Amy demonstrates four standing core exercises: carries, knee crosses, windmills, and wood chops. Each has variations with dumbbells, kettlebells, or bands, plus progressions from offset loading to overhead. Do 40 seconds work, 20 seconds rest for two to three sets.
Questions this video answers
40 seconds work followed by 20 seconds rest, two to three sets.
Hey, everybody, I'm Amy from Bodyfit by Amy. And today I am going to show you my top four standing ab exercises that actually work. Also, why you should be doing them. When it comes to training our core to work in those abs, I love a good mat workout. Our dynamic movements with our flexion and our rotation, as well as isometric holds, things like planks. But when it comes to functional training and true core strength, we want to be working our abs from a standing position as well, because, let's face it, that's what we're doing a lot in life and we need that core strength and stability. These are my top four moves. The first one is a carry. This can also be done as a march. I'm going to show you both. So exactly like it sounds. We are just carrying something heavy for a certain amount of time. The key here is to go heavy. So with this, you can take one or two weights. If you want to go with two, you can of course go a little heavier. But if you're moving those weights up to your chest or over your head, you may want to go a little bit lighter and you are just walking for the carry. And again, you'll see pretty quickly why you need to go heavy. You can also take it on one side. We call this offset loading. When you're loading only one side, you'll have to stabilize a little bit more now as you get stronger or if you're more advanced, you can of course take this to a racked position. Two dumbbells or one dumbbell or kettle bell or even over your head gets a lot more challenging. Now, if you are limited on space or you're doing this in the middle of a workout, a march is a great alternative. You can take it nice and slow, just engage in your core. And again, you can do any of those options. Your suitcase, your farmer's carry with two racked or over your head. The trick is go heavy, take it slow and controlled and really engage that core. Be aware of your posture. The second move is one that I love. I often do it in cardio body weight workouts. You can also do it in strength or adding a weight. And that is just a standard knee cross. So we see this a lot in our dynamic warm ups. We get that rotation. You see me sometimes doing it holding a weight, but just getting rotation, crossing the opposite elbow to the knee and making sure that you're not just working the cardio, which you are, right, you're getting your heart rate up, but that you're also really focused On a strong, stable core here. And then getting the rotation. You don't have to actually bring the elbow to the knee, but if you're able to really rotate, get as much of a twist is good for you. You're going to be strengthening all through your back, your obliques, your side, abs, as well as as you can tell, getting your heart rate up. For cardio, you can take it nice and slow, keeping it grounded. You can pick up your pace. Hands behind the head will give you a little bit of that shoulder stretch and also increase the intensity. But you can also do one at a time or keeping it low so that standing knee twist or knee cross next. I love a windmill. All right, so you see this a lot. It is a very traditional kettlebell move, but you can also do it with a dumbbell. If you're a beginner or you have any shoulder issues or tightness or tension in your back, you can do this low. You can do it low or high, and you can go heavy with it. Find what is best for you. But you're going to stand with feet about hip distance apart. You're going to turn one foot out slightly, and then you're going to have your weight if you're on the inside of the leg. If you're going high, you're going to take that weight up top. This hand here, you're going to do a little hinge while you turn your shoulders in. You're rotating slightly and then press up and through. So if you have that weight high, you're going to feel it's pretty challenging. Core is engaging. Challenging our shoulder strength and stability. And then we do a little rotate here. And then this oblique, as well as that deep core really has to work on the way up. You can do it with that kettlebell, you can do it with one dumbbell. You can even experiment with doing a weight high and low. So we're here. And again, it's a little hinge. It's not quite a full side bend. And then notice my shoulders and my chest rotate in slightly as I'm coming up. As you come up, make sure that you're pushing into those feet and really using your core to drive up to a standing position. Again, high or low doesn't matter. Work to what level is best for you. And then that last exercise is one of my favorites. You see it a lot in my workouts. A wood chop. Now, you can do this with a stability band. You can do this with any weight. You can even do this with a heavy book or something. That's sturdy enough to hold. That will give you a little bit of extra weight or just keeping it body weight for the mobility. But essentially we're just chopping either high to lower or low to high. If you're doing it with a freestanding weight, I like to go low to high. So one weight, I often turn my knees and my hips into it to get more of that full body rotation, which is great if twisting is difficult for you or if you are in the prenatal pregnancy phases or early postpartum. But you can also keep your feet forward if you want more of that torso rotation. But you're going to take that wheat weight down below the hip, twisting towards the weight, and then with power, you're going to come up across your body and then slowly back down so your power is on the way up. Slowly back down. If that feels like too much for your shoulders or your back, just bring the weight in a little closer. Hip to shoulder, you're still going to be transferring the weight, the power, which is great for cardio, for strength. And then of course for core, we're getting stabilization as well as rotational movement for those obliques and that deep core. There you have it. You can do 40 seconds of work followed by 20 seconds of rest, two or three sets, depending on what you have time for. Be sure to check out the blog entry that I wrote explaining more about these specific exercises and why we should be doing standing core, why it is good for us. And make sure you check out all of my standing core workouts.
