Instead of doing just the standard series of sit-ups and planks, why not give these unique ab workouts a try to strengthen your entire core? When combined with healthy nutrition, they’ll help you build that six-pack faster!
1. Seated Russian Twist
The seated Russian twist is one of the fundamental core exercises, providing a simple yet safe method to engage your abdominal muscles and improve posture while lowering risk for lower back pain, in addition to toning and shaping the midsection. By adding it into your routine, it may even help trim and shape midsection.
As with other core exercises, this one requires proper form to avoid injury. One common misstep involves allowing knees to move during movement – which decreases core engagement and increases shear force on your spine, according to Samuel. Moving too quickly increases strain on your back and leads to potential shear injuries which become even worse when carrying heavier loads.
Hudock believes the key to avoiding these errors lies in keeping your torso rigid, and adding challenge by pausing for a moment midway through each rep rather than racing through them all at once. And as with any exercise regimen, starting small and increasing reps gradually can make for great gains in fitness.
When starting this exercise for the first time, Hudock suggests beginning with body-weight only and gradually progressing to adding additional difficulty with medicine balls or dumbbells to increase difficulty and challenge your muscles more effectively. If any discomfort arises due to repetitions and speed of movement increases too rapidly for you to manage safely, Hudock suggests decreasing repetitions and/or slowing your pace until comfortable again.
2. Side to Side Crunch
The Side to Side Crunch exercises the ab muscles on both sides and helps sculpt your waistline. Although this might look simple, DeGroot recommends including it in your workout regimen as this will strengthen all core muscles – even those we can’t see such as deep obliques!
Lay on the floor or mat in a tabletop position with legs bent at 90-degree angles and stacked above your hips, hands positioned behind your head but without interlacing to prevent pulling your neck forward, and engage your core by lifting left leg and right arm off of the floor in unison – then lower them back down for repetitions of this exercise.
If lowering your legs to the floor is too challenging, try performing this exercise on your knees instead. Although this will still challenge the core and target the lower abs, this approach won’t give as good of results.
DeGroot and Poulin suggest increasing the difficulty of this exercise by bringing your legs closer together, increasing pressure on your core while contracting abdominal muscles more forcefully. But always pay attention to what your body tells you as overexerting yourself could result in injury.
3. Front to Back Crunch
The front to back crunch is an ideal exercise for both novices and those with lower back issues, helping strengthen abdominal muscles such as the rectus abdominis and obliques while challenging balance, coordination, and posture.
Start by lying on your back with bent knees and feet flat on the floor hip-width apart, feet hip-width apart. Place your hands behind your head with elbows pointing outward instead of holding them tightly against ears or neck; use ab muscles to lift upper body several inches off ground before slowly lowering again – repeat for 10 repetitions.
Add difficulty to this move by raising your legs parallel with the floor, but be wary not to overextend your lower back. Or perform it on the floor by stretching arms out in front while keeping core still.
Add more challenge and try this movement with a medicine ball or dumbbell: lie on the floor with your lower back flat, engage your core, lean slightly back and hold weight close to chest. Contract abdominal muscles to slowly twist torso side to side before pausing briefly before returning back to starting position for three sets of 12 reps – do three sets in total! When combined with regular cardio exercise and healthy diet plans, results should become evident within one month!
4. Lunges
Lunges are an excellent total-body exercise that engage large muscle groups in your lower body – including quads, glutes and hamstrings – while simultaneously engaging your core to stabilize and support movement.
Start by standing straight with feet together. Raise one leg into the air until it’s parallel with the floor while simultaneously extending an arm out to your side, returning your leg and arm back down as a unit back to their starting positions. Complete eight to 12 repetitions on both sides before switching sides for another set.
This deceptively difficult move targets your abs, upper back, and obliques simultaneously. Simply lie on the ground with legs extended behind you and torso parallel to the ground; hold for 30 seconds at a time before resting a moment and repeating up to three times.
Core exercises aim to work all of the muscles comprising your core, not only the more obvious outer ones like your rectus abdominis and obliques, according to Sivan Fagan of Strong With Sivan. As a result, exercises targeting deep inner core muscles – which work to stabilize the spine – should also be included as they work to develop overall core stability.
An effective way of doing so is by adding an obliques-targeted twist to a walking lunge routine. Position your feet wider than shoulder-width apart and bring both arms out in front, hands touching. Brace your core before bending sideways at the waist with left knee coming up to meet right elbow.
5. Side to Side Lunges
If lunges aren’t already part of your workout regimen, make them part of it today! According to New York-based trainer Chris Ryan, lunges can open up tight hips and groin muscles while strengthening inner thigh, glute and ab muscles (including your obliques ).
Target five to 10 reps of each movement on each side for five sets, beginning with less sets as you become stronger and more familiar with the movements. If you are just starting out, start slowly before increasing them as time progresses and as your strength and comfort with them improve.
Many believe that core exercises alone – such as crunches or planks – are sufficient to strengthen their midsection, however total-body movements such as running are equally crucial, according to Mariotti. They challenge your entire body while working other muscles that cannot be targeted separately, she states.
One such movement is the slider side lunge: While lying on a decline bench, extend one leg with the slider underneath out straight while bending your other knee and pulling back in with ab engagement while keeping both legs extended out straight at first. Repeat. This movement targets deep trunk stabilizer (transverse abdominal) muscles as well as obliques to help alleviate lower back pain and help you reach fitness.
6. Tricep Dips
Tricep Dips are a fantastic exercise to tone the entire core. In particular, this movement targets muscles such as your triceps (located at the back of each arm) and trapezius muscles (found on your upper back).
Commence in a forearm plank position with both hands flat by your sides for support, then engage your core by lifting both legs off of the floor to hover just above it (or lower if necessary). Lower as far as possible without suffering shoulder discomfort before pausing at each position before pressing yourself back up to starting position and repeat for one minute.
This exercise may seem low-energy, but it still manages to burn calories! The key is in its contractions – these affect all three abdominal muscle groups as well as shoulder and arm muscles (triceps and biceps).
The tricep dip is an easy bodyweight exercise you can do anywhere, regardless of equipment available to you. For an intensified version, use parallel bars or rings instead; get creative by adding twists that target chest muscles directly such as bringing your right elbow close to your left knee!
