10 Best Six Pack Exercises for Incredible Oblique Muscles (With Progressions)

Add these six pack exercises for incredible oblique muscles into your training and take your core strength to the next level.

These have all been selected and explained by Jeff Cavaliere from Athlean X.

Source: Photos Courtesy of CrossFit Inc / Deposit Photos

Best Six Pack Exercises for Incredible Oblique Muscles

“If you want to get shredded obliques, then you will want to start incorporating at least some of these 10 best exercises for obliques. Find out in this video, how to apply the science of ab and core training to your oblique muscles and start targeting them like never before. You may find that you will be doing a lot fewer repetitions in your workouts, but that your results will be much more significant.”

Anatomy of the Obliques

“It starts with understanding a bit about the anatomy of the obliques. You have both internal and external obliques that work in concert to produce rotation, and more importantly, control rotation (and in some cases prevent it all together). They also can produce side bending and flexion of the trunk depending on the movement being used to elicit their contraction.”

Six Pack Exercises for Incredible Oblique Muscles – How to Get Shredded

“The key is, that in order to get the most out of your oblique exercises and learn how to get them more shredded, you will want to pay attention to how you are doing every rep you do.  Let me show you what I mean as I take you through my favourite choices.”

Source: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

Six Pack Exercises for Incredible Oblique Muscles – Side Crunch

“First up is the standard side crunch. This actually is still one of the simplest and best ways to train your obliques but you have to perform them as I’m showing you here. You can’t abbreviate the range of motion and in doing so, limit the activation of the muscle. Instead, rotate your body back towards the floor to get a greater stretch on the obliques and a better contraction as a result on every rep.”

Six Pack Exercises for Incredible Oblique Muscles – Side Bridge

“The side bridge is going to train your obliques as a dynamic stabilizer. The key is to fire the bottom side to allow you to obtain a sturdy pillar-like stability to your torso from your head to your toes. Dip down a bit to challenge the muscles on every rep and then re-establish this stable position by firing up the internal and external obliques.”

Six Pack Exercises for Incredible Oblique Muscles – Elbow Knee Crunch

“Continue to escalate the quality of the contraction by now moving up to an elbow to knee crunch. Here you are getting the added benefit of the knee drive which will help to posteriorly rotate the pelvis and intensify the contraction of the obliques on every rep. Remember to not go too fast and instead go slow enough to be sure the muscles you are trying to train are doing the work.”

Six Pack Exercises for Incredible Oblique Muscles – Kneeling Cable Press

“The kneeling cable press out is an amazing way to offset the load to one side and really challenge the anti-rotation function of the torso and obliques. You can do this either in the kneeling position or more athletically, on your feet. Either way, it’s a great way to challenge your obliques in a more functional way as you progress.”

Seated Broomstick Twist

“The seated broomstick twist is an old school ab exercise that is often done incorrectly. Too many times it’s done for high repetitions and with no are as to the amount of rotation being forced by the lumbar spine. It shouldn’t be this way. Instead, perform them as I’m showing you here and you will be amazed at how much more you feel them.”

Oblique Exercises

“The exercises continue and get more difficult. From the hanging corkscrew twists to the banded cauldrons, each one is geared at limiting the focus of the contraction to the often overshadowed internal and external obliques.”

“When you increase the strength of these muscles they tend to pay big dividends as you take their new strength back to the bigger lifts in your overall workout plan.”

Video – Six Pack Exercises for Incredible Oblique Muscles

Time Stamps

1:25 Side crunch

2:28 Side bridge

3:18 Elbow to knee

4:06 Broomstick twist

5:18 Physio ball plate twist

6:26 Anti-rotation pressouts

7:43 Corkscrew twist

8:54 Banded elbow thrusts

9:54 Banded cauldren

10:38 Landmine wipers

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Muscles of the Abs and Core

The abdominal muscles are divided into four main categories: transverse abdominis, internal obliques, external obliques and rectus abdominus. Each of these plays an important role in helping you stay active and strong as you age.

The rectus abdominus

The rectus abdominus is the muscle that makes up your six pack, and it runs vertically from your sternum to your pubic bone. As you might have guessed by its name, it’s responsible for flexing or bending forward at the waist. This can be helpful when you’re doing activities like lifting heavy objects or weight training.

The rectus abdominus is made up of two separate muscles: the upper portion (or “upper abdominals”) and lower portion (or “lower abdominals”). The lower portion begins with fibres that attach to either side of the pubic bone; these fibres then wrap around and join with other fibres from above them to form a complete muscle that ends as tendons attaching to your thoracolumbar fascia on each side of your spine.

The transverse abdominis

The transverse abdominis is a deep abdominal muscle that wraps around your torso and helps to compress the abdomen. It is a thin, flat muscle that extends from the lower spine to the pelvis, sternum and ribs.

The transverse abdominis helps to support the spine by creating compressive forces against it during movement. In addition to its function of providing stability for the spine and pelvis, it also plays an important role in respiration and coughing when under stress or strain. You can identify this muscle by feeling its ridges along your sides as you inhale deeply at rest—these are called “strand lines.”

The serratus anterior

The serratus anterior is a muscle that is often overlooked, but it is one of the most important muscles for core stability.

It plays an important role in stabilizing the shoulder joint and scapular protraction. The serratus anterior can be strengthened by doing exercises like push ups, planks, and back extensions with your feet on a bench or chair.

The external obliques

The external obliques are muscles on the side of your body. They help with rotation and flexion, or bending forward at the waist.

The internal obliques are muscles that are located on the inside of your body, around where your stomach is. They help with rotation and extension, or lifting up from a lying position.

The internal obliques

The internal obliques (also known as the intercostal muscles) are the most visible of the abdominal muscles, located between your obliques and transverse abdominis. They assist your external obliques in twisting movements, which require you to rotate your torso while keeping one leg still.

The internal obliques also help support your spine and pelvis. Additionally, they contribute to breathing by increasing pressure on the thoracic cavity during inhalation.

The erector spinae

The erector spinae are a group of muscles that extend from the back of the head to the base of the spine. They are responsible for posture and spinal extension, and they make up three sections: iliocostalis, longissimus, and spinalis.

The iliocostalis muscles run along either side of your spine—from ribs to lumbar vertebrae (your lower back). When these contract, they bring your head forward and lift your ribs. This can help you maintain good posture when doing tasks like writing at a desk or sitting at a computer for long periods of time—and it also keeps you from slumping over when sitting still for extended periods such as during an airplane flight.

The longissimus runs from sacrum all the way up through cervical vertebrae (the bones in your neck). When these expand outwardly, they bring shoulders down toward hips while returning head back into normal upright position.

You have a lot of abdominal muscles

You have a lot of abdominal muscles. The rectus abdominus, which you can see and feel, is the most visible and superficial muscle. It helps flex your spine forward and pull it back to neutral. The transverse abdominis, which lies deeper below your rectus abdominus (and also wraps around your body), is responsible for keeping pressure inside your abdomen when you bend or twist.

The serratus anterior (also known as the “boxer’s muscle”) wraps around your ribs to help stabilize them during breathing and arm movements like reaching or throwing punches. If you want to tone this area, try doing pushups on an unstable surface such as an exercise ball or Swiss ball.

Your external obliques are on either side of your waist where they help rotate or turn inwards.

Conclusion

We hope that this article has given you a better understanding of your core and the muscles that make it up. As you can see, there are many different muscles involved in making sure that your body is strong enough to do everything from picking up children to playing sports. Having strong abs doesn’t just help keep them toned; they also help keep your back and spine healthy so that you don’t have any injuries later on down the road!

Add these exercises into your training to enhance your core strength, physique and posture.