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Exercises

Core exercises at the gym: machines, cables, bars and free weights

Published October 19, 2026

The best core exercises at the gym are the ones that use what a home doesn't have: the cable crunch and ab crunch machine for loaded crunching, the captain's chair and hanging leg raise for your lower abs, the Pallof press, cable woodchop and landmine rotational press for your obliques, the barbell rollout and decline crunch for the front, and the weighted back extension and heavy farmer's walk for the rest of your trunk. Pick three or four, 2 to 4 sets each, 8 to 15 reps ending 0 to 2 reps short of failure, and add weight as you would on any lift.

  1. Cable Crunch Abs
  2. Machine Crunch Abs
  3. Captain's Chair Knee Raise Abs
  4. Pallof Press Abs
  5. Cable Woodchop Abs
  6. Hanging Leg Raise Abs
  7. Barbell Rollout Abs
  8. Weighted Back Extension Lower Back
  9. Farmer's Walk Forearms, Traps, Shoulders

Core machines and cable exercises

This is what the gym gives you that a living room can't: a weight stack you can raise five pounds at a time. The cable crunch and the ab crunch machine build the six-pack muscle the way a leg press builds your quads; the Pallof press and woodchop use the same cable for your obliques.

Abs, the best loaded crunch

Cable Crunch

Abs

Standing with your back to a high pulley, you curl your spine against the stack, which means you can add load in small steps every week. It is the closest thing to a main lift for your abs.

How to do it

  1. Set a rope on the high pulley, turn your back to the machine and step forward.
  2. Take the rope ends behind your head, feet hip-width apart and knees soft.
  3. Curl your ribs toward your hips until your elbows near your thighs.
  4. Uncurl slowly until your back is long again.

Cues

  • Curl the spine
  • Hips still
  • Exhale down

Common mistakes

  • Pushing your hips back so they do the work instead of your abs.
  • Pulling the rope with your arms.

Swap for: Machine Crunch, Decline Crunch

Build a session with Cable Crunch

Abs, the easiest to load

Machine Crunch

Abs

The ab crunch machine fixes your path and lets you pick a weight with a pin, so it is the simplest way to train your abs heavy without worrying about technique.

How to do it

  1. Sit in the machine and set the seat so the pads sit at your chest or the handles at your shoulders.
  2. Hook your feet under the rollers if it has them.
  3. Crunch forward by rounding your back, not by bending at the hips.
  4. Return slowly until the plates almost touch.

Cues

  • Round forward
  • Slow return
  • Don't yank

Common mistakes

  • Pushing with your legs or arms.
  • Letting the stack slam between reps.

Swap for: Cable Crunch, Crunch

Build a session with Machine Crunch

Obliques, anti-rotation

Pallof Press

Abs

The cable pulls you sideways and you refuse to turn while pressing the handle out. It builds the side of your core that protects your spine on heavy lifts.

How to do it

  1. Set the cable at chest height and stand side-on to it, far enough that it pulls.
  2. Bring the handle to the middle of your chest.
  3. Push it straight away from you and hold for two seconds.
  4. Bring it back and repeat, then face the other way.

Cues

  • Don't turn
  • Feet planted
  • Two-second hold

Common mistakes

  • Standing too close to the stack.
  • Leaning away from the cable instead of bracing.

Swap for: Landmine Rotational Press, Side Plank

Build a session with Pallof Press

Obliques, rotation

Cable Woodchop

Abs

The woodchop trains your obliques to turn your trunk against resistance, and the cable keeps tension the whole way. Change the pulley height to chop high-to-low or low-to-high.

How to do it

  1. Set the pulley high and stand side-on with your feet wide.
  2. Take the handle in both hands above your far shoulder.
  3. Turn your chest and drive the handle diagonally across to your opposite knee.
  4. Turn back slowly, finish the set, then switch sides.

Cues

  • Rotate the chest
  • Pivot the back foot
  • Arms just guide

Common mistakes

  • Pulling with your arms while your trunk stays still.
  • Snapping back too fast on the return.

Swap for: Med Ball Woodchop, Landmine Twist

Build a session with Cable Woodchop

Captain's chair and pull-up bar

The captain's chair supports your forearms and back so your abs can lift your legs without your grip giving out first. Once that is easy, the pull-up bar takes the support away.

Lower abs, supported

Captain's Chair Knee Raise

Abs

The captain's chair holds your upper body steady, so your grip never limits the set and your abs can lift your legs for clean reps. It is the gym's best lower-ab station.

How to do it

  1. Step up, rest your forearms on the pads, and press your back into the backrest.
  2. Let your legs hang straight down.
  3. Pull your knees up past hip height, curling your hips off the backrest at the top.
  4. Lower slowly without swinging.

Cues

  • Back on the pad
  • Curl the hips
  • No swing

Common mistakes

  • Kicking the legs up with momentum.
  • Stopping at hip height and leaving the abs out of it.

Swap for: Hanging Knee Raise, Reverse Crunch

Build a session with Captain's Chair Knee Raise

Lower abs, the hardest leg raise

Hanging Leg Raise

Abs

Hanging with straight legs takes away all support and makes your legs the longest possible lever. Use it once the captain's chair is easy for 15 reps.

How to do it

  1. Grip the pull-up bar and hang with straight arms.
  2. Lift straight legs in front of you to hip height or higher.
  3. Tilt your hips up at the top.
  4. Lower slowly and stop the swing before the next rep.

Cues

  • Legs straight
  • Tilt up
  • Dead stop

Common mistakes

  • Swinging through the reps.
  • Bending the knees as fatigue sets in.

Swap for: Captain's Chair Knee Raise, Hanging Knee Raise

Build a session with Hanging Leg Raise

Bench, barbell and landmine core exercises

Gym benches and bars turn bodyweight moves into loaded ones. The decline bench makes a sit-up heavier, a loaded barbell replaces the ab wheel, and the landmine gives you a rotation you can push hard.

Abs, on the decline bench

Decline Crunch

Abs

Your upper body becomes heavier the steeper the bench is set, and you can hold a plate on your chest too. Two easy ways to add load without a machine.

How to do it

  1. Set a decline bench, hook your feet in, and lie back.
  2. Hold a plate to your chest or cross your arms.
  3. Curl your trunk up toward your thighs.
  4. Lower slowly to the pad.

Cues

  • Curl, ribs first
  • Control down
  • Steeper is harder

Common mistakes

  • Coming up with a flat back.
  • Dropping back to the bench.

Swap for: Cable Crunch, Machine Crunch

Build a session with Decline Crunch

Front of the core, loaded

Barbell Rollout

Abs

A loaded barbell rolls like an ab wheel but with a steadier path. It stretches your abs under heavy load and is one of the hardest anti-extension exercises in the gym.

How to do it

  1. Load a barbell with round plates and kneel behind it, hands on the bar under your shoulders.
  2. Round your lower back slightly and brace.
  3. Roll the bar forward, stopping before your hips dropping.
  4. Pull it back with your abs.

Cues

  • Tail tucked
  • Stay round
  • Pull with abs

Common mistakes

  • Rolling until your lower back sags.
  • Pushing your hips back to return.

Swap for: Ab Wheel Rollout, Stability Ball Body Saw

Build a session with Barbell Rollout

Obliques and full body

Landmine Rotational Press

Shoulders, Abs

From a landmine you rotate and press the bar up and away, so your hips, obliques and shoulder work together. It is a rotation you can load heavily and still keep safe.

How to do it

  1. Hold the end of a landmine bar at one shoulder, standing side-on.
  2. Pivot your back foot and turn your hips toward the anchor.
  3. Press the bar up and across as you turn.
  4. Return to the shoulder and repeat, then switch sides.

Cues

  • Hips start it
  • Pivot and press
  • Brace

Common mistakes

  • Pressing with the arm alone.
  • Twisting your lower back without turning your hips.

Swap for: Landmine Twist, Cable Woodchop

Build a session with Landmine Rotational Press

Front of the core, power

Medicine Ball Slam

Lats, Abs

Throwing a ball into the floor as hard as you can trains your abs to crunch fast and hard. It is a great way to start a core session.

How to do it

  1. Hold a slam ball overhead, arms long.
  2. Crunch hard and throw the ball into the floor in front of you.
  3. Bend your knees as it hits.
  4. Pick it up and go again.

Cues

  • Crunch to throw
  • Full reach up
  • Fast

Common mistakes

  • Throwing with your arms only.
  • Using a bouncy ball that rebounds into your face.

Swap for: Med Ball Chest Throw, Medicine Ball Overhead Throw

Build a session with Medicine Ball Slam

Lower back and loaded carries

A full core routine also trains the back of your trunk and its ability to stay rigid under heavy load. The hyperextension bench and the heaviest dumbbells on the rack do both.

Lower back, loaded

Weighted Back Extension

Lower Back

The hyperextension bench with a plate gives your spinal erectors and glutes a loaded movement they can progress on, which floor exercises cannot.

How to do it

  1. Set the pad at your hip crease and lock your heels under the rollers.
  2. Hold a plate to your chest.
  3. Fold forward at the hips.
  4. Come up until your body is straight, and no further.

Cues

  • Hinge
  • Stop at straight
  • Plate hugged in

Common mistakes

  • Arching past a straight line at the top.
  • Bouncing out of the bottom.

Swap for: 45-Degree Back Extension, Back Extension

Build a session with Weighted Back Extension

Whole trunk, heavy carry

Farmer's Walk

Forearms, Traps, Shoulders

Walking with the heaviest dumbbells you can hold makes your whole core brace to keep you upright. Gyms have the weight a home rarely does.

How to do it

  1. Stand between two heavy dumbbells and pick them up with a flat back.
  2. Stand tall, shoulders back.
  3. Walk in short, steady steps for the target distance.
  4. Set them down with the same flat back.

Cues

  • Tall
  • Short steps
  • Crush the handles

Common mistakes

  • Leaning forward and shuffling.
  • Picking a weight you could carry all day.

Swap for: Dumbbell Suitcase Carry, Plate Overhead Carry

Build a session with Farmer's Walk

Put them together: example sessions

Each session below picks from the exercises above for one situation, with the sets, reps, rest and RIR filled in. Open one in the session builder to change a pick, price it from a recent set, and add it to RIRLift.

Session 1

15 minutes after your main workout

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts2× a week
  • Working sets16 a week
  • Per workout~15 min
  • EquipmentAdjustable Cable, Dip Bar

You lift three or four days a week and want a short core block at the end that actually progresses.

Three exercises, one per job: the cable crunch to build the abs, the captain's chair for the lower abs, the Pallof press for the obliques. All three use machines that are rarely busy at the end of a session. Your core already worked on squats and deadlifts, so 2 to 3 sets each at 1 RIR is enough.

Core Finisher
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Cable Crunch 3 × 10–15 1 1 min
A1 Captain's Chair Knee Raise 3 × 10–15 1 30 s
A2 Pallof PressPer side. 2 × 8–12 1 1 min
How to run it
Add it after two of your weekly sessions. Superset the captain's chair with the Pallof press to finish in 15 minutes.
How to progress
Add weight to the cable crunch whenever you reach 15 reps at 1 RIR; move to the hanging leg raise when 15 clean reps on the chair feel easy.
Open in the session builder

Session 2

A dedicated core day, 40 minutes

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts2× a week
  • Working sets24 a week
  • Per workout~25 min
  • EquipmentAb Crunch Machine, Pull-Up Bar, Adjustable Cable, Hyperextension +4

You want core training to be a session of its own, maybe on a lighter day between your main lifts.

With a full session you can train every job of the core with load: the machine crunch and decline crunch for the abs, the hanging leg raise for the lower abs, the woodchop for rotation, the back extension for your spine, and the farmer's walk to tie it together. The heavier work sits at 1 to 2 RIR and the carries go near-max because they are the easiest to recover from.

Core Day A
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Machine Crunch1 warm-up set first 3 × 8–15 1 75 s
Hanging Leg Raise 3 × 6–12 1 75 s
Cable WoodchopPer side. 3 × 10–15 1 1 min
Weighted Back Extension 3 × 10–15 2 75 s

Open Core Day A in the session builder

Core Day B
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Decline CrunchPlate on chest. 3 × 8–15 1 75 s
Barbell Rollout 3 × 6–10 2 90 s
Landmine Rotational PressPer side. 3 × 6–10 2 75 s
Farmer's WalkSteps. Heavy. 3 × 20–40 1 90 s

Open Core Day B in the session builder

How to run it
Do Core Day A and B on separate days, or alternate them once a week.
How to progress
Add reps to the top of each range, then load: a heavier pin, a steeper bench, a bigger plate, heavier dumbbells.
Open in the session builder

Session 3

Busy gym, cables all taken

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts2× a week
  • Working sets22 a week
  • Per workout~25 min
  • EquipmentMedicine Ball, Barbells, Landmine, Dumbbells

Your gym is packed at peak hours and the cable stations always have a queue.

Every exercise here needs only a corner of floor, a bar or a ball: the slam to start, the barbell rollout and the landmine press for the front and sides, the farmer's walk to finish. None of them needs a machine, so you can train your core without waiting. Fewer, harder sets at 1 to 2 RIR keep it to 20 minutes.

Free-Weight Core
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Medicine Ball SlamHard and fast. 3 × 8–12 2 1 min
Barbell Rollout 3 × 6–10 2 90 s
Landmine Rotational PressPer side. 3 × 6–10 1 75 s
Farmer's WalkSteps. Heavy. 2 × 20–40 1 90 s
How to run it
Do this on two days a week in place of the cable work. Grab a slam ball and a barbell and stay in one spot.
How to progress
Add reps or load each week; on the rollout, go farther before adding a heavier bar.
Open in the session builder

Make it fit you

Questions

What machines can I use for core at the gym?

The ab crunch machine, the cable stack (crunches, woodchops and Pallof presses), the captain's chair, the decline bench and the hyperextension bench. A landmine and a pull-up bar add two more options.

What's a good core exercise routine at the gym?

One loaded crunch, one leg raise, one rotation or anti-rotation exercise and one carry or back extension, 3 sets each at 8 to 15 reps, twice a week. The core day plan above is that routine.

Are core workouts good for back pain?

Many people with a sore back feel better after training exercises that keep the spine still, like the Pallof press, carries and side planks. If an exercise makes your pain worse, drop it and pick another.

What are 8 core exercises?

The cable crunch, machine crunch, captain's chair knee raise, hanging leg raise, Pallof press, cable woodchop, barbell rollout and farmer's walk. Together they cover crunching, leg raising, rotating, resisting rotation and carrying.

Should I do core before or after weights?

After. Your core braces during squats, deadlifts and presses, so tiring it first makes those lifts harder and less safe. Short core blocks fit best at the end.

How many core exercises should I do at the gym?

Three or four per session is plenty, 2 to 4 sets each. More than that is usually more of the same.