Oblique Twist Exercise

Video Transcript

"The next exercise I'm going to show you is the Oblique Twist. This exercise is a progression from the boat pose that I showed you earlier, but it primarily works the oblique muscles. Now, first I want you to become comfortable with engaging your abs, pulled in, and lean back slightly. From here, you're going to bring your arms out in front of you and you're going to rotate. Come back to center and rotate. I don't want you to worry about bringing your hands down toward the floor. You're not crossing over. It is a torso rotation. The only way you're going to work your oblique muscles, torso rotation. So, rotate, keeps the abs pulled in, and switch. There are a few ways you can modify this exercise. You can bring your feet up off the floor. You can lean back a little bit more, but I do not recommend you lean back too far. It won't work your obliques effectively and it will put more strain on the lower back. Once you get stronger, you can add a medicine ball, which is a weighted ball. You can add that, holding that in your hands and then rotating from side to side. That will provide more of a challenge. Once again, making sure you're leaning back, engaging those abs, pulling the abs in, and think about torso rotation rather than crossing over. Side, side. There's another very effective exercise for your obliques."