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6 Oblique Exercises For Building Sexy Obliques At Home
It's pretty easy to do these oblique exercises at home. Just tack them on to the end of your regular home workouts. All you need is a few simple pieces of fitness equipment - dumbbells, swiss balls, medicine balls & resistance bands.
Strong, toned oblique muscles look sexy on both men and women. But you can't even see the oblique muscles on most people. They are covered with too much body fat. Find out below, how to reduce your body fat and let those oblique muscles shine through.
The secret to removing oblique fat
"How do I get rid of the fat on my obliques?" - It's one of the most common questions we get asked by visitors to our website. Well this answer may come as a surprise to you...
It's not by doing more oblique exercises!
Why not? Because you can't reduce fat in specific areas. Rather you need to reduce your overall body fat. To achieve this quickly and safely requires both of these 2 things...
1. A healthy diet made up of whole foods.
2. Carefully selected exercises which...
- Boost your resting metabolic rate.
- Increase your body's growth hormone production -- This helps you both build muscle and burn body fat.
- Activate many of your muscles simultaneously.
- Combine properly with other exercises.
The best advice we've seen for reducing your overall body fat comes from the truth about abs program - written by personal trainer Mike Geary. His program thoroughly cover both workouts and nutrition. But for us, it is his workouts which stand out.
They are intense! You can feel the difference when you do them. When Tom first tried them one morning he spent most of the remaining day sleeping.
He was, in a word, pooped!
You can read more about the truth about abs program by clicking here...
The basic functions of your obliques
Your oblique muscles are responsible for 2 different types of movements...
- Twisting -- like when you swing a golf club.
- Side Crunching -- like when you bend down to lift a suitcase.
Those are the 2 movements you'll see as you go through the 6 oblique exercises.
Your internal obliques are also important for preventing chronic lower back pain. They are stabilizing muscles and they especially need to be trained if you spend long periods of time at a computer.
Resistance Twists
This oblique exercise works almost exactly the same as one machine we've seen at a gym. Except it only costs 1% of the price. If you haven't tried them before, resistance bands give you lots more variety in your workouts.
- Get a resistance band and wrap it around your foot.
- Hold the handles of the band together with both hands.
- Twist your body as shown below, keep a straight back (don't hunch)
- Twist as far as you can, try to get a 90 degree twist.
- Keep a slow controlled movement.
- Slowly move back to the start position.
- Repeat until you get a good burn!
- Change sides.
The Killer Twists
Remember how we said "exercises which work many muscles simulatenously help you burn fat"? Well this exercise is a perfect example of that. It not only gives your obliques a workout, it hits many of your other muscles too!
Make sure you knee doesn't move in front of your toes.
- Get yourself a weight - a will do the job.
- Stand with your legs just wider than shoulder width apart.
- Face your body towards one side and hold the weight above your head.
- This is the starting position.
- Lower the weight and turn your body towards the other side.
- Bend at your knees and crouch down towards the floor.
- Remember to keep a controlled movement.
- Slowly move back to the start position.
- Repeat.
- Change sides.
Knee Kicks
Here's another full-body-blaster. This is an oblique exercise Tom picked up from his martial arts training. It is high intensity and it works!
- Hold the kicking bag with both hands - If you don't have a bag then just pretend to hit something.
- Stand with one leg in front of the other.
- Using your back leg, knee the bag with as much force as you can.
- Waste that bag!
- Do it again and again and again.
Medicine Ball Mini Twists
This is an oblique exercise for beginners. It is easy to do and you should soon find yourself strong enough to move onto the harder ones.
- Get a medicine ball or some other weight.
- Hold it in both hands.
- Make sure it is being held at around your chest level.
- Make sure that you elbows are at about 45 degrees.
- Stand with your feet a bit more than shoulder width apart.
- Keep your feet facing forwards throughout this exercise.
- Turn your body and the weight to one side swiftly.
- Make sure you don't fling yourself, your movements must be controlled.
- Now, immediately do the same thing turning to the opposite side.
- Repeat.
Sideways Sit-Ups
You can get a fantastic oblique workout with just this exercise alone! It hits your obliques hard. You can also make it even harder by holding a dumbbell by your head.
- Find a wall, or something to hook your feet into.
- Put the center of your body onto the swiss ball.
- Crunch your oblique muscles and lift your upper body to the sky.
- Squeeze your obliques at the top of the movement.
- Hold for about 1/2 a second.
- In a controlled movement, lower yourself.
- Repeat.
Dumbbell Side Dips
To make this exercise as effective as possible try to get a big range of motion. Exaggerate the height of your movements up and down.
- Find 2 weights and hold one in each hand.
- Stand up straight with your feet about shoulder width apart.
- Bend your body whilst lowering one weight closer to the floor.
- Go as far as you can.
- In a controlled motion, raise up again.
- Do this on the other side.
- Repeat the whole exercise.
Add some or all of those 6 oblique exercises into your next home workout. They will strengthen your core, helping you prevent lower back pain. They will also give you a sexy set of oblique's, provided your body fat is low enough.
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