Great Oblique Workout

Get down on the floor on one of your sides. Put your upper arm below the shoulder perpendicularly to body. Keep straightened legs on top of each other. Carefully bring the pelvis up of off the floor and make your spine straight. Keep your back straight, do not twist it. Then lower hips back to the floor in slowly. In another version of this exercise you lift and hold your pelvis up for 1-2 min. This is my favorite isometric exercise, which gives a better muscle tone. It is called a side planks. I personally prefer side planks, but for the fitness beginners side bridges are already quiet hard exercise.

Lay on your back as if you were going to do traditional sit-ups, but for this exercise place the legs on a stable chair or low table. Support your head on your hands. Start to bring forward and up one side of your torso. One of the elbows that are placed behind the head moves towards the knee of the opposite side. Although your shoulder blade goes up from the floor, the main motion is twisting which work obliques so well. Then carefully return to the starting position. Avoid uncontrolled motions, because they might cause shoulder or neck pain.

In case you choose to use dumbbells, levers or cable machines, do not overdo high volume workouts with heavy weights, because they will not give great strength gains and you might injure your back. Also if you do exercising to improve body appearance, this high volume training could change waist to shoulders ration. Instead, you can strengthen the obliques with three heavy weight repetition sets. That way you will increase muscle strength and avoid disproportional waist.

If you do only side bridges and twisting crunches, you could slowly introduce them in daily workout routine. Exercises with free weights should be used every other day to give muscles enough time to recover.

Check out a health of your backbone before you attempt the exercises; if you are not sure, consult a specialist. The exercises are associated with a spine twisting or bending, which for some people are dangerous due to old injuries. Be very careful with your spine.