Lying wipers:
Start lying on your back with your arms out to your sides and knees bent. Raise your legs off the ground, keeping the knees bent. From here, bring both legs to one side as far as you can while keeping both shoulders on the ground. Contract your opposite side oblique to bring your legs back to center and continue to the other side. To make this exercise more difficult, keep your legs straight throughout the entire movement. Do 3 sets of 8-10 reps per side, resting 60 seconds between each set.
Russian twists:
Start sitting on the floor with your knees bent. Lean back slightly, and twist your upper body to one side, touching both hands to the floor next to you before going the other direction. Keep your lower back flat by squeezing your core. To make this exercise harder, you can raise your feet a few inches off the floor while pressing the feet together. Do 3 sets of 10-15 reps per side, resting 45 seconds between each set.
Side v-ups:
Start lying on your side with your bottom arm straight out in front of you and your legs stacked on top of each other. Focusing on the oblique muscle and using your bottom arm only as needed, raise your upper body and top leg off of the floor simultaneously and come back down slowly. To make this exercise more challenging, bring both legs up together. Do 2 sets of 8-10 reps per side, resting 60 seconds between each set.
Side plank:
Start lying on your side, and prop yourself up on your bottom elbow so that it is directly under your shoulder. Next, place your feet so that they are in a straight line down from your elbow, and contract your oblique to come to a side plank position – not allowing your hips to sag or having them too high up. If this exercise is too hard, you can bring your bottom leg’s knee to the floor and hold the same position. To make it more difficult, go into the side plank position on your hand instead of elbow to give yourself less stabilization. Do 2 sets of a max effort hold until your form fails on each side, resting twice as long as you held each plank between sets.
— Submitted by Chase S., Northern Illinois University