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Exercises

Lower ab exercises at home: floor, pull-up bar and ab wheel

Published October 19, 2026

The best lower ab exercises at home are the reverse crunch, the lying knee raise and the dead bug on the floor, the hanging knee raise and hanging leg raise if you have a pull-up bar, and the ab wheel rollout and dragon flag once those get easy. Your lower abs are not a separate muscle, but exercises that curl your pelvis up toward your ribs, rather than your ribs down toward your pelvis, load the bottom of the rectus abdominis hardest. Pick two of those curls plus one brace where your lower back stays pinned down, and you have a complete lower ab session with no machines.

  1. Reverse Crunch Abs
  2. Lying Knee Raise Abs
  3. Dead Bug Abs
  4. Hanging Knee Raise Abs
  5. Hanging Leg Raise Abs
  6. Alternating Leg Raise Abs
  7. Jackknife Abs
  8. Ab Wheel Rollout Abs
  9. Dragon Flag Abs

Lower ab exercises on the floor, no equipment

All you need here is a mat or a rug. Each of these moves lifts your legs or hips while your upper back stays down, which is what shifts the work toward the bottom of your abs. The reverse crunch and lying knee raise are the place to start; the jackknife and windshield wipers take more control and come later.

Lower abs, pelvis-to-ribs curl

Reverse Crunch

Abs

It is the purest version of what a lower ab exercise means: your shoulders stay on the floor and your hips curl up off it. Because the range is short and your legs stay bent, almost anyone can do clean reps from day one.

How to do it

  1. Lie face up, your hands flat by your hips and your knees bent over your hips, shins level with the floor.
  2. Press your hands into the floor and roll your hips up so your knees travel toward your chest and your tailbone peels off the mat.
  3. Pause when your lower back is off the floor and your knees are near your face.
  4. Roll back down one vertebra at a time until your tailbone touches, keeping your knees bent, then start the next rep.

Cues

  • Peel the tailbone, don't swing the knees
  • Exhale as the hips lift
  • Lower slower than you lift

Common mistakes

  • Kicking the legs to throw the hips up: stop each rep at the bottom so momentum can't carry the next one.
  • Letting the knees drift away from the chest on the way down: keep the knee angle fixed so the work stays in your abs.

Swap for: Lying Knee Raise, Hanging Knee Raise, Jackknife

Build a session with Reverse Crunch

Lower abs, beginner leg lift

Lying Knee Raise

Abs

Bringing your knees in from a nearly straight position adds a longer range than the reverse crunch while keeping the lever short. It is the easiest way to learn to hold your lower back flat while your legs move.

How to do it

  1. Lie flat with your legs extended, heels hovering a few inches off the floor and hands under your hips or by your sides.
  2. Bend your knees and draw them toward your chest until your thighs pass vertical.
  3. Let your hips curl up slightly at the top so your lower back presses into the floor.
  4. Extend the legs back out to the hover without letting the heels touch, then go again.

Cues

  • Lower back stays glued down
  • Knees in, heels hover
  • Breathe out on the way in

Common mistakes

  • Arching your lower back as the legs straighten: stop the legs higher until you can keep it flat.
  • Resting the heels on the floor between reps: the hover is where the hardest part of the rep lives.

Swap for: Reverse Crunch, Alternating Leg Raise, Hanging Knee Raise

Build a session with Lying Knee Raise

Lower abs, straight-leg control

Alternating Leg Raise

Abs

Moving one straight leg at a time gives you a long lever with half the load, so you can practice holding your pelvis still before both legs move together. It doubles as a finisher when two-leg raises are too much.

How to do it

  1. Lie face up with both legs straight and your hands behind your head or by your sides.
  2. Lift one leg toward the ceiling with the knee straight while the other hovers just off the floor.
  3. As the raised leg comes down, raise the other one so they pass each other in the middle.
  4. Keep switching in a slow scissor rhythm, counting each leg as one rep.

Cues

  • Hips don't rock side to side
  • Long legs, soft knees are fine
  • Slow pass in the middle

Common mistakes

  • Rushing into a fast flutter: slow each leg to two seconds each way so your abs, not momentum, steer it.
  • Letting the low leg drop to the floor: if it touches, your abs got a break.

Swap for: Lying Knee Raise, Dead Bug, Windshield Wipers

Build a session with Alternating Leg Raise

Whole abs, V-up

Jackknife

Abs

Your torso and legs fold toward each other at the same time, so your abs work from both ends in one rep. It is a step up from the floor curls when you have no bar or wheel to progress to.

How to do it

  1. Lie fully stretched out with your arms overhead and legs straight.
  2. In one motion, lift your arms, chest and straight legs so your hands reach toward your shins.
  3. Balance on your seat for a moment at the top with your body in a V.
  4. Lower your back and legs together until both are just off the floor, then fold again.

Cues

  • Hands reach for the ankles
  • Fold in the middle
  • Land soft, don't flop

Common mistakes

  • Bending the knees a lot to cheat the top: tuck them on purpose with a bent-knee version, or bend less and accept a lower V.
  • Dropping flat between reps: hover your heels and shoulders to keep the abs working.

Swap for: Reverse Crunch, Dragon Flag, Hanging Leg Raise

Build a session with Jackknife

Lower abs and obliques, rotation

Windshield Wipers

Abs

Swinging bent knees side to side while your shoulders stay pinned adds a twist to lower ab work, so your obliques share the load. Use it as the last move of a floor session.

How to do it

  1. Lie face up, your arms spread wide, palms down, and your knees bent over your hips.
  2. Keeping your knees together, lower them to the right until they hover just above the floor.
  3. Pull them back to the middle using your abs, not a swing.
  4. Take them across to the left side the same way, and keep alternating.

Cues

  • Both shoulders stay on the floor
  • Knees glued together
  • Stop before the floor

Common mistakes

  • Letting the opposite shoulder lift as the knees drop: shorten the range until it stays down.
  • Dropping the knees fast and bouncing back: lower over two seconds and pause in the middle.

Swap for: Alternating Leg Raise, Reverse Crunch, Dead Bug

Build a session with Windshield Wipers

With a doorway pull-up bar or a bench

Hanging takes the floor away, so your abs have to lift the full weight of your legs from a dead hang. A doorway bar is the one piece of home gear that makes lower ab training progressive for years. A sturdy bench or couch edge to grip opens up the dragon flag, the hardest lever on this page.

Lower abs, hanging

Hanging Knee Raise

Abs

Hanging from a bar, your abs lift the full weight of your legs through a long range, which makes it the most loaded lower ab exercise most people can do at home. A doorway bar is enough.

How to do it

  1. Hang from the bar with straight arms, hands about shoulder width, and your legs still.
  2. Curl your knees up toward your chest, tilting your pelvis so your hips rise too.
  3. Pause when your knees are above hip height.
  4. Lower your legs slowly to a full hang without swinging, then repeat.

Cues

  • Tilt the pelvis, not just the knees
  • Kill the swing before each rep
  • Shoulders pulled down from the ears

Common mistakes

  • Swinging into the reps: pause at the bottom for a second until your body is still.
  • Lifting the knees only to hip height with a flat pelvis: that trains the hip flexors; the curl at the top is the ab part.

Swap for: Reverse Crunch, Hanging Leg Raise, Lying Knee Raise

Build a session with Hanging Knee Raise

Lower abs, hanging straight legs

Hanging Leg Raise

Abs

Keeping your legs long turns the hanging knee raise into a much heavier lever. Graduate to it when you can do 15 slow knee raises at 2 reps in reserve.

How to do it

  1. Hang from the bar with straight arms and your legs together and straight.
  2. Raise your straight legs in front of you, rolling your pelvis up as they pass hip height.
  3. Go as high as you can control, at least level with the floor.
  4. Lower slowly back to a still hang.

Cues

  • Long legs, toes pointed
  • Roll the hips up at the top
  • Three seconds down

Common mistakes

  • Using a swing from the previous rep: if you need it, go back to knee raises.
  • Bending the knees halfway through the set without noticing: keep the set honest and stop when the legs bend.

Swap for: Hanging Knee Raise, Dragon Flag, Jackknife

Build a session with Hanging Leg Raise

Whole abs, advanced lever

Dragon Flag

Abs

With only your upper back on a bench, your entire body becomes the lever your abs control. It is the hardest exercise here and needs a bench or a sturdy couch edge to grip behind your head.

How to do it

  1. Lie on a bench and grip it behind your head with both hands.
  2. Lift your hips and legs until your body is nearly vertical, resting on your upper back and shoulders.
  3. Lower your body as one straight line, hinging only at the shoulders, as slowly as you can.
  4. Stop before your lower back arches or your hips sag, then bring your body back up.

Cues

  • Body like a plank
  • Slow on the way down
  • Grip hard behind your head

Common mistakes

  • Bending at the hips as you lower: tuck the knees or shorten the range until you can stay straight.
  • Lowering all the way to the bench before you're ready: start with the top half of the movement.

Swap for: Hanging Leg Raise, Jackknife, Ab Wheel Rollout

Build a session with Dragon Flag

Bracing moves that keep your lower back down

These train the job your lower abs do all day: stopping your pelvis from tipping forward and your lower back from arching. They pair well with the curls above because they work the same muscles without more spinal bending. The dead bug suits everyone; the ab wheel and ball body saw are for when a long plank no longer challenges you.

Deep abs, anti-extension

Dead Bug

Abs

Your back stays pressed to the floor while one arm and the opposite leg reach away, which teaches your lower abs to hold the pelvis still. It is easy on the back and works as a warm-up or as real training when done slowly.

How to do it

  1. Lie face up, your arms pointing at the ceiling and your knees bent over your hips.
  2. Press your lower back into the floor and keep it there for the whole set.
  3. Reach your right arm overhead and your left leg out long until both hover just off the floor.
  4. Bring them back and switch to the other diagonal.

Cues

  • Back flat, ribs down
  • Reach long, move slow
  • Breathe out as you reach

Common mistakes

  • Letting the lower back lift off the floor at full reach: shorten the reach until it stays down.
  • Moving fast: take two to three seconds per reach.

Swap for: Alternating Leg Raise, Long Lever Plank, Reverse Crunch

Build a session with Dead Bug

Abs, harder plank

Long Lever Plank

Abs

Placing your elbows farther forward than your shoulders turns a plank into a demanding lower ab brace in under 30 seconds. It is a good way to make the plank hard again without a wheel.

How to do it

  1. Set up in a forearm plank, then walk your elbows a few inches forward of your shoulders.
  2. Squeeze your glutes and tuck your pelvis slightly so your lower back stays flat.
  3. Hold the line from shoulders to heels without letting your hips sag.
  4. Stop the set when the hips start to drop or your back starts to arch.

Cues

  • Elbows ahead of the shoulders
  • Glutes tight, tailbone tucked
  • Hold short, hold hard

Common mistakes

  • Holding for minutes with the hips sagging: a shorter hold with a flat back is the real work.
  • Piking the hips up to make it easier: keep shoulders, hips and heels in one line.

Swap for: Dead Bug, Stability Ball Body Saw, Ab Wheel Rollout

Build a session with Long Lever Plank

Abs, rolling plank

Stability Ball Body Saw

Abs

Rolling a ball a few inches back and forth from a forearm plank makes the brace harder at the far end of every rep. It is a gentler step toward the ab wheel.

How to do it

  1. Kneel behind an exercise ball, put your forearms on it and step back into a plank with straight legs.
  2. Push the ball slightly forward with your forearms, letting your body lengthen.
  3. Pull it back under your shoulders using your abs.
  4. Keep sawing back and forth for the set without letting your hips drop.

Cues

  • Small rolls, flat back
  • Abs pull the ball back
  • Feet wide for balance

Common mistakes

  • Rolling too far and arching: keep the range short until the back stays flat.
  • Pushing the hips up into a pike to bring the ball back: the hips stay in line.

Swap for: Long Lever Plank, Ab Wheel Rollout, Dead Bug

Build a session with Stability Ball Body Saw

Abs, advanced anti-extension

Ab Wheel Rollout

Abs

Rolling out from your knees stretches your abs under load as your arms move overhead, which few home exercises can do. It is the clearest step up once planks and dead bugs feel easy.

How to do it

  1. Kneel on a pad with the wheel under your shoulders and arms straight.
  2. Tuck your pelvis so your lower back rounds slightly, then roll the wheel forward as your hips follow.
  3. Go as far as you can while keeping that tuck, ideally until your arms are near overhead.
  4. Pull the wheel back to your knees by squeezing your abs, not by sitting your hips back.

Cues

  • Tuck first, then roll
  • Hips move with the wheel
  • Stop before the back arches

Common mistakes

  • Letting the lower back sag at the far end: roll toward a wall so it stops you at a range you control.
  • Pulling back by bending at the hips: drag the wheel back with your abs and keep the hips forward.

Swap for: Stability Ball Body Saw, Long Lever Plank, Dragon Flag

Build a session with Ab Wheel Rollout

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

No equipment, ten minutes on the floor

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts3× a week
  • Working sets33 a week
  • Per workout~20 min
  • EquipmentBodyweight

You have a mat and no gear, and want a short lower ab session you can repeat on most days.

With nothing to add load, the floor moves are ordered from hardest to easiest so each one is fresh when it matters most: the reverse crunch first, the lying knee raise next, then the scissor raise and dead bug as finishers. Sets stop 1 to 2 reps short of failure, because you will repeat this three times a week, and the dead bug sits last with longer rest so your back is flat on every rep. That is 11 sets in about ten minutes.

Lower Abs Floor
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Reverse CrunchPause 1 s with hips up. 3 × 10–20 1 45 s
Lying Knee RaiseHeels hover between reps. 3 × 10–20 1 45 s
Alternating Leg RaisePer leg. 2 s each way. 3 × 10–20 2 45 s
Dead BugPer side. Back flat. 2 × 8–12 2 1 min
How to run it
Do this session three days a week, with a day between. It works on its own or straight after another workout.
How to progress
Add reps until you reach the top of each range at the target reps in reserve. Then slow each rep to three seconds down and pause at the top before adding more reps. When 20 slow reverse crunches feel easy, swap in the jackknife.
Open in the session builder

Session 2

A doorway pull-up bar, twice a week

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts2× a week
  • Working sets18 a week
  • Per workout~20 min
  • EquipmentPull-Up Bar

You have a pull-up bar at home and are ready for more load than the floor gives.

Hanging raises put the most weight on your lower abs, so each session opens with one of them while your grip is fresh, closes with a floor curl at 0 to 1 reps in reserve to finish the abs off without needing grip, and adds a brace so the abs train holding position too. Session A builds the knee raise; session B moves to the straight-leg raise and the jackknife. Each session is 9 sets, with longer rests for the hanging work so your grip doesn't end the set first.

Lower Abs A
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Hanging Knee RaiseStill hang before each rep. 3 × 8–15 1 90 s
Reverse Crunch 3 × 12–20 0 1 min
Long Lever PlankSeconds. Elbows ahead of shoulders. 3 × 15–30 1 1 min

Open Lower Abs A in the session builder

Lower Abs B
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Hanging Leg Raise3 s down. Bend the knees if needed. 3 × 6–12 2 2 min
Jackknife 3 × 8–15 1 1 min
Dead BugPer side. 3 × 8–12 2 1 min

Open Lower Abs B in the session builder

How to run it
Do Lower Abs A and B once each per week, two to three days apart. Either can go at the end of an upper-body or full-body day.
How to progress
On the knee raise, add reps until you hit 15 at 2 reps in reserve, then start the straight-leg raise in session B with bent knees on the last few reps. Hold the plank for a few more seconds each week until you can't keep the flat line.
Open in the session builder

Session 3

Ab wheel and a bench, experienced

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts2× a week
  • Working sets24 a week
  • Per workout~30 min
  • EquipmentAb Wheel

You already do 20 clean reverse crunches and want the hardest lower ab work a home setup allows.

Floor curls no longer reach failure for you, so this session leads with the two heaviest levers: the dragon flag at 2 reps in reserve with long rest, because form breaks quickly near failure, and the ab wheel at 1 to 2. The jackknife and windshield wipers follow at 1 rep in reserve for volume without new gear, and the wipers bring the obliques in. That is 12 sets, done twice a week.

Lower Abs Advanced
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Dragon FlagLower over 4 s. Stop before the back arches. 3 × 4–8 2 2 min
Ab Wheel RolloutFrom the knees. Tuck first. 3 × 6–12 1 90 s
Jackknife 3 × 10–15 1 1 min
Windshield WipersPer side. Shoulders down. 3 × 8–12 1 1 min
How to run it
Run this session twice a week, at least two days apart. Warm up with one easy set of dead bugs if your back feels stiff.
How to progress
On the dragon flag, add a second of lowering each week before adding reps, and lower further down the range as you get stronger. On the ab wheel, move a wall back an inch at a time until you roll out to full extension.
Open in the session builder

Make it fit you

Questions

What works out your lower abs?

Exercises that curl your pelvis up toward your ribs: the reverse crunch, lying and hanging knee raises, and leg raises. Your rectus abdominis is one muscle, but these moves load its lower part harder than crunches do. Add a brace like the dead bug, where your lower abs stop your back from arching.

Can you do lower ab exercises at home with no equipment?

Yes. The reverse crunch, lying knee raise, alternating leg raise, jackknife, windshield wipers, dead bug and long lever plank need only floor space. A doorway pull-up bar or an ab wheel is the most useful thing to add once those feel easy.

Is 20 minutes of abs a day enough?

It is more than you need. Six to twelve hard sets of abs a week, spread over two or three sessions, is enough to build them, and that fits into ten-minute sessions. Doing abs every day mostly adds tiredness, not results.

How do I get rid of my lower belly pooch?

Ab exercises don't burn the fat over the muscle they train. A lower belly goes down when your overall body fat goes down, which comes from eating and overall activity. Training your lower abs still helps: it builds the muscle that shows once the fat is lower.

How do you get a V line?

The V line is where your obliques and lower abs meet your hips, and it shows at a low body fat. Train the lower abs with the moves on this page, add oblique work like windshield wipers, and the rest comes from body fat.

How many sets and reps should I do for lower abs?

Two to four sets per exercise, 8 to 20 reps, stopped 0 to 2 reps short of failure. Holds like the long lever plank go by seconds, stopped when your hips start to drop.

Why do I feel leg raises in my hip flexors?

Lifting the legs is hip flexor work; the abs take over when your pelvis tilts up at the top. Bend your knees, slow down, and finish every rep by rolling your hips toward your ribs. The reverse crunch makes that easier to feel.