Anybody can benefit from working abs – it increases your strength, your quality of life, and enables you to lift more and look better.
Jennifer goes to the gym 3 days a week in the morning and she is following the 3 day beginner workout routine and has been seeing some great progress. She has been bitten by the strength bug and wants to start improving weak areas.
Since Jennifer sits most of the day behind a computer, he core really takes a hit. So she decided she wanted to do some extra ab work.
Jennifer reached out to me to share a workout routine for abs that you can do at home… so here it is!
Nutrition Tips
In this section I will hit on a few major points. If you are looking for more nutrition related articles, check right here in my nutrition articles.
If you don’t see something you are wondering about, ask me in the comments and I’ll answer you directly there or through writing an article for you – easy as that!
What are 3 actionable things I can do today to impact my health?
- Replace just 1 sugary calorie-filled drink with a water. Whether you like them ice-cold, just out of the refrigerator, or room temperature, drink one of those instead of drinking your tea, soda, or other sugary drink.
- Start writing down your food intake in a log. Be brutally specific with what you eat.
- If you eat out a lot, prepare your own food 2 times instead of going out. So if you eat out every day, take 2 days to cook your own meals. Doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just make a point to prepare your own food.
If you take those actions today and stick with just that for a month, you are going to notice a difference.
What are 3 things I shouldn’t worry about?
- Meal Timing – The myth that eating after a certain point is just wrong. If you have to eat your dinner late, be conscious of what you eat, and try not to just snack afterwards.
- Macros – While it’s important to get plenty of protein, eat enough carbs, and fats, if you focus on that starting out… you won’t be able to keep it going.
- Fad Diets – Please don’t watch these ads on late night TV offering you unreal results. These are scams and will do more metabolic damage than help you.
Losing weight is a process, it is a lifestyle change, and it needs to be permanent for it to work. If you completely change EVERYTHING that you do, start restricting all of your favorite foods, and exercising hours a day you will just not make it.
Slow and steady wins this race.
What are your 3 favorite small meals to eat?
- 1 can of tuna, a spoonful of mayo (to taste), some pickles or relish, seasoning of your choice and mix it up. Put it on a piece of bread or eat with crackers and you have yourself a wonderful tuna salad.
- Cook a cup of brown rice and pick a protein to mix in with it – chicken breast, ground chicken, ground turkey, ground beef. Season to taste and you have 2-3 smaller meals that are quite filling. Add cheese, sour cream, or other seasonings to make it your own.
- I love peanut butter so celery and peanut butter are great… just watch calorie intake!
Coming up with a huge list of small meals that are easy to make will help you enjoy a variety of foods and will keep you from being unprepared. I still fight with myself if there’s nothing readily available – I go get fast food and it just doesn’t do anything for my physique and I usually feel worse after eating it.
Cardio Tips
While I wouldn’t recommend just doing this for your exercise, this is certainly better than nothing.
Core work will be very strenuous and you will sweat, you will be out of breath, and you will question why you are doing this… and that’s okay!
For this routine, I do not want you to worry about any specific cardio. Instead, I invite you to strive to reduce the amount of rest time between each exercise.
This is going to push you much harder than walking on a treadmill and will have a lot better carryover to weight training.
Equipment Needed
If you are going to go to a gym to do this routine, then all commercial gyms will have the equipment you need.
Since this routine is designed to be at home, you will need a few pieces of equipment.
Note: All links go to Strength Junkies, a store I’ve been partnering with. All prices are shipped and if you contact them for a quote, it will be a better deal than what’s on the website. The exercise ball link is an affiliate link to Amazon. If you purchase through the links here, it directly helps support the channel.
- Dumbbells
- Set of Dumbbells – While a set of dumbbells is ideal to workout with, it requires a bit of money up front.
- Adjustable dumbbells – Adjustable dumbbells are a much cheaper investment, you just have to adjust the weights accordingly. These dumbbells also come with a shorter lighter barbell that you can do exercises with as well.
- Kettlebells – You can do many of the same exercises with a dumbbell as you can with kettlebells, but kettlebells are certainly worth having.
- Adjustable Weight Bench – While this is optional, a nice adjustable weight bench will allow you to train and do any exercise.
- Exercise Ball – This is certainly optional, but an exercise ball can be used to increase difficulty on certain exercises.
- Yoga Mat – While this isn’t necessary, a mat can help make the floor a little more comfortable if laying on it.
Sample Workout Schedule
This routine is best done on off days. This means the days you do not go to the gym you can do this routine.
Another option would be to doing this routine at night – after your workout in the gym.
Example: If you train Monday, Wednesday, and Friday – you can do this on Tuesday/Thursday, Saturday/Sunday, etc.
2 Day Workout Routine for Abs at Home
This routine will gradually get easier. My advice is to do what you can and strive to get better.
When I first started lifting weights and doing body weight exercises, I couldn’t do 20 sit ups and I could only do 6 push ups… a lot has changed since then so just keep trying and you WILL build up the strength.
Workout 1 | ||
Exercise | Sets | Reps |
---|---|---|
Seated Leg Tucks | 2 | 15 |
Turkish Get Up | 2 | 5 |
Seated Barbell Twist* | 4 | 15 |
DB/Kettlebell Swing** | 3 | 15 |
Plank | 2 | ALAP |
Workout 2 | ||
Exercise | Sets | Reps |
---|---|---|
Weighted Crunches | 2 | 15 |
Ab Pendulum | 2 | 20 |
Lying Heel Touch | 3 | 12 |
Suitcase Deadlift | 3 | 8 |
Side Plank | 2 | ALAP |
Workout Tips
- * – The adjustable dumbbell set comes with a barbell as well. You can use dumbbells or something with weight also.
- ** – Dumbbells or kettlebells work for this exercise.
- ALAP – As Long As Possible – Static holds are a great way to push yourself to the limit.
- Practice Good Form – Sacrificing form to get more reps or longer times is not going to help you in the long run.
- Strive for Progression – If you can’t complete the reps in a set, write it down and strive for more reps next time!
Conclusion
Creating a lifestyle you can follow every day is the key to success. This workout routine for abs at home is perfect for those who train at home or would like to add in some extra core work.