I have never enjoyed crunches. I have just never seen the point. They only work a targeted part of the abs. I think planks are good but it's very easy to "plateau" with the basic plank. You need to mix it up by alternating with side planks and move on to spiderman planks.
Personally, I keep my abs up to peak by doing p90x's ab ripper x 2x a week. It's a dozen exercises done at 25 reps a piece for 300 total reps. It hits all of the abs pretty good. If I do abs in the gym then I like to do hanging leg lifts to warm up my abs, inclined twisting situps with a medicine ball (or kettlebell... just some sort of weight) to get the burn going, and then cable crunches to destroy what's left of my core.
Personally, I keep my abs up to peak by doing p90x's ab ripper x 2x a week. It's a dozen exercises done at 25 reps a piece for 300 total reps. It hits all of the abs pretty good. If I do abs in the gym then I like to do hanging leg lifts to warm up my abs, inclined twisting situps with a medicine ball (or kettlebell... just some sort of weight) to get the burn going, and then cable crunches to destroy what's left of my core.
