When it comes to building strong abdominal muscles, you won’t have to spend hours sweating in the gym to get results, as this intense workout has proven. Designed by Jeff Cavaliere, strength coach and trainer for Athlene X’s YouTube channel, the six-minute circuit is designed to tone up your core, targeting all the muscles that make up the six group.
Of course, strong abdominal muscles aren’t just an aesthetic goal – they can help you run faster, lift weights, get better posture, and reduce back pain. If visible abs are your goal, no amount of sit-ups or planks will outweigh a bad diet, because visible abs all come down to body fat percentage. over here How do you calculate body fat percentage and why does it matter.
To see if you can really burn your heart in six minutes, I unwrapped my yoga mat, followed up with Cavaliere—read on to find out what happened.
Are you looking for more inspiration? Read what happened and when I Tried Lily James’ Workout With 600 Repsand when I added 50 daily oblique exercises to my workout routine.
What is a six-minute abdominal workout?
YouTube Workout lets you follow along with Cavaliere, but if you’d like to know what you’re into before opening your exercise mat, here’s what happens:
Raise hands back: 60 seconds
To do this exercise, start by sitting on your mat, with your hands behind you, palms flat on the floor, and your fingers pointing to your toes. Engaging your core, press down on the mat and push your legs toward your torso. For this exercise, Cavalier recommends thinking about squashing your knees up to your forehead rather than your chest to really hit your lower abs.
Drunken mountaineer: 30 seconds
Like traditional mountain climbers, in this exercise, you’ll start in a plank position, with your weight on your elbows. Bring your left leg down your body toward your right elbow, then switch sides. Keep alternating between the sides. “You want to make the slashes work by getting that spin,” Cavalier adds.
Knee plank: 60 seconds
“Now we’re going to slow it down,” Cavalier says. This is the same movement as a drunken mountaineer – holding the plank position and crossing the knee under the body to touch the elbow on the other side, but this time the exercise is done slowly, with control.
Rest: 30 seconds
V-ups shears: 60 seconds
This exercise is a combination of two different exercises – scissors and V-ups. While performing a V-up, lift your legs toward your torso, clip your legs, and cross one over the other in quick succession. “The scissors on the bottom challenge the lower abdominal muscles,” Cavalier explains.
Starfish Crisis: 30 seconds
Extend your arms and legs out, press your right hand up to your left foot, and keep switching sides for a full 30 seconds. “Lift and roll, lift and turn,” Cavalier advises.
Rest: 30 seconds
Crunches in the upper circle: 30 seconds on each side
For this exercise, curl your head, neck, and torso away from the mat, make a slow circle around it, lifting one shoulder blade away from the mat, then the other. Do 30 seconds in one direction before switching. “We work the upper and oblique abdominal muscles,” Cavalier explains.
I Tried An Intense Six-Minute Abdominal Workout – Here’s What Happened
“With abdominal exercises, you want to put yourself in a small area and try to ignore the burn,” Cavalier says. I would argue that with this exercise, trying to ignore a burn is like trying to ignore a bulldozer going through your living room while watching TV. This workout is a follow-up to Cavaliere’s original 7-minute workout, which currently has over 21 million views on YouTube, and while it made the workout a minute shorter, it also made it more intense.
Right from the start, this one’s on you—sure, you only work out for five minutes, but the two 30-second intervals don’t feel so good when your abs are burning. Drunk mountain climbers on rough knee pads were particularly tough, and I spent my first 30 seconds of rest questioning my career choices.
The scissor v-ups seem to combine two of my least favorite abs exercises ever, and I found that I couldn’t move anywhere close as quickly as the Cavaliers did as I struggled to maintain pressure in my lower back in the mat. By the time I got to upper circle crunches, I had a new, less-favorite exercise and seriously shaky core.
While it’s a reminder that workouts don’t have to take hours to work hard, this felt like some of the longest six minutes of my life. It’s a great muscle workout, but I wouldn’t repeat it quickly.
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