No equipment, no repeat exercises — this 7-minute core workout sculpts the abs and obliques

a photo of a woman with strong abs — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

I wholeheartedly subscribe to the idea that anything is better than nothing when it comes to working out, and have found that if you’re training consistently, even doing just five to 10 minutes of exercise at a time can make a big difference.

Consistency means doing your micro workouts several times a week, and taking advantage of any small gaps in your schedule that appear to cram in some activity.

If you’re looking to build a stronger core in particular, then try this workout the next time you have seven minutes of free time and space to lie down.

Article continues below

That’s all you need to do the workout, which has been put together by fitness trainer Lindsey Bomgren, founder of Nourish Move Love. You don’t need any equipment, though having one of the best yoga mats will make it more comfortable on hard floors.

Watch Nourish Move Love’s 7-minute abs workout

Quick 7 Minute Ab Workout at Home | No Repeat Core Burn - YouTube

Watch On

Lindsey guides you through the workout and does it with you, while fellow trainer Rachel is on screen demonstrating modifications of each move if you’re struggling with any exercises.

You do each move for 45 seconds, then have 15 seconds to transition before the next exercise starts. There’s not a lot of rest here as you’d expect with a short workout like this — you want to get the most from your seven minutes.

There are no repeat moves in the workout, so once you’ve done an exercise, you don’t have to worry about it coming around again. It’s something I always like in core workouts, which can feel a bit repetitive at times.

Even though there are only seven exercises in the workout, you’ll be doing a variety of moves to ensure you work the upper and lower abs as well as the obliques.

That means exercises like the reverse crunch and scissor kicks to hit the lower abs, crunches for the upper abs and bicycle crunches to work your obliques. Throw in one round of the plank extension to train your deeper ab muscles and you’ve got a complete core workout done in just seven minutes.

Doing just one quick workout like this isn’t going to transform your strength and fitness, but it’s a start, and as I said above something is always better than nothing.

Once you’ve done one workout and found it possible to fit it in, and hopefully more enjoyable than anticipated, it’s easier to motivate yourself to train again.

With short sessions like this hitting four or five workouts a week is doable, and it will get you into a routine that you can perhaps build on with longer sessions in the future. If you’re already doing longer workouts, this seven-minute core blast is a great finisher for a full-body session.

If you’ve completed this session and want to move onto something longer, then try this 15-minute core workout which also doesn’t need any equipment.

Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.

More from Tom's Guide

Nick Harris-Fry is an experienced health and fitness journalist, writing professionally since 2012. He spent nine years working on the Coach magazine and website before moving to the fitness team at Tom’s Guide in 2024. Nick is a keen runner and also the founder of YouTube channel The Run Testers, which specialises in reviewing running shoes, watches, headphones and other gear.

Nick ran his first marathon in 2016 and became obsessed with the sport. He now has PBs of 2hr 25min for the marathon and 15min 30sec for 5K. Nick is also a qualified Run Leader in the UK.

Nick is an established expert in the fitness area and along with writing for many publications, including Live Science, Expert Reviews, Wareable, Coach and Get Sweat Go, he has been quoted on The Guardian and The Independent.