Get bulletproof abs: Get creative with your core workout with these five great exercises
Core exercises are easy to fall prey to boredom. After all, how long can you keep doing the same crunches and planks before you hit a plateau? These five core exercises to keep your mind engaged and heighten your strength
Despite its difficulty levels mostly remaining the same, ab exercises can get stale after a point. There has to be, after all, a way out of the usual crunch-plank-raise cycle that most ab routines are made of.
It seems like ab exercises were neglected a little when fitness went through an innovative period triggered by working out at home during the pandemic years. People were focussed on ways to solve the crisis of not having benches and large weights to exercise chest, arms and shoulder muscles. Legs workouts were still simpler with squats and lunges and calf raises, but ab workouts started looking the same across most fitness channels.
One way to get around this is to follow some guidelines mentioned in a Lounge story I wrote last year, titled How to build yourself a bulletproof ab workout. The other way is to adopt exercises that are slightly outside your comfort zone. Even a slight change in angle and approach will feel different, with the ultimate goal always being to get the most out of every rep rather than chasing reps.
Here are five new exercises you can try during your ab routine to keep it fresh and challenging:
Canoe crunches: Jeff Cavaliere releases a 5-10 minute ab routine every year and did one five months ago with this particular exercise. It literally gives a twist to the usual Russian twist and the V-up by adding a leg lift on the same side as the side you are twisting. This makes sure that the rotational part of your ab routine is a decently tough exercise even when it’s done for just 20 seconds. The added advantage? Body coordination.
High plank and toe-touch: This isn’t a new exercise, just forgotten. And it’s time to bring it back, possibly even as a replacement for the conventional plank hold, which doesn’t do as much as we think it does for the abs.
The high plank to toe-touch adds a different dimension to shoulder strength. Reaching the toes by compressing the core makes sure that these are perfect for those who have mastered simpler planks. The fact that it progresses from a high plank position makes it more comfortable than the one resting on the elbows. This exercise is almost like a marriage between planks and crunches but done in a more functional way.
Plank jacks: Jumping jacks but a version where you’re in a high plank position and only the legs are moving. You might think this is easy but it is one of the tougher ab exercises; and one that rapidly burns calories and is a great alternative to mountain climbers. This is slightly easier to do but might make you work harder than mountain climbers when it comes to keeping the lower back from caving in. You can do the same exercise in a low plank as shown in the video above, for greater difficulty.
Single-arm sit up: Sit ups have somehow survived the difficult popularity ratings of core exercises but there have been multiple corrections to its forms. The best variation to come out of all those experiments is the single arm sit up.
You can do this with and without weights but what this exercise accomplishes is really smart. By raising one hand at a time, you ensure that your body does not generate momentum with both hands, meaning more work for the abs to raise the body up.
The easier version is with a slight bend in the knee and the legs resting on the heels while the tougher version is where both legs are down fully extended on the floor. In this version, you won’t be able to dig your heels in while you sit up. Add a light kettlebell in the hand which is being raised up and you have aced this.
Kick-throughs or breakdancers: This one’s perfect for those who like to merge exercise with other movement work like dancing. Breakdancers is an exercise that comes from, you guessed it, breakdancing, and is a full-body movement that challenges the shoulders, the upper back, and also the core.
Make sure you engage the core through the move which makes the entire body rotate as you kick one leg through the hand and foot which is supporting the body. See the video above for a better idea.
Pulasta Dhar is a football commentator and writer.
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