Athlean-X Shares a 10-Minute Equipment-Free Ab Workout Routine

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If you’re keen to get back into your training but still feel uncomfortable going into a gym, or if lockdown restrictions have still not been lifted where you are and gyms have yet to reopen, you may be struggling to find exercises that don’t require access to expensive equipment or require you to have huge amounts of space.

In a new workout video on the Athlean-X channel, trainer Jeff Cavaliere C.S.C.S. demonstrates an ab training routine that can be done with no equipment whatsoever, and can be performed in even the most cramped of locations; the only space you need is the area you take up lying flat on the floor. Best of all, the whole series takes just 10 minutes.

The workout consists of 10 exercises. You’ll perform each continuously for 45 seconds, then rest for 15 seconds before moving to the next.

Cavaliere front-loads the workout with moves that target the lower abs, as these tend to be the most difficult due to lifting the weight of your legs off the ground. When you take on these types of exercises (specifically, the first three moves of the routine), Cavaliere advises that you focus on raising your pelvis off the floor, not just your legs. “Too often, people will engage their hip flexors rather than their abdominal muscles in an attempt to complete a rep of an exercise,” he says. “This winds up just tiring our the psoas and not the rectus abdominis, which is not the goal of an effective ab workout routine.”

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The middle of the routine shifts the focus to the oblique muscles, with movements like side cycles and side scissor crunches. When you do these types of exercises, he recommends that you avoid jerking your head around as you work. “The key here is to lightly place your hand on your head and lift with the strength of the oblique muscles,” he says. “Crunch your elbow to your knee and feel every contraction as you do.”

The upper abs take the stage towards the end of the workout, as you’ll have an easier time performing them with solid form when fatigued. For the final exercise, the corpse crunch, he has some specific guidance: “Here you want to focus on getting full clearance of your shoulder blades off the floor,” he instructs. “At the top of every rep, squeeze your abs for a brief count of 1 to 2 seconds and lower back down slowly.”

If you’re not quite able to do 45 seconds on any of these moves, Caveliere recommends that you keep working until failure, and then use those extra seconds on recovery.

The 10-Minute Anywhere Abs Workout

• 45 seconds of crescent tucks
• 45 seconds of backward 7s
• 45 seconds of swipers
• 45 seconds of side cycle left
• 45 seconds of side cycle right
• 45 seconds of mountain hip dips
• 45 seconds of frog V-ups
• 45 seconds of side scissor crunch left
• 45 seconds of side scissor crunch right
• 45 seconds of corpse crunch