9 Superior Exercises for Abs and Obliques

You’ve seen them before: Planks and anti-rotation or Pallof presses. They’re isometric exercises that require your abs and obliques to work by preventing your torso from side bending or twisting. They’re fine exercises, especially if you’re a beginner in your first weeks of training, or even if you’re an advanced lifter who simply enjoys them. Problem is, they’re overrated, and as a result, overused. The good news? You won’t need to do them if you’re already doing the upper-body exercises highlighted below. If you find planks and anti-rotation presses just as exciting as watching grass grow, you can swap them out for other things. The exercises listed here are more interesting and efficent options, and just as effective at creating an anti-spinal movement challenge on your abs and obliques. When it comes to program design and exercise selection, I follow the principle of minimizing redundancy and maximizing efficiency. These exercises minimize redundancy because they’ll give you the same core training benefits as side planks and anti-rotation presses, plus help you maximize your training efficiency by challenging your upper-body pushing musculature. Better Anti-Rotation Exercises These variations create a significant anti-rotation challenge on your torso. So if you’ve done them in your workout already, the Pallof press is just, well, redundant. 1 – Lock-Off Push-Up Can’t do a one-arm push-up yet? Try this. It’s a little easier to master than the one-arm push-up. Press up with one hand on top of the platform, kettlebell, or medicine ball. At the top of the push-up, lock off by fully straightening the elbow of the arm resting on the platform or ball. Place the other arm at your chest and pause for one or two seconds at the top of each rep, then slowly lower yourself. Do half the reps with your right arm elevated and the other half with your left arm elevated. Don’t allow your shoulders or hips to rotate at any time; keep your torso parallel to the ground throughout. 2 – One-Arm Cable Press This is one of the most underrated exercises. You likely don’t see it used in your gym or promoted online nearly as much as Pallof presses. The one-arm cable press places just as much, if not more, of an anti-rotation demand on your hips and torso musculature. For one thing, you can use heavier loads due to the split-stance position. And it gets more done than the Pallof press because it also involves the upper-body pushing musculature, plus the calves and hamstrings of the back leg, which prevent you from being pulled backward. It’s also not as boring to perform as the Pallof press. With the cable handle in your left hand and your elbow at roughly a 45-degree angle from your body, split your stance by putting your left leg behind your right. Keep your front foot flat and your back heel off the ground. Press the cable straight out in front of you. Slowly reverse the motion and bring the handle back toward you in a row-like motion while extending the opposite arm. Don’t allow your shoulders or hips to rotate more than a few degrees. Lean slightly forward to move heavier loads. To prevent the cable attachment from digging into your arm, use an extender strap (which can be purchased at a store that sells rock-climbing gear) between the handle and the cable attachment. You can also do this exercise with your lead leg on the same side as you pressing arm. This increases the demand on your torso muscles since the cable is trying to turn you in the opposite direction of your foot. Therefore, it can’t help you as much as when the cable is pulling your towards you back leg. 3 – Cable Bar Press Since it’s a variation of the one-arm cable press, it offers the same benefits, but also adds an element of reciprocal movement for your opposite arm. You’ve got to pull the bar as your pressing arm pushes it. The same general set-up and coaching tips from the one-arm cable press also apply here. As with the one-arm cable press, you can also do this exercise with your lead leg on the same side as your pressing arm, further increasing the demand on your torso. However, the tradeoff in doing so is that you can’t use as much weight. 4 – Reciprocal Cable Push-Pull If you don’t have cable bar, you can use this variation, which involves a reciprocal push-pull motion that also lights up your torso muscles to resist rotation. Once again, you can do this with your lead leg on the same side as your pressing arm, which will further challenge your core to maintain your torso position. 5 – One-Arm Push-Up The one-arm push-up is an advanced exercise, partly due to its high demand on the torso. However, there are ways you can gradually progress to doing your first one. And if you’re already a pro, there are ways to make it even more challenging. My guide on one-arm push-ups will tell you everything you need to know. Exercises that Replace Side Planks These exercises can effectively replace side-planks
Origin: 9 Superior Exercises for Abs and Obliques

Dynamic Training for Abs & Obliques

So, the exercises presented here focus on helping you maximize the strength of your abdominals and obliques, and they also help you improve your rotational strength and power. Category 1 – Spinal Flexion Exercises Although some coaches claim that spinal flexion exercises are inherently dangerous, research has shown that those exercises can not only help promote nutrient delivery to the intervertebral discs, but may also provide superior muscle and performance gains versus isomeric ab exercises (4). However, some exercises may be contraindicated for people who have pain when performing them. In other words, spinal flexion exercises are no different than any other resistance training exercise. All exercises can induce stress, which causes tissue adaptation, but there’s a tipping point where you exceed your capacity. That’s the individual nature of training, and exactly what’s meant by training smart! That said, my top two spinal flexion exercises are stability-ball plate crunches and stability-ball reverse crunches, which is a more advanced version of a reverse crunch from the floor. Make sure you’ve got good control on regular reverse crunches before programming them. Stability Ball Plate Crunch Keep your knees bent at roughly a 90-degree angle throughout and flex and extend your spine with control over the ball. Hold the plate straight above your shoulders and reach your arms straight up toward the sky. Focus on making your knees drive the motion (bending and extending), not your abs. Stability Ball Reverse Crunch Most people use momentum and jerk their body up and down by kicking their legs to create the movement. Eliminating that momentum forces the abs to perform the action. Once you get your legs up over your body, slowly reverse this motion, lowering your spine back down toward the bench, one vertebra at a time. Don’t allow your legs to extend or your head to lift off the ball at any point. These spinal flexion exercises are my go-to movements because they allow for greater abdominal muscle stretch than floor crunches. This is important because full-range resistance training regimens, which train the muscles at long (stretched) lengths and include an eccentric component, can improve flexibility as well as, if not better than, typical static stretching. In other words, strength training at longer (stretched) muscle lengths (that includes an eccentric component) not only causes muscles to be stronger at long lengths, but also promotes flexibility by causing muscle fibers to produce new sarcomeres in series within a muscle, which allows the muscle to lengthen more (6, 7). Cable Side Bend A great example of a common exercise that doesn’t make biomechanical sense is side bends performed while holding a dumbbell on each side. Of course, the weight of the dumbbell offsets the weight on the other side, making this exercise ineffective at sufficiently loading the lateral flexors of the torso. Even performing side bends while holding a single dumbbell on one side of the body isn’t very effective at targeting the lateral core because of the angle of force involved. There’s just not much resistance. The dumbbell is very close to your body, giving you a mechanical advantage over the weight. You’d have to hold a very heavy weight, which may exceed your grip strength, to have a reasonable training effect. So instead of using dumbbells, use a single cable that’s at roughly a 45-degree angle to your body. It’s much more effective than holding a single dumbbell (or two). Stability Ball Side Crunch This exercise creates a great stretch on the lateral trunk flexors. If you’ve never done this one before, it can feel a bit awkward until you find the right foot placement against the wall and the right body position over the ball. Place your top leg about a foot-length behind your bottom leg and keep your back heel slightly off the wall while your front foot is flat against the wall. Also, position your torso over the ball such that you can create a stretch while bending over the ball without feeling like you’re going to fall over it. Lastly, make sure you move over the ball, instead of the ball moving under you. Medicine Ball or Weight Plate Side Lean Yes, this is like doing the “I’m a little teapot” dance you did as a kid. With your feet roughly hip-width apart, hold the weight plate or medicine ball directly above your head with your elbows slightly bent. While keeping the weight plate or ball directly above your head, lean your body laterally to one side and shift your hips to the opposite side until you feel a mild stretch. Reverse the motion and repeat, leaning your torso and hips to the opposite direction without pausing in the middle between reps. Category 2 – Rotational Exercises Rotary exercises are by nature cross-body exercises, which makes them a valuable aspect of strength training since rotation is such a big part of human functioning and athletics. Tight Cable Torso Rotation with Hip
Origin: Dynamic Training for Abs & Obliques