How To Do An Abdominal Twist Video

Popular yoga pose to strengthen abs. Learn exercises and stretches for your workout routine in this fitness video.

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Works out obliques
Keep knees together
Exhale as you rotate
Use medicine ball to add difficulty

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Amy McCauley has been a certified personal fitness trainer since 1995. She specializes in pilates, combat cardio, core conditioning and overall strength training. She works with clients ranging in age from 16 - 69. She has worked at Gold's Gym in Wilmington, NC since 2006. She loves her job because it gives her the opportunity to change peoples' lives in a positive way.

AMY MCCAULEY: Hi. I'm going to show you how to do an abdominal twist. We've got two different levels. Beginner level is when you going to sit back into a chair. Sit bones are the bones at the end of your spine, they're going to touch the mat, and you lean back just a little bit. Stack your hands on top of each other; relax your shoulders, and you're just going to do a seated twist from one side gently to the other. Keep the knees glued together. Think about nice and tight space here. So from your hips to your knees to your ankles, we want it stabilized. We're rotating around the rib cage. You want to exhale as you rotate, and inhale as you come to center. So you can either wrap from one side to the other or you can pause in the middle. Rotation is going to drop back. You want to avoid rounding out the back. Keep the back as flat as possible, nice and tall upright position; and you want to avoid hunching forward with the shoulder blades. Set up nice and tall as you rotate, pause optional, exhale and inhale. So you're always exhaling on your rotation. To make this exercise a little bit more challenging, we're going to use a medicine ball. Medicine ball needs to be light. We don't want it too heavy, 6 to 8 pounds, 10 pounds maximum. You're rotating from one side to the other. Again, stabilize in through the knees and into the hips. Your ultimate goal is to drop the ball as closely to the floor as you comfortably can. This is working across the obliques, getting all the way into your internal oblique. Exhale, rotate, inhale and come to center. Repeat as many as you comfortably can and then pause. Take a break and repeat 2 or 3 more sets. And that's how you do your abdominal twist.

How to Do an Abdominal Twist Video

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