In this ab strength workout, you’ll target the deep muscles of the abdominals and build musculature to support your body through a range of movement. With proper form and breath support, you’ll increase your spinal health and make space for each vertebrate to move.
Why have an ab strength workout?
Strengthening your abdominals is THE ABSOLUTE KEY to building a strong, functional body that performs well and adapts to new movement.
Your core muscles are the foundation of all other strength. Nearly all movement stems from the core in some capacity, muscularly speaking. From a neurological and breath perspective, the core is the predecessor to all movement.
And so, incorporating ab strengthening exercises into your movement practice means you’ll be able to layer on more complex movements from a place of power and strength.
1. Reduce back pain
On top of supporting all other movement of your body, a stabilizing ab strength workout will help support your spine. Considering that 50% of Americans deal with Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP) and 80% of Americans experience back pain at some point in the year… Wait, pause.
50% of americans experience chronic low back pain.
80% of americans experience back pain at least once a year.
Let that sink in. Those numbers are insane! While ab strengthening exercises alone remediate back pain minimally, studies like this one demonstrate that stabilizing ab exercises significantly reduce back pain.
And so you’ll find that many of the abdominal strength exercises below incorporate an elemental of stabilization of the multifidus and abdominal muscles. This ensures you’re strength-training your abs while also promoting a healthier, pain-free body 🙂
2. Ab strength training is empowering
Abdominal strength exercises are literally empowering you through supporting the most vital part of your moving body: your spine. With regular abdominal training you will find yourself stronger, more capable, and perhaps filled with more energy.
You’ll develop stronger musculature in other areas of your body: with the core strong and stabilized, other exercises become even more targeted and successful.
You are SO DANG POWERFUL and training your core will help you feel like the BOSS you are!
What muscles will you target? / What is your core?
In the ab strength workout below, you’ll target all of the major muscles of the abdominals:
- Transversus Abdominis: The deepest layer of the abs. These important muscles hug and protect your organs and is a key stabilizing muscle of the spine and pelvis
- Internal Obliques: Like the TA, the internal obliques help stabilize your spine and also help with rotation and lateral (side to side) flexion of the spine.
- External Obliques: The external obliques are superficial to the internal obliques and also help with flexion and rotation of the spine. Like our other ab muscles, the obliques help stabilize the trunk.
- Rectus Abdominis: The most superficial, “6-pack” muscle, the RA mainly helps with flexion of the spine. It also helps with breathing, protecting internal organs, and maintaining proper posture.
- Multifidus: The multifidus runs along the spine lengthways and attaches to each vertebrate. It is a MAJOR stabilizer of the spine and helps with so many different movements of the spine.
You’ll find that all of these muscles and several more are targeted throughout this ab strength workout.
What’s special about these abdominal strength exercises?
Well, two things. first is..
Stability training
As mentioned earlier, ab strengthening exercises alone will not drastically improve back pain and biomechanics that lead to back pain. You must also train stabilization, learning to move in different ways while being supported by the core.
As you dive into more complex movements, you’ll find that the deep muscles of the spine are essential in keeping length and maintaining integrity. This will allow gravity to flow through you as designed and help you move functionally and efficiently.
Second is…
integrated human movement patterns
The progression of this ab strength workout was designed with the human motor development in mind. Borrowing the philosophy of Bartenieff Movement Fundamentals, these ab strengthening exercises mimic the movement patterns you developed as you came out of the womb and into life.
You’ll start with fundamental movement patterns such as breath and head-tail and then progress to more complex patterning like upper-lower and contralateral movement. In this way, you get to get back to the basics and dynamic movement patterns all in one workout.
Your progression and JOY through strength, intentionality, and mindful movement is the beating heart of my lil corner of the internet. I wish for you success and empowerment as you work through these exercises.
Ab Strengthening Workout Follow-Along Video:
If an step-by-step exercise breakdown is more your jam, keep reading for a full list of each ab strengthening exercise + notes.
WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR CORE AND IMAGERY TO HELP YOU ENGAGE YOUR MUSCLES?
head over to this powerful core workout for more deets.
As with all MOVES by Elaia, work in, not out.
You’ll see this in all MOVES posts, and it’s absolutely essential.
This play on words shifts the relationship we have to our physical exertions. What if instead of working out you began to work in? What if instead of building up armor, you nourished yourself from the inside out? Yes, of course you’ll grow muscles outward, but this play on words invites you to sense, feel, and explore yourself first before concentrating on any of that power moving outwards.
As movement development goes, we learn to push before we learn to pull. We learn first to set boundaries and protect ourselves before reaching for what’s beyond us. As you build your physical practice, see if you can integrate this ideology into the way you move and perceive yourself. <3
Ab Strength Workout:
Plank
How to: Hold yourself in a plank position with only you extremities in contact with the floor. Deep breaths into your backspace and through your diaphragm.
Modifications: You can either take a push-up plank on your hands, push-up plank with bent knees, or a forearm plank.
Notes:
- Reach the head and tail away from each other, with the ears actively pulling away from your shoulders
- Pull the mat apart at the arms and feet
- Reach your heels back and pull your toes towards your head
- Lengthen through the tail and be mindful not to stick your bum up
Lemon Squeezers
How to: Start in a boat pose with your shins parallel to the sky. Now, pulse from a low boat to a high boat with bent knees, rounding through the spine.
Modifications: Hold boat pose.
Notes:
- Keep your shoulders away from your ears
- Relax your jaw
- Round the tailbone
Reverse Crunches
How to: Laying on your back with your body flush with the ground, bring your legs up towards the sky. You can either have your hands at your sides, or you can sneak them just underneath you pelvis. Without using momentum, contract your pelvic floor and core to pulse your pelvis up towards the sky.
Modifications: You can place your feet on a wall with your hips and knees in a 90 degree angle. From there, you can get help from your glutes and hamstrings by pushing your weight into your feet to bring your pelvis off the ground.
Notes:
- Be mindful to not use momentum to bring your pelvis up
- Keep your neck long and relaxed and be mindful to not let your chin move forward
Tabletop with Bird-Dog Reach
How to: Start in a tabletop position with your hands underneath your shoulders and knees underneath your hips. Keeping your hips and shoulders square, reach opposite hand and foot off the ground. Initiating the movement from your core, you’ll contract and round your spine, bringing your elbow to your knee underneath your chest.
Modifications: Practice just holding bird-dog with your leg and arm extended with your hips and shoulders square. You can also start the contraction and not fully touch elbow to knee.
Notes:
- Seriously, seriously, keep your hips and shoulders square!
- You can help support squareness throughout the torso by driving down the hand and leg in contact with the floor, pressing your weight actively into the ground
- Press the top of the ankle into the ground or curl your toes under to create a bit more stability
Fallen Triangle With Oblique Crunch
Now we’re increasing in complexity in our ab strength workout!
How to: Start this ab strength exercise in a 3-legged dog. Contract your spine, pulling your leg towards your hands as if to step through to a lunge. As your knee gets below your chest, twist your body to place your leg on the ground, through the window-opening of opposite leg and arm. From this fallen-triangle position, you’ll crunch, bringing your opposite elbow to knee.
Modifications: Drop down to a forearm and hold for a wee-bit less intensity.
Notes:
- Continue to lift the hips up towards the sky and actively reach your spine in opposing directions
Low Boat With Leg Lower + Weight
How to: Start in a boat with shins parallel to the sky. Holding a weight, lift and lower the legs.
Modifications: There are several variations and modifications you can make with this abdominal strength exercise.
- Hold boat pose, with or without a weight
- Lower one leg at a time, alternating. With or without a weight
- Lower both legs together, with or without a weight
Notes:
- Be mindful of doming or sticking your abdominal muscles outward. Instead, pull the abs towards the spine
- While the hip flexors are involved here, it is predominately an ab strength training exercise
Tabletop Body-Half Squeeze
How to: Come up into a tabletop position and extend same arm and leg in front and back of you. Pressing into your opposite hand and leg, pull your extended knee and elbow towards each other. Repeat this motion, pulling the knees and elbows towards each other and away.
Modifications: Modify this abdominal strength exercise by pulsing the arm and leg towards each other, but don’t let them reach each other.
Notes:
- This is a MAJOR stability exercise and requires a LOT of abdominal strength. Press into your standing leg and arm for support and try to keep your shoulders and hips square
- It’s really easy to crunch your neck and shoulders if you’re lacking stability. Don’t do this! Instead, modify the pose as you need to keep length in the spine.
Downdog Alternating Toe-Hand Touch
How to: Come into a downward dog. In an alternating fashion, bring one hand at a time across your body to tap the opposite’s side leg.
Modifications: Standing or in a V-position, reach opposite hand to foot.
Notes:
- Keep your shoulders stable, engaging the abdominal muscles to support your trunk
- Continue to push the ground away with your 3 extremities and creasing at the hip joint
Boat + Around the World With Dumbbell
How to: Start in a boat position. With a single dumbbell or kettlebell in your hands, circle your arms around your body in one direction. Repeat other way.
Modifications: Remove the weight.
Notes:
- Make these circles as small as you need to maintain stability in your body
- Maintaining stability means: not shifting from side to side or breaking the boat pose
- Relax at the hips and use the core instead of gripping the hip flexors to support this movement
Chair Twist
How to: Start in a chair position, holding a single dumbbell or kettlebell with your left hand. Wringing out the spine, twist fully to your right side, dropping the left arm below the knee. Come back to center and reverse other side.
Modifications: You can either forgo the weight entirely, or keep the single weight held by both hands.
Notes:
- Maintain the integrity of chair pose by rounding the tailbone and sinking your lower half into the ground.
- As you twist, send your energy up and then to the side to ensure you’re fully lengthening throughout every vertebrate.
Boat Russian Twist With Weight
How to: This is our final ab strengthening exercise in boat pose, y’all! Grab your weight and meet me there. Next, you’ll twist to one side, fully pulling the weight over to that side and engaging your obliques.
Modifications: Ditch the weight.
Notes:
- Keep length throughout the spine as you twist
- Allow breath to be the foundation of this movement (and every other for that matter!) Exhale as you twist and breath into your backspace
- Be mindful of pulling the abdominals back towards the spine
V Opposite Reach Curl Up
This is your final exercise in this ab strength workout!
How to: Start by laying supine (on your back) in an X position. Starting with your right hand, reach back and up to start curling up the body diagonally towards the other side. You’ll continue rounding the spine until you’ve tapped your right hand to your left foot (or somewhere nearby). Repeat other side.
Modifications: None
Notes:
- Try to release the hip flexors and let your abs do the heavy lifting here
- Round the spine as much as possible as you reach towards your foot