An effective ab blaster workout is more than stringing together a few ab exercises that burn and make you hate your life.
Whether it’s 10 minute ab workouts or sprinkling core movements into your main lifts, you want to pick exercises that will target all parts of your stomach.
I’ll provide you with 3 different ab blaster workouts that will have different skill levels and total time worked.
This first ab blaster will be for beginners that don’t have a lot of experience working out. We’ll keep the time short and stick to basic core exercises.
Here’s the workout:
Set a timer for 8 minutes. Cycle through all 4 movements with little to no rest. Once you complete all 4 exercises, that’s 1 round. Rest as needed and then start round 2. See how many rounds you can do in 8 minutes.
- Deadbugs - 8 reps each side
- Side planks - 20 seconds one side
- Side planks - 20 seconds other side
- Reverse Crunches - 8 reps. Take 3 seconds lowering on each rep.
For the next workout, let’s ramp it up by adding 2 more minutes and making the exercises tougher!
Here’s the workout:
Set a timer for 10 minutes. Cycle through all 4 movements with little to no rest. Once you complete all 4 exercises, that’s 1 round. Rest as needed and then start round 2. See how many rounds you can do in 10 minutes.
- Bodysaws - 8 reps
- Elevated side planks - 20 seconds one side
- Elevated side planks - 20 seconds other side
- Eccentric situps - 8 reps - Take 3 - 5 seconds lowering one each rep. Put feet under a weighted surface if you need assistance.
To finish the ab blaster workouts, here’s a 12 minute core workout that will have the hardest variations, an added 5th exercise, and 2 more minutes.
Set a timer for 12 minutes. Cycle through all 5 movements with little to no rest. Once you complete all 5 exercises, that’s 1 round. Rest as needed and then start round 2. See how many rounds you can do in 12 minutes.
- Foam roller planks - 8 reps
- Copenhagen side planks - 20 seconds one side
- Copenhagen side planks - 20 seconds other side
- Bear crawl shoulder taps - 8 reps / side
- Band crunches - 10 reps (Can be swapped for Pot Stirrers if you don't have a band)
FAQ
A 30 minute ab workout is too long and frankly a waste of your time.
Effectively training your core can be done with 1 - 2 exercises mixed into your normal workout or spending 8 - 12 minutes of dedicated ab work at the end of your workout or on an off day.
The question you need to ask yourself here is, what do you mean by “do they work?”.
If you’re asking if they work to flatten your stomach and give you abs, the answer is it depends.
Nutrition is always the most important factor for how your stomach looks.
Doing 30 days of abs will make your stomach stronger and will build muscle, but it won’t necessarily show your abs depending on how your nutrition is and what your current body fat levels are.
Depending on the type of injury, strengthening your core can have positive effects on back pain.
Doing joint friendly ab exercises like the ones above and pairing them with lower back stretches is a great combo.
Ab Blaster Workouts Recap
You now have 3 awesome ab routines to help strengthen and tone your midsection. Do these 1 - 2 times a week on your off days or add them at the end of your existing workouts.
Good luck!