If you have 20 minutes, you have all the time you need to level up your abs with this quick bodyweight workout, which is part of the Women’s Health+ Ultimate Abs Challenge. This week-long program alternates between core-focused strength training and cardio days to strengthen your transverse abdominis, rectus abdominis, obliques, and shoulders.
The Workout
Time: 17 minutes
Equipment: Yoga mat
Instructions: After the warmup, perform the four exercises for 40 seconds each to complete one set. Rest for 20 seconds between each set. Repeat for a total of four sets.
Exercises At A Glance:
- Scorpion (30-second warmup)
- Plank hip-dips
- Lateral shoot-throughs
- Plank up-and-down
- Russian twists
Muscles worked: Transverse abdominis, obliques, and shoulders
Today’s workout is all bodyweight rotation exercises, which train the functional movement of twisting from side to side.
Up next: Cardio! Tomorrow, choose a form of low- or moderate-intensity, low-impact form of exercise, like walking, jogging, or spinning, to let your body recover while improving your cardiovascular health.
Can’t wait for more core? These are the other workouts you can look forward to this week:
When you’re ready to move on to Day 3 of the Women’s Health+ Ultimate Abs Challenge, click below to access the Bodyweight Flexion Workout.
Addison Aloian is the associate health & fitness editor at Women’s Health, where she writes and edits across the health, weight loss, and fitness verticals. She’s also a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). In her free time, you can find her lifting weights at the gym, running on the West Side Highway in New York City—she recently completed her first half-marathon—and watching (and critiquing!) the latest movies that have garnered Oscars buzz. In addition to Women’s Health, her work has also appeared in Allure, StyleCaster, L’Officiel USA, V Magazine, VMAN, and more.
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