Obliques Exercise -
Side Bends
Many people work out the front of their
abs,
but they neglect
their obliques and waist.
The side bends exercise for the obliques is a simple, yet very
effective exercise
to
tone and strengthen
your
obliques and waist.
This exercise works the obliques muscles and the intercostal muscle
groups at the sides of the waist. Plus it is a good exercise that also
works your core and secondary muscle groups like your arms and legs.
You can do this exercise with either 2 dumbbells or with 1 dumbbell at
a time per side.
Performing the Exercise:
I will show you how to do this exercise using 1 dumbbell at a time per
side, but my video below will demonstrate both ways of doing this
exercise.
Take a dumbbell in your right hand. Stand upright with your knees
slightly bent, legs about shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent and
shoulders back. With the weight in your right hand and your other arm
at the side, you are going to slowly bend at your waist to the right,
as far as you can go. As you bend, your dumbbell gets lower giving you
some resistance. Now slowly straighten your waist, to bring yourself to
the starting position, the upright position. Remember to breathe out as
you bend and breathe in as you return to the upright position. Do about
3 sets of 12-16 reps.
Now repeat the same procedure on your left side for your left obliques,
performing the exact same number of repetitions.
My HD video below demonstrates the side bends obliques exercise using
both 2 dumbbells or 1 dumbbell at a time.
This
example is just one of the many ab exercises that
you can perform almost
anywhere. For more varied abdominal exercises and workouts I recommend
the following book:
