If you’re looking to increase your core strength you don’t have to spend your time doing endless sit-ups, planks and crunches, you can get a great abs workout done while staying standing.
This 15-minute abs workout from YouTube fitness trainer Mizi is a great example of how to train your core without hitting the floor. Not only do you stay standing during the session, it also doesn’t have any jumping moves to reduce the impact on your joints, and all you need to do it is a set of dumbbells.
Mizi is using a set of light dumbbells for the workout, but choose whatever weight will suit you best in providing a challenge for each move. If you have a set of the best adjustable dumbbells, they are ideal because you can change the weight quickly to suit each exercise.
Watch Mizi’s 15-minute standing abs workout
There are 18 exercises in the workout in total, and you go pretty much straight into them when the video starts, so be in position and ready to go when you hit play. For each move you work for 40 seconds, then you take a 10-second break before the next exercise, before finishing the session with a quick 30-second cooldown.
To target the abs while staying standing, you’ll be doing a lot of exercises where you raise your knees or kick out your legs, as well as moves where you rotate your torso and lift the weights above your head.
The mix of exercises involved means that you will work your whole core, including the obliques and deeper stabilizing muscles as well as the abs. If you keep the pace high throughout the workout you’ll also get your heart pumping to fire up your metabolism, and your arms and shoulders are also targeted through dumbbell raises.
Mizi does the workout with you so you can follow along with her to keep your form on point, and in each 10-second break you get a preview of the next move coming up, so you can get straight into it when the timer starts for your work period.
The workout is suitable for all fitness levels, but if you’re finding it hard to keep up with Mizi or complete the work periods, you can also reduce them and add more rest, or put your dumbbells down and just do the exercises with your bodyweight.
If you’d rather do a session without any weights at all, this 25-minute standing abs workout is a good option, and if you’re looking for something to target the whole body, not just the core, give this 15-minute full-body workout a go.
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