Top 5 Exercises for the Mid-Section
This oblique crunch workout is tailored to the training the midsection.
Everyone wants to have a great looking midsection and most people are fixated on the ab portion of the midsection. It’s not just developing great abs that leads to a great looking midsection. There’s a body part that needs to be a focus of training…. the obliques.
The obliques is an area that people tend to forget about.
When you have really nice-looking obliques, you’re going to have a real nice tapered look.
Tapered basically means when you look at someone’s backside, you’ll see the wings and lats are real wide and your back then tapers into a real thin waistline. So, do get an overall thin waistline, you don’t just need to ab exercises, you also need to work the oblique muscles.
So, an oblique workout then also dieting well helps trim off that body fat so you will get a thin waistline and the tapered look into your obliques.
Five Exercises that Rip Your Obliques
Start with 3 circuits of 10 repetitions for each exercise.
As your obliques get stronger, you will need to increase the reps or increase the sets or increase both.
So, you need to pay attention to how you feel and how difficult the exercises are.
You might start in the beginning just doing one or two sets. The goal is to work up to doing 5 sets for each workout.
Cable Wood Chops
Do 10 reps each side. You can alternate each side or just focus on one side at a time. You can put a little squat into it to get a better stretch. Up at the top you’ll feel the oblique section pull.
High Knee Oblique Crunches
Same Exercise, but with Straps
You can use your hands or you can use straps you help hold you up (this helps you focus better on the actual ab movement). If you feel you have the strength to hold yourself up, then go ahead and do it that way. Crunch up to the side and twist at the top. When you do these, stretch your legs out at the bottom, then squeeze at the top (so you are fully contacting the abdominal area).
Cable Oblique Crunches
(Same as this video, just remember to twist at the bottom – if you don’t twist, then you’re just working the abs)
These are like the standard cable crunch, but here, we twist at the bottom so we hit the oblique section.
Get down on your knees, position the knees at about 90 degrees. Be sure to keep your back straight and crunch and twist at the bottom.
Be sure the obliques and the abs are actually doing the crunch. You could easily compensate the movement by allowing your arms to do the work for you… you don’t want to do this. The arms are essentially just anchors that help you perform the movement, making sure your abs and obliques are the muscles that are actually doing the crunch.
Medicine Ball Twist
Get a slight bend at the bottom then straighten out at the end of the movement.
You’re just doing one side at a time. To know where to stop the movement, tap your foot at the end.
Side Plank Raises
Get in a side plank position. Raise the hips and work the obliques. You can feel your side to make sure you are engaging the obliques. Do 10 reps each side.
This is a great oblique workout. There are 5 exercises. 10 reps each exercise. Performing these in a circuit.
It’s a good to start with 10 reps of 3 circuits in the beginning.
To make it more difficult, go to 20 reps of 3 circuits is much more intense. Then 20 reps of 5. So, adjust the workout to match your fitness level.
Don’t forget, if you want a great midsection, you need to workout your obliques and trim up the waistline area.
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