The Best Core Exercises

When I first started my morning routine, it was pure back‑pain panic. Everyone “knows” the best way to help your back is to strengthen your core… right? (I genuinely wasn’t sure then, and honestly, I’m still only 80% sure now.)

Back in the early 2000s, I wanted to optimize my time — one exercise, maximum payoff. Conveniently, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a short piece on a study comparing different sit‑ups and crunches. Their verdict: the bicycle crunch was the winner because it activated the most core muscles. So I started doing them. And to be fair, I still like them. I feel them in my abs, quads, and glutes, and they do seem to hit a lot of muscle groups.

But here’s the catch: that study didn’t include planks. In the early 2000s, planks were barely a thing. It took almost a decade before they became the “you should be doing this” exercise everyone now swears by.

If you Google “best ab exercise,” you’ll get a buffet of confident but contradictory answers. These days, the plank shows up as the most‑recommended single move. Two others that pop up a lot — and are very beginner‑friendly — are dead bugs and bird dogs. I added bird dogs to my rotation a while back and they’re surprisingly satisfying.

But is there really a best core exercise? And what does “best” even mean?

What does “best” mean, anyway?

“Best” is fuzzy. Best for what? Best according to whom? And best in which type of study?

Researchers look at core exercises in a few different ways:

• Clinical studies measuring improvement in symptoms — like chronic low back pain.

• Muscle activation studies using tools like electromyography (surface electrodes measuring electrical activity) or ultrasound to measure muscle thickness.

• Strength tests before and after a training program.

  
  

Those last two are often done in younger adults (college students are the lab rats of exercise science), though one ultrasound study you referenced did include adult women, including some middle‑aged participants.

🧪 Science Corner: How Researchers Study Core Exercises

Electromyography (EMG): Surface electrodes measure electrical activity in a muscle during movement.

Ultrasound: Measures muscle thickness before and after training.

Clinical outcomes: Look at real‑world improvements like reduced pain or better mobility.

Bottom line: Different studies answer different questions. “Best” depends on your goal.

So the “best” exercise depends on what you want. Are you trying to:

• build muscle

• look good on the beach

• improve performance

• or just walk around without back pain

  
  

If it’s the last one, the good news is: almost anything helps. One review found that core‑based workouts in general reduce pain and disability in adults with chronic low back pain. They didn’t test specific exercises, but Pilates came out as the most effective overall. Nike Training (free) and Apple Fitness+ (not free) both have plenty of Pilates workouts if you want to try it.

My take

If you’re only going to do one thing, it should probably be a plank. I sort of almost do them now.

For me personally, the bicycle crunch is still a mainstay. It was the first core exercise I ever committed to, it hits a lot of muscles at once, and it’s one of the few moves I’ve kept doing consistently for decades. So even though the science has shifted toward planks, the bicycle crunch still earns its spot in my routine.

If planks feel too hard or you just hate them, try:

• crunch variations

• bird dogs

• dead bugs

• 
  

Another simple, free option specifically for back pain is the McGill Big Three:

• a modified curl‑up

• side planks

• bird dogs

There are lots of free YouTube videos demonstrating the routine.

Anything is better than nothing!

Side note: The timing on this is hilarious. The day I finished writing this post, Harvard Health emailed me an article called “Strengthen your core, protect your back – no sit‑ups required.” I bet you can guess what their “no sit-up secret” was.

Planks.

Planks as the solution. Planks as the thing we’ve all been avoiding but apparently need to make peace with.

And then — plot twist — the email turned out to be an ad for their publication called Core Exercises, which I already own. (Spoiler: it also recommends planks, in addition to a few others.)