A stronger core will most certainly make your life better; it’ll enhance your stability, you’ll be able to move more efficiently, it'll improve your posture, and it'll even help you execute exercises more easily. Doing endless reps of crunches and V-ups isn’t your best bet to achieving this though. There are far more beneficial ways to train your core, and this three-move kettlebell workout is one of them.
The majority of this workout is actually performed from a kneeling position – so make sure you have an exercise mat, or something soft beneath you. Why is this? Well, there’s no doubt standing exercises are excellent for your core and challenge your stability, but sometimes we can end up using other muscles for momentum to help us execute a movement. By dropping to our knees, it allows us to engage our core muscles more effectively, as our lower body muscles are unable to assist us.
As this workout is pretty sharpish, we recommend using it as a finisher to bolt on to the end of another workout, like this full-body workout. You’ll perform three rounds of each exercise in total, resting between 30-60 seconds between each round, and then 60-90 seconds before moving onto the next exercise. Make sure you opt for a weight that’s not too heavy that you can actually move with awareness and control. Here’s what you’ve got in store:
- Kneeling ‘around the world’
- Kneeling wood chops
- Extended plank (do a regular plank if you can’t do this one)
There's plenty more workouts where that came from to shake up your regular core routine, like this four-move standing workout – ideal for those with limited mobility, or if you struggle with floor-based exercises. If you just fancy a bodyweight workout instead, here's a three-move workout you can try and, if you hate the plank, great news, it doesn't include a single one!
