You can achieve a lot in just 12 minutes, especially if you spend that time doing this core workout from fitness trainer Kat Boley, which involves three circuits of five moves to get your abs and obliques burning.
It’s an effective session that’s easy to slip into your day, because you don’t need any equipment aside from one of the best yoga mats and a floor space to get down and do it. You can do the session as a standalone workout, or use it as a challenging finisher for a full-body workout to really target the core.
Kat Boley's workout is suitable for people of all fitness levels, but you might want to reduce the number of reps you do or take longer rest periods if you’re a beginner. In particular, the exercises that focus on your obliques can be difficult if you’re not used to them.
What is the workout?
You can see each move in the workout demonstrated on Boley’s Instagram post, along with the info on sets and reps. You do 10 reps of each move in the workout — that’s 10 in total if it’s an exercise where you work each side of the body in turn, like the side plank crunch — and take 5-10 seconds of rest between each.
After you complete a full circuit of five exercises, take a break of up to a minute, then go into your next circuit. Aim to complete three circuits in 12 minutes — you can always add more on if you’re still feeling fresh after three rounds.
The five moves in the workout are below; make sure to watch Boley’s demonstrations of each before you start so you know what you’re doing and can move on to the next exercise quickly during the workout. The aim is to keep your abs and obliques working as much as possible during the 12 minutes, maximizing their time under tension to increase the strength-building benefits of the session.
- Side plank crunch
- Dead bug
- Wide leg sit-up
- Spiderman plank
- Russian twist
What are the benefits?
The workout contains several classic core exercises like the dead bug and Russian twists, along with variations on moves like the sit-up and plank. There is more of a focus on the oblique muscles in the workout than you get with many ab workouts, with twisting exercises and other moves designed to target the sides of your core.
The oblique muscles are responsible for controlling the movements of the torso. You'll use your obliques every time you swing a golf club, or bend sideways to pick something up. Weak oblique muscles put you at risk of injury, as they protect your lower back during these movements.
As well as your obliques, you'll also work the central abs during this workout, with moves to target the upper and lower abs, and the session will also help to increase the strength of your lower back and improve your posture.
If you use the session regularly and start to find it easier, then you can increase the reps or circuits you do to keep progressing, or try this 20-minute ab workout for a more challenging abs and obliques routine.
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