When I first started losing weight through a controlled diet and following a training plan I gave little to no attention to six pack abs.

The goal was not to get washboard abs, but it was simply to lose weight in a healthy way and get some basic strength into my then fragile body.

But 5 months down the road when I had lost 25 kilo (a little over 55 pounds) and gotten rid of my back and shoulder pains I started getting more and more aware of how I looked.

I had gone down several dress sizes and I looked really good compared to when I was fat, but now I felt that something new was missing – I really wanted to see some good looking abs.

I knew that there was no such thing as specific exercises that could cause fat loss in a localized area – belly fat burning exercises just doesn’t exist; fat (in the form of free fatty acids) is released from fat cells (adipose fat cells) all over your body, travel in your bloodstream to your liver where it’s converted to glucose which is then released into the bloodstream to reach the cells where it’s needed.

And there is no way to get specific fat cells to release fat while at the same time preventing fat being released from other fat cells.

But if targeted fat burning exercises doesn’t exist then does it even make sense to talk about which abs exercises are the best?

Yes, it absolutely makes sense.

Yes, it’s true that there are no belly fat busting exercises, but once your body fat percentage gets low enough you want to have visible and well-defined stomach muscles and not just a flat belly.

So this list of the 5 best abs exercises is not as seen from a fat burning perspective, it’s seen from a muscle development perspective.

1. Rotated Mountain Climbers
2. Stability Ball Curl-up
3. Stability Ball Jackknife
4. Stability Ball Rollout
5. Push/Pull

Rotated Mountain Climbers

Start in the top position of a pushup, bring your right knee up towards your left shoulder, bring it down and repeat with your left knee towards your right shoulder. Make sure you keep your core tensed.

Stability Ball Curl-up

Lie with your lower back centered on the ball, feet shoulder width apart, hands behind your neck, tense your abs and curl up until your shoulders and upper back is clear from the ball, slowly return to your start position.

Stability Ball Jackknife

Elbows on bench, grab the side of the bench with your hands, feet on top of ball, brace your abdominals and pull the ball towards you by tucking your knees in. You can do this exercise without the bench by placing your hands on the floor with your arms straight (like the top position of a pushup). Make sure you keep your back straight.

Stability Ball Rollout

Kneel in front of a stability ball with your hands clenched and resting on the ball. Keeping your back straight, slowly roll the ball away from your body by letting your hands roll over the ball. Fully extended you’ll have a straight line from your knees, throughout your core and extending through your stretched out arms. Slowly return to the starting position.

Push/Pull

I have no idea if this exercise has a real name, but it was an exercise I saw someone doing in my gym. After he left I tried it out and it  worked my abdominal muscles in a way I’ve never experienced before.

It’s a bit complicated to set up the start position of this exercise, and a bit awkward to do the actual routine, so take it slowly.

Place a bench slightly to the side under a high pulley. Sit on the bench, grab one handle with your left hand. In your right hand you’ll have a dumbbell. Lean back and lift your butt off the bench with your right shoulder in the start position of a bench press and your left arm fully extended.

This is the starting position. Now pull down hard with your left hand and push up fast with our right arm, return slowly to the starting position.

These are the 5 best abs exercises I can recommend from personal experience – and just one of them (the Push/Pull) requires real gym equipment. The Rotated Mountain Climbers can be done anywhere and the remaining 3 exercises only require a Stability Ball (a.k.a. Swiss Ball)