Effective Workouts to Strengthen Your Core in Just 20 Minutes

Your core goes beyond just your abs. It includes muscles from your hips to your ribs, encompassing the entire center of your body, supporting most of your movements.

Alena Luciani, a CSCS and founder of Training2xl, explains that your core comprises various muscles like the pelvic floor, internal and external obliques, rectus abdominis, erector spinae, and multifidus, which play a crucial role in stabilizing your spine and trunk.

Strengthening your core doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Ally Love, a Peloton instructor, emphasizes that even short core workouts can be highly beneficial as your core is essential for overall strength and coordination.

If you’re seeking quick but effective core exercises, here are six workouts that can be completed in under 20 minutes, focusing on different aspects of core strength:

A 15-Minute Abs Workout

This workout, led by Charlee Atkins, targets the abs, butt, and back muscles with a series of exercises like crunches, sit-ups, and leg lowers repeated twice to build strength.

A 6-Minute Core Workout for Stability

These six creative exercises in a six-minute workout challenge your body and balance, emphasizing core stability.

A 10-Minute Core Workout to Ease Low Back Pain

This routine, which includes bridges, can help relieve back pain and prevent future strains, providing lengthening and strengthening benefits.

An 18-Minute Core Workout for Runners

Specifically designed for runners, this workout targets the small core muscles essential for supporting the body during running activities.

A 10-Minute Bodyweight Workout with No Planking

This core workout focuses on slow and controlled movements without the need for planking, offering a different approach to engaging the core muscles.

An 8-Minute Core and Upper-Back Workout

This workout combines core and upper-back exercises, incorporating movements that challenge stability and strength through various positions and actions.