Total Abs is a nine-station floor circuit that trains your midsection to do both of the things it is actually for. Six dynamic exercises come first - sit-ups, reverse crunches, sitting twists, high crunches, knee crunches and knee-to-elbow, all at 10 reps - then two 10-count holds in plank and side plank, and finally 5 back extensions. Movement, then stillness, then the other side of your waist. That is the full job description, and this card is one of the few that reads all of it.

The order works down the abdominal wall and then changes the question entirely. Sit-ups and reverse crunches open by loading trunk flexion from both ends - the torso lifting toward the legs, then the legs lifting toward the torso. Sitting twists and knee-to-elbow bring the obliques in with rotation, while high crunches and knee crunches keep the rectus abdominis working against differently weighted levers. Six exercises in, everything that shortens your midsection has been asked to do so. Then the holds flip the assignment: the plank and side plank ask those same muscles to produce force without any movement at all, which is what a core does for a living the rest of the day. The 5 back extensions at the end are small and non-negotiable - five honest reps for the spinal erectors, because a midsection trained only on its front pulls you slowly into a slouch, and the closing count is low precisely so nobody skips it.

Curl up by lifting your shoulder blades clear of the floor with your hands supporting your head, never pulling it. In the reverse crunches and knee crunches, keep your lower back in gentle contact with the floor and stop the range where that contact ends. Rotate the sitting twists and knee-to-elbow from the ribcage so the obliques do the work rather than the arms. Hold both planks with hips level and glutes switched on - a straight line from head to heels, and in the side plank, hips lifted rather than sagging toward the floor. Lift the back extensions only a few centimeters with a long neck; height is not the goal, controlled tension is.

Curl, brace, extend - your midsection just signed for all three, and the last five reps are what keeps the other forty-something honest.

Make it Harder: Extend both holds to a 20-count and keep everything else as written.

Make it Easier: Drop both planks to your knees and cut the dynamic block to 5 reps each.