The 16 Best Oblique Exercises to Fire Up the Sides of Your Abs

The plank hip twist is a simple and effective way to engage the obliques with no equipment. Many of the movements that target the core can stack planes of movement, and with added resistance can add pressure to the spine and surrounding joints. And to be completely honest, often it is the basic exercises that can have the best results. They are easier to perform, allowing you to focus on contracting your obliques.

For this, you’ll need a ball to help with the massage–such as a lacrosse ball or a softball-sized ball (which is even better!). 6) And finally, rotate in the opposite direction–towards the ground–with your left elbow pointing down. 2) Lay your right arm down and out–horizontally from your body. I ALWAYS recommend stretching both sides of your obliques–even if you just feel tightness in one side. Each stretch is a little different, though, so definitely give each one a try and see which of these oblique stretches is your favorite.

Dumbbell Swing

Strengthening these muscles provide lots of benefits — too many to pass up. So get crunching — and bending, and rotating, and planking — today. Bend your knees and place your feet flat on the ground if extending your legs is a bit too challenging. Although it’s the opposite direction in which you’d actually chop wood — yes, we know!

Beginner routine

Bend your upper body sideways toward the right, creasing at the waist. Pause and then return to standing while squeezing your left side obliques. Repeat on the left side, being sure to keep the weight close to your body as you bend. Do the movement with a dumbbell to make it more challenging, using heavier weights to make it more difficult. The Russian twist is a great way to do your abs exercises at home more interesting. It engages your core and strengthens your abdominal muscles and lower back.

Increase Training Volume

The side plank hip abduction is an advanced variation of plank exercise that you can do to target the obliques and outer thighs. The exercise mimics other oblique exercises, such as the dumbbell side bend and oblique crunch. Alternate heel touches, also known as lying oblique reach, are at-home workout exercises that target the oblique and also involve abs. You must know how to make the best moves to work your rectus abdominis, obliques, and transverse abdominals. B. With a straight right leg, lift up and drag the right leg over toward the outside of the right hand, making sure that the leg stays straight for the entire movement.

Stability Ball Oblique Crunches

To maximize your core gains and sculpted midsection, it helps to dive deeper into targeted ab and oblique training with additional routines and exercise guides on MensFitClub. For foundational core strength and rotational power, check out Most Effective Ab Exercises of All Time which breaks down essential core movements you can blend into your routine. For side-focused training, The Best Obliques Exercises To Build Core Strength offers great variations to enhance your oblique engagement. If you’re training for overall abs development, The Best Ab Workouts For Men covers top moves that hit both upper and lower abs along with obliques.

oblique workouts

Then, in a fluid motion, bring the medicine ball or dumbbell toward your left hip. If you’re only working your front abs muscles, you’re missing out on strengthening your entire core. Strong obliques or “side abs” are vital components of a powerful core and help to improve your posture, balance, and overall stability. Therefore, it is in your best interest to incorporate more exercise techniques or moves that target your obliques when crafting a total ab-workout routine. And if you aren’t sure where to begin, then try this 11-step obliques workout for women — or really any gender, TBH.

The initial step you must take if you want to lose weight and get rid of your love handles is to clean up your diet. With that said, there are several things you can do to get rid of your love handles. The first three tips are for those of you who are currently overweight and struggling with the love handles.

Core Stabilization

If you want to reduce the size of the muscle itself, do not train them and have a poor diet and they will become less visible. By training your obliques, increasing their size, increasing protein intake, and improving your nutrition, your obliques will begin to show through and become more defined. However, as you train your obliques, you will likely increase muscle mass and due to this, you may increase the size of your waist even though you will likely appear leaner. By building lean muscle mass around your trunk you will achieve greater definition and provide your body with the muscle to support a healthy spine. Research has shown that when we increase the number of sessions performed for a muscle group, we stimulate greater muscle hypertrophy. The act of focusing on squeezing the target muscle ensures that we are hitting these fibers with every rep, which will improve our results.

Your Quick Training Tip

It’s best to use a medicine ball, focusing on rotating your entire torso. Prop yourself up onto your left forearm and bend both knees, keeping them stacked and your hips and shoulders aligned. Squeeze your glutes and engage your core, then lift your left hip up off the ground, hold it for a second, and then lower it back down to the ground. To help shore up yours, Sims suggests these oblique-strengtheners.

Cable Tuck Reverse Crunch

  • Doing the windshield wiper movement helps to build lower abs and oblique.
  • For an extra challenge, lift your feet off the ground and let your core feel the burn.
  • Stand with your feet hip-width apart and hold a medicine ball or dumbbell between your hands in front of your chest.
  • By bringing your elbow and knee together on the same side, you can perform an exercise that works your obliques by bending sideways.
  • Hold a dumbbell or medicine ball with bent elbows in front of your chest as you twist to make the move more challenging.
  • By assuming the V-sit position and adding an element of rotation, the obliques engage to hold position and rotate.

The best workout for obliques is one that engages them through all planes and a variety of movements including flexion, isometric contraction, and rotation. By performing your oblique muscle workouts multiple times per week you can increase growth and achieve greater results. The programs below come with exercises, sets, rest, and a weekly schedule to guide you on your way to building stronger and more defined obliques.

oblique workouts

#1: Side Plank

2) Raise your left arm up in the air, and lean to the right side. 3) Then, lift your right arm up over your head and to the left side. 5) Now, hinge your hips as you bring your right arm down, touching your right palm to the floor–by your right foot. 3) Then, stretch your right arm up and over your body, so it’s touching the left side of the door frame. So, if I want best app for intermittent fasting to stretch my left oblique, I’ll bend my torso to the right side. You’ll love the high-intensity cardio workout and feel the burn in your obliques for sure.

Fuel Your Fitness

Research indicates that training your core muscles can enhance performance in swimming, where there are improvements to stroke technique. If you’ve been training your abs for a while and feel like something is missing, it’s probably oblique exercises. McManus recommends doing the following set of exercises three to five times per week by adding them onto another workout to get noticeably stronger muscles.

9 Reasons You’re Working Out But Gaining Weight Instead of Losing

We all have two different types of fat, where one is body fat, and the other is fat-free mass or lean body mass. Although the ultimate goal should always be to feel fitter and better each day, things change when you start feeling like the more weight you lose, the fatter you feel. Water retention is often the result of an increased sodium intake. Sodium is essential for your body, but only up to a certain amount.

losing weight but look fatter

There also are exercises that are particularly effective for helping you achieve an hourglass figure, regardless of what body type you have. The recommended weight loss pace is 1-2 pounds (0.45-1 kg) a week. 1 pound of fat equals 3,500 calories, so for your caloric deficit to be healthy, you must reduce your daily caloric consumption by 500 calories (2). You can use this calories burned calculator to calculate how many calories you require daily and then subtract 500 from the result. Stress can significantly slow your progress, both physically and mentally. Chronic stress raises cortisol, a hormone linked to increased belly fat, water retention, and muscle breakdown.

losing weight but look fatter

It isn’t weight loss, it’s fat loss

While cardio exercises are great for burning calories, adding resistance training to your workouts can have a significant impact on your body composition. Now, you might be wondering how you can speed up this change. While this may not register as a loss of pounds on the scale, you will notice a difference in how your clothes fit.If you’re unsure about how to begin strength training, don’t worry.

The 5 Stages of Fasting (And The Benefits of Each One)

Although Kelly did not specify which comments she was referring to, her shrunken appearance has garnered unimeal reviews consumer reports attention on social media for months. “None of it proves strength; it only reveals a profound absence of compassion and character. But I won’t sit here and allow myself to be dehumanized in such a way!

  • Paradoxically, fasting begins to get easier as you fast for a longer time.
  • The constant bombardment of images showcasing toned and slim physiques can create unrealistic expectations, making it difficult for individuals to appreciate their progress and changes.
  • This psychological aspect can create a feedback loop where the individual feels dissatisfied, regardless of actual physical changes.
  • Now that you understand the different stages of fasting, you can choose the length of fast that best meets your health goals.
  • Roughly 40% of that is still water retention, with the remaining 60% being actual new muscle tissue.
  • Unfortunately, some people will seek out treatment, but it might not be the right kind of treatment.

Your body composition is the ratio of fat mass to lean mass in your body. Sometimes, body composition is used interchangeably with body fat percentage, but body fat percentage is just one part of your overall body composition. You can’t easily manage the speed of your basal metabolic rate, but you can affect how many calories you burn through physical activity. In fact, some people who seem to have a fast metabolism are probably just more active — and maybe fidget more — than others. Finally, managing stress through practices such as mindfulness, yoga, or meditation can help regulate hormones and prevent emotional eating. Creating a supportive environment that encourages healthy habits can significantly impact the success of a weight loss journey.

What role does nutrition play in weight loss and body composition changes?

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Moreover, hormonal imbalances can affect metabolism and appetite regulation. Conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) can lead to weight gain and difficulty losing weight, particularly in the abdominal area. Recognizing the role of hormones in weight management can empower individuals to seek appropriate medical advice and support. To truly transform your relationship with your body and boost your self-esteem, it’s time to seek professional guidance and support. A trained expert can provide personalized advice, create a tailored plan, and offer ongoing support to ensure that you achieve your goals in a healthy and sustainable way.

#2 Your Increased Carbohydrates Are Causing Water Retention

This paradox often leads people to question their weight loss strategy despite measurable progress. The simple explanation is that the scale measures total mass, but the mirror reflects body composition—the ratio of fat to lean tissue like muscle and water. Understanding the reasons behind this discrepancy can validate your efforts and help you adjust your approach. It’s important to remember that weight loss is a gradual process that requires patience. This will help you stay motivated and show you your real results. Don’t give up just because you don’t see any changes in the mirror after a couple of weeks of dieting.

What Does Ozempic Do to Your Face? Changes and Management Guide

Weight refers to the total amount of pounds your body weighs, which includes everything from muscle and fat to bones and organs. When you start to exercise consistently, you will lose weight as your body burns fat and calories (1). However, as you continue to exercise and build muscle, the scale may not reflect a downward number as muscle weighs more than fat. Some individuals find that eating extra calories a few days a week can help with weight loss and muscle gain, whereas others find a consistent caloric intake is beneficial. To truly measure fat loss, track waist and hip measurements, how your clothes fit, and progress photos over time. Strength levels are another powerful indicator—if you’re lifting more, it means you’re holding onto or building muscle while losing fat.

Ingredients

One of the main reasons you feel fatter after losing weight is due to water retention. So, in effect, you are losing weight, but simply retaining water, which may cause swelling. With that being said, it can also be the case that you have lost water weight, but are yet to actually lose any fat. Furthermore, excessive dieting and excessive cardio can lead to you losing muscle mass. When we hear the term transformation, we often picture dramatic weight loss. But the concept of transformation is not solely about shedding pounds.

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If weight loss is achieved through severe calorie restriction without adequate protein intake or resistance training, the body may metabolize lean muscle mass along with fat. Losing muscle slows the resting metabolic rate and creates a “skinny fat” appearance—a lower total weight but a higher body fat percentage. This results in a softer, less toned physique because the remaining fat is less supported by underlying muscle structure. Measuring body fat percentage provides a clearer, more functional picture of the body’s internal changes than traditional scale weight.

What Happens to Body Fat

Ketosis can cause side effects such as bad breath, headache, tiredness, weakness and flu-like symptoms. ‘They’ve lost the weight, but they’re not feeling how you want to feel,’ she explains. He warns that Australia is on the brink of ‘trading fat for frailty’ and is calling on the government for urgent policy change around the soaring use of ‘miracle’ weight-loss drugs. There is a specific kind of frustration that happens during weight loss.