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The Ultimate Bodyweight Ab Workout
Read More: The Ultimate Bodyweight Ab WorkoutWe all know abs are made in the kitchen — but they’re also perfected during your ab workouts at the gym and at home. Nutrition and fitness are the dynamic duo you’ll need to rock a six-pack, if that’s one of your personal fitness goals. But there’s way more to prioritizing ab workouts than just for…
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Compound Movements for Abs
Read More: Compound Movements for AbsWhen you think of compound moves, you typically think of multi-joint movements that target the larger muscle groups in the body, like squats, lunges, bench press or pulldowns. Abs, on the other hand, often get treated like smaller muscle groups with isolation and isometric exercises. Yet the abs — and more generally the core —…
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The Core-Crushing No-Crunch Abs Circuit
Read More: The Core-Crushing No-Crunch Abs CircuitHow many sets of crunches does it take to build abs? The answer might surprise you, because in reality, it’s zero — and the no-crunch abs circuit below is proof. When it comes down to it, visible abs emerge from three interactive elements: genetics, nutrition choices and muscle tone. Having toned abdominal muscles also means…
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The Back-to-Basics Core Workout
Read More: The Back-to-Basics Core Workout“Too much of a good thing” is an old trope for a reason — it happens all the time in life. A slice of birthday cake? Good. Blowing through a whole sheet cake by yourself while fretting over . . . well, everything going off the rails in the world today? Bad. Very bad. So…
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The Anti-Movement Abs Workout
Read More: The Anti-Movement Abs WorkoutThere is an astounding lack of education regarding the true purpose of the muscles in your midsection, and in the interest of strengthening and sculpting via countless crunches and twists, standard workout programming has inadvertently marginalized some vital training techniques that can drastically reshape your waistline from the inside out — “anti-”exercises. Instead of initiating movement, these moves resist it, tapping…
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Supersets for a Tighter Core
Read More: Supersets for a Tighter CoreTraining your abs but neglecting your lower back is like going out in the sun without loading up on sunscreen: you might be able to get away with it for a little while, but your reckless ways will soon catch up with you – and the results won’t be worth it. It may sound like…
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Can Anybody Get Abs?
Read More: Can Anybody Get Abs?Back in the day, a set of six-pack abs was considered the highest achievement a gym goer could accomplish. These days, we know that fit bodies come in many shapes and sizes, but many trainees still strive to chisel out their abdominals. If that’s one of your goals, keep on reading! Whether or not genetics…
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Holiday High-Intensity Ab Circuit
Read More: Holiday High-Intensity Ab CircuitEveryone knows about Santa Claus holds his big old belly when he gives a hearty, jolly laugh. While humor and holiday cheer may not be our expertise, we’re real good at giving you something else that’ll make you clutch your abs. Oxygen Ambassador Tanya Lehman delivers, not a big bag of gifts, but an ab…
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3 Moves to Target Your Lower Abs
Read More: 3 Moves to Target Your Lower AbsHave you studied your abs lately? We don’t mean how they look, but have you taken a moment to understand their make-up and appreciate all they do for you? “Sure we all want rock-hard, aesthetically pleasing abs, but the core’s primary function is providing the body with a pillar of strength and stability that is…
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Six-Pack Boot Camp: 30-20-10 Glute, Ham and Ab Routine
Read More: Six-Pack Boot Camp: 30-20-10 Glute, Ham and Ab RoutineThe name of this workout tells the story. Three focused exercises — side leg lifts for the glutes, side-plank knee to chest for the abs and core, and inchworms to stretch the hamstrings and work the shoulders — are alternated with the classic isometric front plank. Rep counts decrease on the three focused moves (from…
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The Functional Kettlebell Core Workout
Read More: The Functional Kettlebell Core WorkoutYou could argue that no part of your body is more important to your body’s overall fitness and athletic performance than your core — and you’d be right. Your abs and lower back contribute to any exercise or physical activity you undertake, serving as a “power center” for every twist, turn, lift or leap you…
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Six-Pack Boot Camp Workout: Mini-Band Complete Core Routine
Read More: Six-Pack Boot Camp Workout: Mini-Band Complete Core RoutineTraining your core isn’t just about isolating your midsection with bodyweight planks, crunches and other abdominal moves. That’s all great, but bringing in some extra resistance helps step up the intensity a notch — and “mini” resistance bands in particular are one of the most effective tools for training the core. That’s the basis of…
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Six-Pack Boot Camp: Fat-Burning, Abs-Sculpting Tabatas
Read More: Six-Pack Boot Camp: Fat-Burning, Abs-Sculpting TabatasThe leaner you are, the more visible your abs will be. Nutrition is the most important factor when it comes to losing body fat, but training plays a big role, too. And no training style is more effective for fat loss than high-intensity interval training, which consists of alternating bouts of all-out work with low…
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Six-Pack Boot Camp: Full-Body Weighted Core Routine
Read More: Six-Pack Boot Camp: Full-Body Weighted Core RoutineDumbbells and weight plates aren’t just for working big muscle groups like the legs, shoulders and back. The core also can benefit greatly from added resistance, even just light weights. That’s the premise of this particular Six-Pack Boot Camp workout, which consists of five weighted exercises using whatever equipment you have available — a light…
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Six-Pack Boot Camp: Kicks and Planks to Crush Your Core
Read More: Six-Pack Boot Camp: Kicks and Planks to Crush Your CoreSix-pack abs don’t come easily, but there are some sure fire ways to tighten and tone your core. A solid diet is one big piece of the puzzle, and ISSA-certified trainer Aneshea Shali, owner of Core Camp Challenge, provides the other. Her floor-based routine works the core from two basic positions: (1) faceup balancing on your…
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Six-Pack Boot Camp: Bodyweight Obliques and Core Workout
Read More: Six-Pack Boot Camp: Bodyweight Obliques and Core WorkoutHitting all areas of the core requires doing more than just crunches, sit-ups and leg raises. These popular ab moves all occur in the sagittal plane of motion, and they’re perfectly fine to do — just not exclusively because the muscles of the core are also highly involved in the other two major anatomical planes:…
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The Lean Muscle Series: Core Work
Read More: The Lean Muscle Series: Core WorkA tight, defined core is more than just for show. In fact, it serves as the power center of your whole body, so a good core workout should hit every part of this complex muscle group. Encompassing the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, internal and external obliques, multifidus and erector spinae, your core overlaps with every…
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Sculpt This, Not That: Awe-Inspiring Abs
Read More: Sculpt This, Not That: Awe-Inspiring AbsThe abdominals are more complex than they may seem — and plenty of people are still training them wrong. Who can blame us, though, for the confusion? After all, the misinformation began early, with schools touting old-fashioned sit-ups as a measure of strength, giving generations of kids the best damn hip flexors the world over.…
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3 Standing Ab Exercises to Sculpt Your Core
Read More: 3 Standing Ab Exercises to Sculpt Your CoreIn daily life, you rarely find yourself crunching up off the floor to do, well, much of anything. And according to Chris Kolba, Ph.D., CSCS, physical therapist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, vertical training is a better route to a strong, toned core than crunching. “In most activities, the body is primarily…
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The McGill Big 3 for Core Stability
Read More: The McGill Big 3 for Core StabilityIn the short term, you may be aiming for higher max lifts, lower body fat or better personal records, but over the course of the next 20 or 30 years, you really just want to keep moving and doing the things that you love. And when it comes to physical, active longevity, a resilient core…
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360-Degree Core Ladder Workout
Read More: 360-Degree Core Ladder WorkoutImprove performance and construct a no-nonsense core with this descending ladder workout. Whether your goal is to lose weight or get shredded, everything begins and ends with your core. “This workout incorporates all the abdominal muscles and works to strengthen your midsection, improving performance,” says Ruben Belliard, CPT, group fitness instructor, weight management specialist and…
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Form and Function Oblique Workout
Read More: Form and Function Oblique WorkoutTrim the torso? Support the spine? Power your punch? Strong obliques do it all. Though resistance exercises have no ability to spot-reduce, they can definitely spot-enhance, and exercises like weighted side bends or heavy Russian twists have the potential to add size and bulk where it’s not wanted. To carve a long, lean torso with…
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3 Crunch-Free Core Exercises
Read More: 3 Crunch-Free Core ExercisesTry these moves to whittle your waist and enhance crucial strength. Many abdominal workouts focus exclusively on your six-pack, but in truth, your core is 360 degrees of muscle, tendon and ligament encircling your middle. When we talk about the core, we’re referring to your abs, your hips and your lower back — foundational elements…
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5 Disc Workouts for an Iron-Clad Core
Read More: 5 Disc Workouts for an Iron-Clad CoreAll you need is a single Valslide and your own bodyweight to do this core-intensive workout. Think you’ve got core chops? Before you brag about your planking prowess, try this workout that uses only a Valslide and your bodyweight. “A Valslide helps you focus on control, core stability and range of motion, and it allows…
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Score a Three-Minute Core
Read More: Score a Three-Minute CoreAdd a stability ball to your plank training and work your core and more! As if planks weren’t hard enough, here are three new moves to amp up your core training using a stability ball. The ball forces you to engage more muscles in order to balance on an unstable surface, which — when added…