When my time to train is tight, I often turn to short core workouts just to get some exercise into my day. I find that it doesn’t take long to get an effective session done when you’re targeting the abs in particular, so it feels like a good way to spend limited time.
I’ve done many hard 10-minute core sessions in the past as a result, but none have been as challenging as this abs workout from fitness duo TIFF x DAN. My abs were burning for pretty much the entire 10 minutes, and I finished with no doubt that I’d done a great core workout.
You don’t need any equipment for the workout, though rolling out one of the best yoga mats will make doing it more comfortable on hard floors.
Watch Tiff X Dan’s 10-minute core workout
The workout contains 17 exercises, each of which you do for 30 seconds, resting for just five seconds. You’ll spend that entire rest time getting into position for the next move, so it really does feel like 10 minutes of back-to-back core exercises.
I gave the session a try one lunchtime, and it took me by surprise at how hard it was, but it was so effective in working the upper and lower abs, along with my obliques. I’ll certainly be back to do the workout again.
Here are my takeaways from the session.
It’s the hardest 10 minute workout I’ve done
I’ve tried a lot of short core workouts in my time, and a lot of them have been quite savage in blasting my abs and obliques, but this was the most challenging one so far.
Even though 30 seconds is not a long set, the fast pace and short breaks meant that my abs were burning just a couple of moves into the workout, and it felt like a challenge throughout the whole 10 minutes.
If you’re a beginner, then this wouldn’t be the best abs workout to start with, in my opinion. I’d try this more accessible 10-minute abs workout instead.
Five seconds is no time at all
It’s not surprising that five seconds is not a lot of time to rest between moves, but in the workout, it felt like I barely had time to take a deep breath before heading onto the next exercise.
These short breaks are key to the effectiveness of the workout as they maximize the time under tension for your core muscles during the 10 minutes. But come prepared to work for basically the entire time.
Yours abs and obliques are both targeted
The workout packs a lot of different exercises into the 10 minutes, and there’s a good mix of moves to target both the upper and lower abs, as well as the obliques.
This helps to make it a little more achievable at times, because the focus will switch to different muscles. After a challenging round of leg raises that work the lower abs, you move on to seated bicycle crunches to target the upper abs and obliques, for example.
There are no instructions in the workout
Dan does the workout with you so you can follow his form for the exercises, but there aren’t any voice instructions in the session, and you just get written cues on screen for what’s coming next.
Given the short breaks you get, it’s worth looking at the list of exercises in the video description ahead of time so you know what’s coming, and make sure you position your screen so you can see it during the workout.
I broke the harder moves down into sections
There are several exercises in the workout that I knew I was never going to be able to do for 30 seconds, especially later on in the session when my abs were burning before I even started the set.
For those, I broke the 30 seconds down into three 10-second chunks and aimed to work for as long as I could in each 10-second section, resting the last few seconds to break up the time. This was vital to get through the hollow body hold in particular.
You could also just take longer breaks throughout the workout if need be — it will still be a very effective session if you have the time to rest for longer between moves.
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