Killer Abs and Core

Hi everyone,

I’ve been asked about whether I do many ab or core exercises. There is the odd exercise here and there in my other workouts, but I rarely workout specifically on my abs. Why? Well because I find it boring. So, to spice things up a bit, I’ve come up with a collection of challenging ab and core exercises. You can do them altogether like this, or take one of two and put them into your other workouts. Adding weight will make them more challenging again and may help (in certain exercises) your six pack protrude more.

I would say however, that some of the best exercises for your abs are from using a stability ball, and also performing hanging knee/leg raises. These types of exercises will allow you to use the full range of motion from the abs and work the whole muscle.

Many of today’s exercises are geared towards core strength and stability, rather than “aesthetics” 🙂 And what a challenge they were too, these types of exercises are NOT my strength – as I’m sure you can tell from the video.  This workout was used in conjunction with another workout (my heavy leg day), because exercising abs and core alone will not burn fat.  You need to do cardio/weights to supplement the workout, if fat loss is a goal.

The Workout

This workout has 6 exercises and my aim was to complete 2 rounds. I set my Gymboss Interval Timer for 12 cycles of 15 seconds (changing time) and 45 seconds effort.  This workout only lasts for 12 minutes.  You can make it more or less challenging by increasing the effort time, or decreasing it or, by doing more rounds.  BUT it’s not over yet – there is a surprise at the end (evil laugh).

The  6 exercises are:

1. KB Sit-up (or L-Crunch)
2. Leg Rotations (changing direction each round, or every few reps)
3. Side Plank with knee raise and leg elevation (right)
4. Side Plank with knee raise and leg elevation (left)
5. Weighted Glute Raise with Alternate Leg lifts
6. Walking Planks

I was using an 8kg Kettlebells today, because again this was brought home for Andrew’s PT clients (honest, I wasn’t slacking).  All the same, I know I will be sore tomorrow :/

So now the surprise section.  I will call this my “Cruel Core Medley” (another evil laugh).  You can do this sequence as many times as you like/can. I did it a few extra times than filmed because I was practicing, so only one is in the film. But feel free to mix it up with other exercises or extra reps.

Do each exercise in the list below one after the other, non-stop until the end, then repeat for your other side:

• Walking Plank (walk out)
• Body-weight Renegade Row (both sides)
• Down into Plank (forearms)
• Explosive Plank (or plank climber up onto hands again)
• Alternate Shoulder Touch
• Diagonal Knee Tuck
• One Push Up
• Into Side Plank (left or right)
• Raise top leg (hold for few seconds)
• Return to original plank position and reverse the walking plank back to standing position.
• Repeat on the other side

The great thing about this medley is that you have to engage your core the entire time.  This it has shown me that I really need to include more core exercises in my workouts, because I didn’t feel it went very well. But maybe I’m depressed about going back to work tonight 🙁

I hope you all enjoyed this variety of exercises. I will try and find more for new workouts.

Marianne