One of the biggest mistakes people make with their core workout or six pack abs workout is overlooking the obliques and failing to realize their importance towards contributing to a well-developed midsection. Based on the orientation of the obliques and the way their fibers run, they can help visually taper and narrow your waistline. It would, therefore, be in your best interest to start incorporating oblique exercises into your training plan. In this video, I cover the best obliques abs exercises, such as oblique crunches and oblique twists, you need to incorporate into your obliques workout.
The obliques actually have 2 lesser-known functions that most people overlook: it assists in the posterior pelvic tilt and tucking the ribs down and in, and it also assists in drawing in your abdomen by bringing the belly button in towards the spine. Research, therefore, shows that by implementing these two additional functions of the obliques during your obliques workout, you’re able to achieve even greater activation.
One of the best obliques ab exercises is the high to low cable woodchoppers. It’s a great option as it enables us to apply weighted resistance directly in line with the diagonal way the oblique fibers run. The key here is to focus on the rotational aspect of the movement. You should minimize the use of your arms muscles by keeping your elbow position locked, rather than bending and extending them or swinging the weight down with your arms. When done properly, you should feel a strong contraction corresponding to the side of the obliques that you’re pulling towards. And for this exercise, you’ll want to implement a lower rep range of roughly 10-15 reps.
Next, we’ll follow this up with the bicycle crunch. This exercise has actually been shown in some EMG analyses to elicit quite high obliques activation compared to other oblique exercises. But in order to maximize the effectiveness of this exercise for the obliques, we need to ensure that we’re implementing all of the obliques functions as we perform it. And in terms of exercise execution, don’t do what most people guys and just try to touch your elbow to your knee which just ends up in form compensations. Instead, remember what the obliques function to do and put your focus on simply crunching to the one side while rotating your torso. Ignore where your elbows and knees end up and instead just go as far as you’re capable of to each side while still actually feeling the obliques working during each rep. And for this exercise you should definitely use a much higher rep range of over 15 reps per side.
Next we’re going to move onto twisting leg raises – one of the best oblique twists exercise variation. Now the traditional leg raise itself with no twist has actually been shown in a few EMG analyses to already provide superior obliques activation when compared to other common core exercises. To make the movement more of an oblique exercise, we can simply incorporate a twist into each rep as you come up since this will now incorporate lateral flexion and rotation of the torso into the movement. But again, just as we did with the last exercise, it’s vital that you don’t forget to incorporate the two additional functions of the obliques by moving into posterior pelvic tilt and drawing in the abdomen before you start your reps. And due to the difficulty of this exercise, a rep range of anywhere between 10-20 reps is ideal. But again, the focus needs to be on controlling and actively using your obliques every single rep.
As for frequency and number of sets recommendations for these movements in an oblique workout, I’d recommend throwing 3-4 sets of each of these into your current ab training. And as for your abs training, you should be doing them once to even 4 times a week, depending on how much volume you’re doing during each session. In any case, though, try out these movements and figure out which works best for you.
But keep in mind that picking the right core exercises to do in your oblique workout is just one part of the equation. Dialing in your nutrition and eating the right amount and types of foods are really the key to leaning down and defining that mid-section. For a step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to train and how to set up your nutrition to transform your body with science, take the quiz below: https://builtwithscience.com/bws-free-fitness-quiz/gender?utm_source=Youtube&utm_medium=Video&utm_content=Description%20box&utm_campaign=Get%20ripped%20obliques%20Sept%2029%2F2019
Filmed by: Bruno Martin Del Campo
Filmed at: Club One Fitness Gym
MUSIC:
Soundcloud.com/lakeyinspired
STUDIES:
GREATER ACTIVATION OF THE OBLIQUES THROUGH POSTERIOR PELVIC TILT
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5342962/
GREATER ACTIVATION OF THE OBLIQUES THROUGH ABDOMINAL DRAWING IN
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3836508/
BICYCLE CRUNCH OBLIQUES ACTIVATION
https://www.acefitness.org/getfit/studies/bestworstabexercises.pdf
source
Yes, as indicated in the thumbnail, you will get a slight orange discoloration in your obliques as a result of this workout. Just a minor side-effect but all worth it for the almighty gains, right?! Hope you all enjoyed this one – and don't forget to give me a follow on IG for more content: https://www.instagram.com/jeremyethier/?hl=en ! Cheers!
Seriously Jeremy? Bicycle crunches? Did you somehow forget that you need to take the muscles close to failure to actually grow them? Only a morbidly obese person would get some stimulus from that exercise. But other than that great video.
Activate during ab workouts by hissing like a snake
lol. Honestly game changer.
2:21
Thank you for this

This is gold! Strong core aint just abs!
Thankyou
Terimakasih mas pencerahan nya
Heavy side bends and deadlifts work for me to get bigger abs.
The first exercice is so hard to do properly
baus outro
for me 3:52
Don't forget it's also diet.
Based on how the obliques seem to work it would make sense to basically hold your arms in front of you with something heavy like a dumbbell and just twist your abdomen. Or better yet, get a backpack and fill it with sand and then wear it on your back while you twist your chest back and forth from your pelvis
WOW..wonderful explanations..thank you!
How many sets do I do for the bicycle crunches?
Got some work to do since I lack the muscle to bicycle crunch.
My hero
That's not oblique muscles. You're confusing the 2. That is the serratus rib muscle
OBLIQUES TRAINING HELPS WITH THE CORE AS WELL!! DO NOT NEGLECT IT!
I’m underweight but still have a flabby area in the mid torso region
Trying to build muscle, and these seem like great workouts. Thanks!
Ngl i was hesitant with the cable oblique twist thing. Gave it a try and I already feel my obliques burnin. It looks weird but it actually works
stopped watching his videos due to longevity. switching over to instagram where videos are straightforward
I'm trying to overtime get upper and lower abbs and I js started obliques and I can't wait for that better v-taper
I noticed that I had no muscle there. That’s probably why my back gets thrown out weekly lately. Been working it out for 2 months now and haven’t had an issue since.
For those with no fancy gym equipment:
Bicycle crunches and hanging twisting leg raises.
Thanks
I’m training martial arts (MMA), and was looking for was to strengthen this area of my core.
I’ve been training that front area this entire time (I got dropped with a shovel hook to the body during sparring). But then I got to thinking. What if the next one comes around to the side? Is my body strong enough to eat it if I don’t block? Will I get my ribs broken?
I am VERY glad that I’ve found this
you just earned a new subscriber.