5 Minute Ab Workout: Better Obliques for Better Breathing

Did you know that by strengthening your core, you could actually improve your breathing while running?!

A sign of oblique weakness is that people stop breathing when performing simple movement patterns to maintain stability. Huh? So if you find yourself holding your breathe when reaching for heavy objects or rotating to swing a tennis racket, time to focus on those obliques.

This doesn’t mean we have to spend HOURS rocking our core as proved by this ab workout!

5 Minute Ab Workout

This oblique ab workout is focused on creating better stability throughout your core, allowing you to maintain good form the longer you run and hopefully to prevent you from crossing those arms while you run and twisting your body.

As someone who does NOT love to work my core, I’d consider this a great 5 minute ab workout for beginners. Rest as needed and work up to the number of reps.

Beginner: 2 rounds x 10 reps per side
Advanced: 3 rounds x 20 reps per side

Side Plank with Reach
From either elbow or straight arm extend legs straight out and then raise top arm. As you curl top arm around the core, raise hips and then rotate back

Cross with Leg Up
Laying on back with knees bent and feet on floor, start by twisting right shoulder towards right knee, then straighten arm and leg, twist again and reach.

Low Back Pull
Balancing our back muscles is key for a strong core. Quickly raise and lower upper body and legs, pull arms back and squeeze middle back

Arch and Kick
Pull knee in and arch back like doing a cat stretch in yoga, then fully extend leg behind you back to a solid plank position and raise leg WITHOUT arching back

The video below provides a complete demo of the moves!

See core work is about so much more than just doing crunches or planks! It takes dynamic movements to reach all the muscles and turn you in to a powerful running machine!

Oblique Ab Workouts

Every workout should engage your core, but sometimes it’s easier while lifting to engage those deep abdominal muscles than it is to get your obliques. How do you work your obliques at home? You focus on moves like the one’s above which require tightening your core and twisting from side to side.

You’ll never be working them in isolation and that’s ok! We want these movements to be functional so that you’re getting the most out of them on your run.

Benefits of training your obliques:

• Can improve your waistline
• Stability when twisting and turning to protect your back
• Overall better core performance
• With body weight moves you won’t overdevelop the waist

And if you’re wondering if a 5 minute ab workout can even do anything—and if you can get abs to show from running? The answer is of course!! As runners, I know we’re often limited on time, so keeping the extras short and sweet means we’re both efficient with our time and more likely to actually do them, which is better than the once in a while 30 minute ab workout.

What’s your favorite oblique move?

How are you doing with the 30 Day Ab challenge?

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