The AB Workout Ben Lucas Swears By

Ben Lucas, is the owner of Flow Athletic, a NY style boutique gym based in the heart of Sydney.

Ben has been in the fitness industry for over 11 years and prior to being a gym owner, he player NRL for the Sharks.

This is a great core workout that requires no equipment. You may want a mat to keep your back comfortable however.

How it works, is that you do each exercise for a minute, then you take a 20 second break.

The exercises should be done in a slow and controlled manner. You want to keep your core engaged the entire time so doing these exercises quickly generally won’t be as effective for what we are trying to achieve.

Do 4 sets of each pair of exercises before moving onto the next one.

Crunch with a hold
Dead Bug
X 4 sets

Russian Twists
V Snaps
X 4 sets

Slow Bicycle Crunch
Slow Mountain Climber
X 4 sets

Side Plank with Hip Tap
Rocking Plank
X 4 Sets

Finish with 1 minute of half burpees

Crunch with Hold

Lie on your back with your feet flat on the floor
Hold your arms up in the air with your thumbs locked. When you go up into the crunch stretch up as if your fingertips are trying to touch the ceiling
Such your stomach in and crunch up, getting your shoulder blades off the floor and reaching your fingers towards the roof
Hold for 2-3 seconds and return to repeat

Dead Bug

Lie on your back with your feet bent in the air at 90 degrees. Put your hands up toward the roof
Not lower the right foot to the floor and move the left arm overhead toward the back of the room
Raise them back to starting position and do the same movement on the other side
If you want to make this tougher, you can straighten your leg when you lower it to the ground and just hover it above the floor, don’t let it rest

Russian Twist

Sit on the mat with your legs bent in front of you. If you have access to a medicine ball, kettle bell or a dumbbell hold it in front of your chest with both hands
Now lean back slightly until you feel your abs engage
Twist your torso to the right with your weight of choice (or just your hands), tap it to the ground next to your hip, then twist back to starting position
Do the same on the other side
To make this harder, lift your feet on the ground. It will force you to suck in your core for balance

V Snap

Lie on your back with your arms stretched out above your head and your legs stretched out in front of you
Slowly start to roll up from the mid spine, holding your arms strong above your head
As you start to come up, when you feel balanced, raise your feet up in the air with straight legs, meet your hands and feet in the middle
Hold for a second or two then slowly lower back down
If you struggle to do this with straight legs, you can also do this exercise with bent legs

Slow Bicycle Crunch

Lie on your back
Raise both feet from floor, with one knee in towards your chest and one leg outstretched
Place fingertips on temples
Raise upper torso from ground and bring opposite elbow to opposite knee
Keep upper torso elevated and rotate to other elbow + knee
Repeat by alternatin

Slow Mountain Climbers

Get into plank position with your hands on the floor directly under your shoulders, your stomach sucked in and your glutes squeezed tight. You should also be up on your toes
Tuck one leg into your chest, hold it for a second or two, then return it to plank and swap legs
Your weight should be placed on the balls of your feet

Side Plank with Hip Raise

Move into side plank position. Your forearm should be on the ground, with the elbow stacked beneath your shoulder. Your feet should be together balanced on top of each other. Suck your stomach in and push the side of your hip towards the roof to keep your hips up
If this is too challenging, you an put a knee down for balance
Lower the bottom hip to the floor, tap it and push it back up
You can either do 30 seconds on each side OR stick with one side for a minute and in the next set, switch to the other side

Rocking Plank

Start on your knees with your forearms on the ground and ensure that your elbows are stacked under your shoulder, this will help with your stability
Now straighten your legs so your body is being help up by your arms and your feet
Engage your core, squeeze your glutes
No rock your body forward an inch, hold it, and rock it back an inch, hold it

Half Burpees

I love to finish a workout with a little cardio HIIT. You only need to do this exercise for 1 minute, but if you want to do a few more rounds be my guest.