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Sep 09, 2023

5 best ab exercises for sculpting and strengthening your oblique muscles

Choose these five exercises for a sculpted core Whether you prefer standing ab exercises or getting down on the floor with Russian twists and bicycle crunches, there are plenty of ways to hit your

Choose these five exercises for a sculpted core

Whether you prefer standing ab exercises or getting down on the floor with Russian twists and bicycle crunches, there are plenty of ways to hit your oblique muscles during the best ab workouts.

But which ab exercises should you choose to sculpt and strengthen your obliques? And how do you prioritize them? We think these are five of the best oblique exercises out there, and you only need one or two of the best adjustable dumbbells and a resistance band to do them — or just use your body weight.

Remember to work at your current ability level and add weight as you progress. If you experience pain, stop and consult a personal trainer or medical professional. Ready? Let’s jump straight in.

Your oblique muscles run along your waist from ribs to pelvis and are responsible for more than helping your midsection look shredded. These muscles support side flexion and rotational, twisting movements, which means any exercise that includes movement like this will naturally work your obliques.

Your obliques are formed of superficial muscles and deeper muscles — known as the internal and external obliques. Generally speaking, your internal obliques will activate to keep you stable during a movement, but those popping obliques you see are thanks to building the superficial muscles closer to the surface of the skin.

Practicing a full range of motion will help you work the muscles harder for longer, so try not to drop to half reps when you get tired and opt for a lighter weight instead of compromising your form.

Here are five oblique exercises to set your core muscles on fire.

This anti-rotational movement is all about not twisting. Yet it’s still one of the best core exercises to strengthen your obliques. It also recruits your body as a unit, meaning the muscle groups must work together to keep you stable. If you want to find out how to add this exercises to your current core routine, I did the Pallof press every day for a week to build my core — here's what happened.

How:

Training your core to resist rotation improves how well you perform twisting movements and with less chance of injury.

Cross the oblique activation of the Russian twist, with the isometric hold of a leg lift, and you’ve got yourself a core-crushing windshield wiper.

How:

To progress the exercise, extend your arms above your chest while holding a heavy dumbbell, or hold the weight with arms extended behind your head for extra fire. Our writer did 50 windshield wipers every day for a week recently, and here's how to do windshield wipers in more detail.

Develop shoulder strength and stability and build stronger obliques with this suitcase carry variation. The unilateral exercise helps develop coordination, balance and strength. To execute the ab exercise, you’ll need to keep your waist engaged to stay tall and prevent overleaning to one side.

How:

The lateral rotational movement torches the oblique muscles and develops speed and power output. It also teaches rapid engagement of your obliques.

If you have a medicine ball, you could throw it against the wall or pass it to a partner. Having to catch the ball on the rebound will teach your muscles to control the incoming load and slow it down as you rotate back to the starting position.

How:

We had to throw an isometric exercise into the mix, right? Not all ab exercises require movement. Some can be executed by resisting gravity and staying as still as possible while contracting various muscle groups, big and small.

How:

Here's how to do the Copenhagen plank in more detail, and what happened when our writer did a two-minute Copenhagen plank every day for a week.

It goes without saying that (sadly) doing these core exercises alone won’t sculpt a stomach of pure toned muscle. Even if you build ab muscle and strength, it could still reside underneath body fat.

If your goal is to lose fat, find out how to calculate your body fat percentage here. Visible abs are a process, and although we recommend ab workouts to help strengthen these muscles, consider compound exercises too; you can recruit more muscles in less time while maintaining and building your core muscles.

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Sam Hopes is a level III fitness trainer, level II reiki practitioner, and resident fitness writer at Future PLC, the publisher of Tom's Guide. Having trained to work with mind and body, Sam is a big advocate of using mindfulness techniques in sport and fitness, and their impact on performance. She’s also passionate about the fundamentals of training and building sustainable training methods. When she's writing up her experiences with the latest fitness tech, you’ll find her writing about nutrition, sleep, recovery, and workouts.

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