The obliques form the middle layer of the abdominal muscles. They’re sometimes called the “side abs” because they’re situated either side of the “6-pack” muscles. There are two sets of obliques – the internals and externals. Between them they carry out functions of bending, twisting and core stabilising. Strong obliques will help you to have good core stability and definition in your waist area. If you don’t regularly do exercise that involves twisting and bending movements, then it’s likely your obliques are weak. If this is the case, then you should start with an oblique exercises for beginners program. The program below includes 6 beginner oblique exercises to build a foundation for obliques training.
Like all exercises for the core, it’s important not to be over-ambitious when you first start. Because the obliques play a part in stabilising the spine, you could end up with back pain or injury if you don’t build your strength up gradually. These 6 beginner exercises will start to build strength in your obliques, as well as developing your exercise technique, ready for more advanced exercises.
Benefits of training the obliques
- As explained above, the obliques are the “side” abdominal muscles, so they add shape and tone to your waist.
- They play a part in core stability, helping to protect the spine from injury and chronic pain.
- Having strong obliques helps to avoid injury in everyday activities that involve bending and twisting.
- Together with the traverse abdominis, the obliques work to pull the abdominal area in flat.
Oblique exercises for beginners – workout chart
After a warm up (see exercise instructions below), do 2 sets of the 3 standing exercises and then 2 sets of the floor exercises.
The first two exercises will be more effective if you use a weight – either a kettlebell or a dumbbell. See a kettlebell buying guide here or a dumbbell buying guide here.
For best results, do the workout 3 times a week.
Please read these general exercise guidelines before you start.
Exercise instructions
Warm up exercise
Do 20 reps of these without a weight to warm up
Workout exercises
Related to oblique exercises for beginners
Ab workouts FAQ
The stock answer to this is that you can’t get rid of fat from a specific area. This is repeated frequently and emphatically by almost everyone involved in fitness. Given that it’s the go-to answer, you would think that there’s a pile of evidence to support it. In fact, the evidence is surprisingly weak. On the other hand, there’s no evidence that you can exercise to burn fat from a specific area either.
What we do know for sure is that our bodies have preferred places to store fat – and the abdominal area is one of them. So you’re not likely to have a fat-free belly until you’re a healthy weight. The best way to be a healthy weight is of course to have a healthy diet and to exercise regularly. Any exercise helps with weight control.
Even if it doesn’t burn belly fat, regular ab exercise will make a difference though. The deep core muscles pull the abdominal area flat and having a strong core can make a real difference. In fact it’s often the case that what people think is fat is just poor muscle tone allowing the abdomen to protrude.
So, the best things you can do to look slimmer around your middle are to make sure you’re a healthy weight and do some core training.
Plank holds have been an enormously popular abs exercise for years now. This is probably due to the buzz surrounding the exercise in the form of challenges and extreme hold times, rather than being due to its merits as an effective exercise.
Done correctly, the plank will engage the deepest abdominal muscle, the transverse abdominis (TA). This is the one that plays the biggest part in pulling the abdominal area in flat, as well as playing an important role in pelvic and spinal stability. It’s a challenging exercise and most people will struggle to hold the correct position for more than a minute. These are the good points. However, the plank has its drawbacks:
- Doing it with correct technique is difficult for those who are not used to core training. To be effective, the back and legs must form a straight line (like a plank). Inexperienced exercisers fail to do this.
- It’s a static exercise (ie the muscles are held contracted). There are two problems with static exercises. One is that the muscles are only worked in one position and the other is that it causes blood pressure to increase.
- It’s not functional – we do nothing vaguely resembling the plank in every day life. If we want to train our TA to engage when we’re active, then holding it in a static contraction isn’t the best way.
So should you do plank holds? Yes, it’s good to add them to your abs routine sometimes or to do a plank challenge for variety. But you should make sure your technique is correct and you shouldn’t waste your workout time trying to build up excessively long holds.
As with most “best exercise” questions, the answer depends on what you’re trying to achieve. The two main goals people have are flat abs and 6 pack abs. To have a flat abdominal area you need to train the deeper abdominal muscles. This is done by doing core stabilising exercises. The 6 pack muscles are the top layer of ab muscles and are trained by crunches and similar exercises – any exercise in which the upper body and lower body come closer together against a resistance. If you want to train all your ab muscles, bicycle crunches are a good all-round exercise.