20-lbs-of-fat-without-doing-cardio

The next thing (which is also mentioned in the article): increase your step count.

And no, you don’t need to do some hard-ass cardio routine to lose fat.

That’s a huge fallacy.
Why?

• It’s not sustainable.

• You’ll feel hungrier afterward.

• You’ll unconsciously move less throughout the day to “make up” for it.

Only do intense cardio because you enjoy it — not because you think it’s the magic trick to fat loss.

The easiest, most underrated way to lose fat?
Walk more.

Aim for that famous 10,000 steps a day. It’s simple, effective, and doesn’t leave you wiped out or starving.

Alright. Now that we’ve got all that out of the way...

Let’s get into the only 2 fucking ab exercises you’ll ever need.

The only 2 fucking ab exercises you’ll ever need.

Let’s cut the crap and get to the point.

Cable Ab Crunches.
 Hanging Leg Raises.

That’s all you need to build solid ab muscles.
Skip all the nonsense you see online — planks, sit-ups, bicycle crunches, Russian twists… all that crap. Just stick with these two exercises for a long-ass time.

But why only these two?

Well…

The obvious reason is that you can increase the weight with cable ab crunches, which makes them perfect for building muscle. You can progressively overload — just like you would with any other muscle group.

“But what about hanging leg raises? You can’t increase the weight there.”

You’re right, my friend!

Even though cable crunches are awesome, they’ve got one big limitation — they mostly target the upper abs. You won’t hit the lower portion as effectively.

That’s where hanging leg raises come in. They’re the king when it comes to hitting the lower abs. And the reason you don’t need to progressively overload them right away is because the movement is already tough as hell.

Seriously — just lifting your legs under control while hanging takes serious strength. You won’t need to add weight for a long time.

But if you ever get to the point where regular hanging leg raises feel easy (and you’re a savage like that), grab a dumbbell and hold it between your feet. Congrats — you’ve unlocked elite-level ab training.

Let’s hop into how you should perform these two exercises.

Cable Ab Crunch

This should always be your go-to exercise for ab training. It’s easy to increase the weight, and it’s what’s really going to build those thick, deep-cut abs you’re chasing.

A solid alternative is the machine ab crunch — also a good option. But honestly, I feel like you can contract your abs just a bit better with the cable version.

How to do Cable Ab Crunches:

• Kneel in front of a cable machine with a rope attachment.

• Hold the rope near your head, elbows tucked in.

• Crunch down by contracting your abs, bringing your elbows toward your knees.

• Pause and squeeze your abs hard at the bottom.

• Slowly return to the starting position.

• Repeat with control for your desired reps.

Hanging Leg Raise

Next up — the hanging leg raise, the go-to move to build up the lower part of your abs.
While the cable crunch should be your foundation, this one completes the picture.

It’s not an easy movement to master, but damn — it builds your lower abs like nothing else.

There are two pieces of equipment you can use for this:

1. Pull-up bar (hanging variant) — tougher, because you're literally hanging and relying on grip and upper body strength.

2. Roman chair / captain's chair — easier, since you’re supported and can just focus on the movement itself.
   

Just to be clear — the hanging version isn’t more effective just because it’s harder. It’s only tougher because you're using more muscles (like your forearms and shoulders) to stabilize. That’s it.

If straight-leg raises are too hard at first — don’t sweat it.
Start with bent-knee leg raises, build some control, then move on to the straight-leg version over time.

And if straight-leg raises get too easy? Go next level:

• Raise your legs higher than parallel

• Hold a dumbbell between your feet

• Or add slow eccentrics (super slow on the way down)

How to do Hanging Leg Raises:

• Hang from a pull-up bar with your arms fully extended and legs straight.

• Engage your core and keep your body stable (no wild swinging).

• Raise your legs until they’re parallel to the ground or higher.

• Pause at the top and squeeze your abs.

• Lower your legs slowly and under control.

• Repeat for your desired reps.

How many sets and reps should I do, and how often should I train them?

If you know me for more than 30 minutes, you’ll probably discover that I like to make things so easy and simple that all you have to do is execute.

Always do 4 sets with a minimum of 7 reps, and train them at least twice a week.
That’s it.

If 7 reps is too much, don’t sweat it. Do less. The key here is staying consistent. Over time, you can increase the reps—and if you can hit 20 reps easily, add more weight.

Well…

That’s it for this article. I hope I convinced you that you really only need to stick with these two core, essential ab exercises.

Even though I shit on ab routine videos a lot, they do have some validity. You’ll build endurance and hit those smaller muscles around the abdominals. But if you want really thick abs, the two exercises mentioned in this article are more than enough to get you the results you’re after.

Thanks for reading this article! Hope you liked it.

Until next time and have an great rest of your week.

Kind Regards,
Loc Nguyen