31 of the Best Core Exercises You Can Do at Home by Amy Marturana Winderl, C.P.T. (www.self.com)

The best abs exercises are ones that work more than just one part of your abdominal muscles. Yes, there are multiple layers of muscles (plus soft tissue, nerves, and blood vessels) that make up the full abdominal wall. And even though you can't see or really feel them all, they're really important for keeping your entire body strong and stable.

​The rectus abdominis is the muscle you think of when you think "abs." It's the outermost abdominal muscle, and runs vertically along each side of your abdominal wall. The transverse abdominis is the deepest muscle of the abdominal wall, which means it's closest to your spine, and basically wraps around your torso between your ribs and your hips. The oblique muscles run along the sides of your torso, and there are two sets: internal and external. The internal obliques lie above the transverse abdominis, and then the external obliques are on top of those (they're the most superficial of the bunch). There's also a handful of other smaller muscles in this area—what we call the core—that work to stabilize the spine and allow us to bent and twist and lift without hurting ourselves.

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