1 Minute Ab Workout That Hits All 4 Ab Muscle Groups (At Home)

This is my favorite one minute ab workout, and it hits every muscle group in your abs, not just the six pack. Three exercises, 10 reps each: toe touches, V-sit twists and Spiderman planks. You can do it at home, it’s quick, and most of you won’t need any equipment at all.

Listen: most ab workouts only train one muscle. This one trains all of them, and I’ll show you exactly how to do each exercise.

Why I changed my old ab workout

Years ago I posted a workout on the old Six Pack Abs channel called the Three Position Ab Workout. It was a great workout, and I did it for many years.

Then I went through it with my AI trainer, and it found a few opportunities for improvement. That workout, like a lot of the workouts I used to do, only worked one muscle group within my abs. Since then I’ve learned it’s important to train all of the muscle groups in your abs. That’s exactly what this workout does, and why it replaced my old one.

The 4 muscle groups in your abs

• Rectus abdominis. The six pack, the muscle in the front. When most people think of abs, this is what they’re thinking about. It handles crunching motions.
• Internal obliques. One of the two parts of your obliques, on your sides. They help with rotation and core stability.
• External obliques. The other part of your obliques. They handle twisting and bending.
• Transverse abdominis. You can’t see it from the outside. It’s a sleeve of muscle beneath your rectus abdominis that holds everything together. It’s what lets you hold a plank, keeps you stable in a squat, and lets you suck your stomach in during a vacuum.

The six pack is only one of the four. Train all of them and your whole midsection gets stronger, not just the part you see in the mirror. I break them down in more detail in you have 4 ab muscles, not just a six pack.

Exercise 1: Toe touches

Toe touches go first, and they work your rectus abdominis, the six pack. For most of you, I recommend doing these without any weight. Use really good form instead, and they should be hard enough.

1. Lie flat on the mat, lengthwise, with your arms overhead and your feet and toes on the ground.
2. Jackknife up and reach your hands toward your toes.
3. Lift your head and your butt off the ground at the top.
4. Lower back down slowly and repeat. Each time you come up is one rep.

Here’s the breakthrough I made after doing this exercise for years. It sounds a little weird, but it works: on every rep, picture kneeing yourself in the face, forcefully. Don’t worry, you can’t actually do it. Nobody is that flexible. But if you visualize that motion, you make the right kind of contraction, and your abs do a lot more of the work.

Keep it slow and keep it controlled. That’s how you get the most out of every rep.

Exercise 2: V-sit twists

V-sit twists target your obliques.

1. Get into the V-sit position. It’s a kind of yoga position: you’re balanced on your butt with your knees in the air.
2. Hold a medicine ball in front of you.
3. Move your legs to one side and bounce the ball on the ground on the other side, then switch. One side plus the other side is one rep.

Two details make this one work. First, do it right after the toe touches. Your rectus abdominis is already burned out, so the work shifts to your obliques. Second, move your legs. If your legs stay in one place, you’re not working nearly as much. Moving your legs from side to side is what makes the exercise work. The ball is there to remind you of that, and to act as a counterweight to your legs.

Exercise 3: Spiderman planks

Spiderman planks target your core and your obliques, and they’re where your transverse abdominis really has to work.

1. Start in a plank on your elbows. Don’t put your butt way up in the air, and don’t let it sag. Like the name says, you’re a plank: perfectly straight.
2. Push up into a push-up position, still perfectly straight.
3. Come back down to your elbows, holding the tension in your transverse abdominis the whole time. Up and back down is one rep.

If you’re a little more advanced, add a vacuum. Keep your stomach sucked in for the entire set, going up and coming down. Nobody watching can see the difference, but you’ll feel it: it makes every rep more challenging, and it puts the focus right on your transverse abdominis.

How to do the workout

Do 10 reps of each exercise, back to back: 10 toe touches, 10 V-sit twists, 10 Spiderman planks. That’s one round, and it takes about a minute.

On the weight:

• Most of you: no weight on the toe touches. Start with good form and no medicine ball.
• A little resistance: a 2 pound medicine ball.
• Me: I use a 4 pound medicine ball, because I’ve been doing this for a while.
• More than me: 6 or 8 pounds.
• The ceiling: I would not go beyond 10 pounds, even if you’re a bodybuilder. Heavier than that and your form starts to suffer, and form is the whole point of this workout.

Want to do more than one round? I made a version with no talking where I run you through three full rounds of this workout, follow along, with a 30 second jog in place between rounds. Put it on and do it with me.

Want to see what you’d look like with six pack abs? Generate a free AI picture of yourself with abs. Once you see how good you’d look, you’ll be motivated to take your fitness to the next level.

This is general fitness information, not medical advice. Some images in the video are AI-generated visualizations, and they’re labeled.