4 Great Exercises For A Tough Oblique Workout

Rotational exercises are often neglected in fitness programs. If you look at ab machines, you’ll notice that most of them focus on moving forwards and backwards, but the spine is designed to move in multiple directions.

Neglecting rotational movements can create an imbalance in your strength and increase the likelihood of injuries. And, if you analyze almost every sports movement, you’ll notice a rotational component to the movement. Running, swimming, throwing, and swinging all involve some rotation through your body. This article will describe 4 great rotational exercises for the obliques. They are good for non-athletes and athletes.

The first rotational exercise is standing cable rotations. To perform this exercise, adjust a cable machine so that the resistance is about at shoulder level. Stand with your feet about hip width apart, and then with your arms straight rotate your body away from the resistance on the cable machine.

If you don’t have access to a cable machine you can use resistance bands to perform the same motion. You can change your foot position from parallel to staggered to change the balance aspect of this exercise, but make sure that you focus on twisting from the waist and hips and not the arms.

The second rotational exercise is oblique crunches on a stability ball. When you do crunches on a stability ball, your abdominal muscles will work much harder to stabilize your body. Also because the stability ball has a contoured shape, you will get more range of motion through your spine when doing crunches on the ball.

The obliques actually work pretty hard when you do regular crunches on a ball, but when you add a rotation at the top of your crunches, your obliques really work at their maximum. When doing oblique crunches on a stability ball, you can focus on one side at a time, or you can alternate sides.

The third rotational exercise is bicycle crunches on the floor. Bicycle crunches can be challenging because both the arms and the legs are moving at the same time. Bicycle crunches slightly mimic the running motion in that the opposite arm moves towards the opposite knee.

Make sure that you focus on rotating the upper body during bicycle crunches. Many people find that their strength increases really fast when they practice bicycle crunches regularly. Begin with 10 repetitions on each side and try to build up to 50 repetitions on each side.

The fourth rotational exercise for the obliques is v-sit Russian twists with a medicine ball. To perform this exercise you need to have a medicine ball or a dumbbell. While sitting with your knees bent, lean slightly backwards and then twist side to side until the medicine ball touches the floor.

Continue twisting back and forth until your abdominal muscles get fatigued. If this exercise feels easy with your feet on the floor, you can perform it with your feet in the air. This will challenge your balance and increase the muscle work on your abdominals.

These are 4 great rotational exercises, but there are many ways to exercise effectively. Just make sure that you incorporate some rotational movements in your core workout. By including rotational movements, you will perform at a higher level and be less likely to get injured.

By: Charles Inniss

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Charles Inniss is a physical therapist and personal trainer. Visit his website to learn the best tummy exercises and oblique exercises.