Core workouts are the perfect place to start if you’re a beginner starting a new fitness routine, because building a stronger core is a great foundation for everything else you might go on to do with your training.
Abs workouts are also often easy to do anywhere, because you don’t need much, if any, equipment to strengthen your core, and they can be effective without being very long at all, so it’s easier to fit them into your schedule than full-body sessions.
This 10-minute workout from fitness trainer Maddie Lymburner, who goes by MadFit, ticks all the boxes as an accessible routine that will help strengthen your entire core, including your abs, obliques and the deeper stabilizing muscles important for functional fitness.
You can do the workout anywhere without any kit, but if you have one of the best yoga mats to hand, then go ahead and roll it out to make the floor exercises more comfortable.
Watch MadFit’s 10-minute beginner abs workout
In the workout, you do 10 exercises, working for 45 seconds and taking a 15-second break between moves. It’s a no-repeat workout, so once you’ve done an exercise once, you move on to something else rather than doing several sets of it.
Lymburner does the whole workout with you, so make sure you can see your screen to copy her form and also her pacing. You don’t want to rush your reps or move too slowly; instead, focus on maintaining a good rhythm for the 45 seconds of work to maximize the time under tension for the muscles you’re targeting.
The mix of moves in the workout ensures that you train your whole core. Along with working the upper and lower abs through moves like sit-ups, you also perform twisting and side exercises to target your obliques and exercises that train the deep stabilizer muscles in your core.
It’s a great session for beginners, not only because it’s accessible and strengthens the entire core, but also because it teaches you the fundamental core exercises and movements worth knowing for all your future fitness plans.
Lymburner also does a great job in the workout of explaining useful things like how to keep your pelvis in a neutral position, and this advice is useful for everyone, including beginners, because it’s always handy to get a refresher on good technique.
Once you’re comfortable with this workout, you can progress by trying this 20-minute abs workout, and if you’d rather stay standing for your session, give this 20-minute standing abs workout a go.
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