Having a six-pack has long been touted as the ultimate sign of fitness. If you have washboard abs, that means you are working hard in the gym and eating clean at home. And while this quick ab workout won't help you with the latter, it can help you work those abs using nothing but your bodyweight.
This home workout uses the best weights you can use for ab workouts: your legs. While noobs might try to sculpt abs by doing crunches, you, a pro, know better than that. Exercises that use the legs are way more efficient in working the entirety of the abs and especially the lower abs. This often neglected area plays a vital role in stabilising your lower body.
Combine these ab exercises with the best core exercises to train your trunk correctly for the ultimate six-pack home workout. You can even use an ab roller if you're feeling adventurous. Make sure you keep a keen eye on macronutrients in order to lose belly fat and reveal those abs. Remember: you can't lose fat from a specific area on the body, but you can lose weight as a whole which will reveal those abs eventually.
Lisa Fiitt's ab workout circuit: Exercises
This ab workout consists of three exercises completed as a circuit; get ready for the burrrrrrn! Do each exercise for 30 seconds, then move on to the next one without a break. Once you're done with all three, rest for 30 seconds and off you go again. Do as many circuits as you want; one is enough as a quick finisher after a larger workout, such as this full-body workout or this push-pull-legs workout, or you can do2-5 sets as a standalone session.
Do as many reps of the exercises as you can within 30 seconds but don't rush it. Doing fewer 'clean reps' – when you complete the exercise with the correct form – is better than twice as many 'half reps' (when the range of motion is compromised).
Equipment-wise, you won't need anything in particular apart from a yoga mat, maybe, if you're planning on working out on hard floors. Even if your home has carpeted floors, you can avoid carpet burns by using a mat.
Remember, set and rest times are suggestions; rest for longer if you feel like you need more time to recover. Listen to your body and adjust things accordingly.
Here is how to split up the workout:
- Flutter kicks (30 seconds) – The higher up your feet are, the easier it is to do flutter kicks. Feel free to experiment with different heights and intensities.
- Floating ab pulse (30 seconds) – Here, the key is to kick your legs forward but don't lean back too much with your upper body. You only use the upper body to counterbalance the legs so don't try to do full sit-ups.
- Swivel leg raise (30 seconds) – This is a standard leg raise but with a bit of a twist that helps activate the obliques. You can use a chair as seen on the video or just eyeball the height as you go along.
- Rest (30 seconds)
For more ab workout action, check out T3's vast collection of six-pack workouts.
Here is a quick bodyweight ab workout, similar to the one above. Why not combine the two into one? We have several core workouts created in collaboration with our friends over at FightCamp. You can check out Flo Master's 8-minute core workout and Shanie "Smash" Rusth's 10-minute core workout for your reference.
Finally, there is another 4-move core workout (I told you we have loads of these) for those really pressed on time.
Or, you know, just do 100 crunches every day until your abs explode.
