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Setkit

Core & trunk

Core exercises

The abs, obliques and deep trunk muscles hold your spine steady and pass force between your legs and your arms.

The core’s main job in training is to stop movement rather than to create it. It holds your spine steady while your arms and legs do the work. That is why the most valuable core exercises are holds and slow controlled movements rather than fast sit-ups. Planks, dead bugs, hollow holds, carries and Pallof presses all ask you to keep a position while something tries to pull you out of it.

It helps to think in three categories. Resisting a backward arch covers planks and dead bugs. Resisting twist covers the Pallof press and the side plank. Controlled bending covers hollow holds and leg raises. A couple of good sets from two of those categories per session is enough, and every heavy squat, deadlift and overhead press trains the core as well.

One honest limit is worth stating. Core training builds muscle you may not be able to see. Whether your abs are visible is mostly about overall body composition, not about how many crunches you do.

Front
Back

Where the core sits

Muscle map highlighting the core on a front and back body outline
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Exercises that target the core

Build a core workout
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Also works the core

These exercises train the core as a secondary muscle. It is useful work that adds up across a program.

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