This 10-Minute Core Workout Fires Up Your Abs With Weights

Taking your core workout to the next level is easy. All you have to do is add a little weight. “For this 10-minute core workout, we’re going to be utilizing a small weight—I have a 6-pound sand ball,” says Keoni Hudoba, creator of COREntine, in the latest episode of Good Moves. “Get creative with this one. You can use a can of soup, a wine bottle, or something else from around the house.”

Each minute of the workout has you doing a new exercise until the time is up. While there’s a lot of traditional ab exercises like crunches and sit-ups involved, they’re not the kind you normally bust out at the gym. These moves really test your core with slow and controlled movements and tricky variations—and the added weight just makes them that much harder. If you don’t want to use any weight, however—or if it feels like too much—that’s totally fine. Hudoba says you can do the entire workout without it and it’ll still be effective. You can use a towel instead so there’s still something in your hands during the exercises.

Aside from circle crunches and slow sit-ups—both of which are sweat-inducing—there’s also exercises like the Figure 8 Weave that fire up your abs as you’re weaving the weight between your legs like a basketball player while simultaneously bicycling your legs. There’s also the Wrap and Tap, which involves lying on your back, legs on the ground, and crunching up to wrap then tap your leg with the weight. “We have a little unilateral work here focusing on the obliques,” he says.

By the time you’re finished, your abs will be aching from every angle. Try the full workout for yourself by pressing play on the video above.

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