Have you ever wondered what those muscles were on the side of your torso, or better known as those “waist muscles”? Well, those muscles are the abdominal obliques, and they are overlooked by many exercisers and those just looking to get six pack abs. Most people only see the front of their abs as ripped and don’t take the time to exercise or even notice those oblique abs. Your obliques are just as important as your upper and lower abs, but they’re a bit more difficult to strengthen and tone. However, the results of exercising your obliques are well worth it, because you’ll find three things when exercising your obliques.
1) You will have more strength in your lateral waist muscles when performing strenuous movements that require bending from side to side.
2) Your entire abdominal muscle group will be toned and just as strong, compared to those who only focus on working the front of the upper and lower abs.
3) That extra pad of fat you find on the sides of your torso along your waist will be gone and in its place you’ll have strong, chiseled obliques to show off.
Oblique crunches are probably one of the best known and easiest exercises to do to work your obliques. However, that doesn’t mean you should think less of the strengthening power of this exercise, because this exercise is still bound to tone your obliques like no other. Oblique crunches are extremely good for toning your obliques because they give you that twisting motion that many oblique crunches don’t have. The obliques are known to many people as “waist muscles” or the better-known term “rims.” “
With oblique crunches, you are doing an additional movement that greatly increases the build of your abdominal muscles. This additional movement that you are performing is known as flexion and rotation of the spine.
With this extra powerful abdominal chiseling rotation, your results on both your obliques and upper abs can almost double, but that depends on how much you emphasize that spinal flexion rotation.
So with this exercise, you’re actually targeting two separate abdominal muscles at the same time, which can save you a lot of time and lead to stronger, faster results.
Addresses:
1. Lie comfortably on your back with your whole body on the floor for now and cross your left foot over your right knee.
2. Next, you want to place both hands behind your head.
3. Focus on pressing your lower back into the floor and keeping it from coming off the ground. As your lower back presses into the ground, begin to lift your shoulder blades off the ground.
4. Now, once your shoulder blades are off the floor, bend your upper body (torso) diagonally across your torso toward your left knee.
5. Next, try your best to touch your left knee to your right elbow, or get as close as you can.
6. Use the strength of your abdominals to reach from the elbow to the knee. This especially works the upper abs and obliques.
7. Go back down and touch the other elbow to the opposite knee and repeat the process.
8. When you come back down, remember to switch sides and not only exercise on one side.
9. Do about 4-5 sets of 5 or 25 repetitions. on each side.
