Ditch the crunches and sit-ups — use the ‘corkscrew’ exercise to strengthen your abs at home or the gym

I often get asked if you can train abs every day, and my answer is always the same: you don’t need to. A general rule of thumb, you should schedule rest days into your training program and give your muscles time to repair and grow.

What works for one person might not work for another, so it’s hard to say the perfect amount of training time and work-to-rest ratio for your core muscles — I just don’t recommend hitting them every day. The next time you do schedule an abs workout, why not try the corkscrew?

Sadly, this one doesn’t open a big, bold bottle of red, but it does help strengthen your core, namely the rectus abdominis (your “six-pack” muscles) and obliques (the muscles that run down your waist). Here’s how to do the corkscrew exercise, and why I think you should.

What is the “corkscrew” exercise?

The corkscrew exercise is performed lying on your back with your hands placed on the floor next to your hips or behind your head for a more challenging variation. From here, you’ll softly bend your knees and drive them toward your chest, lifting your butt and tailbone away from your exercise mat, twisting side to side as you do.

It sounds simple, but the key is to truly recruit your core muscles to generate movement and control both the lift and the lower phases, rather than rely on momentum (in other words, throwing your legs up and down) — you might not even realize you’ve fallen victim to it.

How to do the “corkscrew” abs exercise

Follow the steps below. When you need an extra challenge, perform the move while hanging from a pull-up bar.

Start on your back with your legs extended away from you
Place your hands behind your head or on the floor next to your hips
Slightly tuck your pelvis toward you to flatten your lower back to the mat
Brace your core. Imagine someone is about to punch you in the gut, and you’re creating tension to absorb impact
Lift your legs into the air, keeping a soft bend in your knees
Draw your thighs toward your chest and lift your butt and tailbone off the mat and into the air
Lower your legs, then repeat, this time gently twisting your torso to the left and drawing your knees toward your left shoulder
Lower your legs, then repeat again, drawing your knees toward your right shoulder
Repeat for additional reps.

A knee bend will make this exercise feel more accessible, while straight legs will feel more challenging. Just ensure you’re not compensating with your hip flexors if you choose the latter option.

Like the name suggests, the corkscrew uses a twisting motion to engage your obliques, but also hits the abs, including that slice of lower abs that can be harder to activate but work well during leg lifting motions.

Can I hit abs every day?

As I mentioned, you don’t need to train abs every day to build stronger core muscles. Firstly, you use your core for a wealth of daily tasks (think carrying the groceries), workouts and exercises (think lifting heavy weights in the gym), so daily ab workouts aren’t the best use of your time.

Instead, I would focus most of your efforts on the workouts you enjoy, like upper or lower-body weightlifting, running, Pilates, or yoga, for example. Then, if you want to specifically target your core, pepper exercises into your regimen or add one or two quick workouts a week where you have time.

If I weight train for my upper body, I might add exercises like the Pallof press that work your core stabilizer muscles hard but also strengthen various other upper body muscles as well. For me, it’s a far more efficient use of time.

Muscles can also be overtrained, but this varies from person to person depending on your capacity for loading them, fitness experience and any injuries or illnesses you might have.

Muscles can’t grow if they don’t have time to recover and rebuild, so ensure you schedule rest time when you need it or active recovery if you don’t want to melt into your sofa instead.

Do ab exercises burn belly fat?

Sadly, it’s a myth that banging out moves like crunches, sit-ups and Russian twists will sculpt washboard abs you can bounce a ping pong ball off. I’m sure we would all love to choose where we lose fat from, but spot-reduction is just a myth, no matter what a fitness influencer tells you on Instagram.

Those same influencers are usually the ones who are adhering to a protein-rich, calorie-controlled and balanced diet behind closed doors, plus training consistently and regularly to get those popping abs.

Building muscle and strength will create muscle definition, but how much of that you can see comes down to body fat percentage. Here are 5 reasons you can’t see your abs yet, despite working out, if building ab definition is your goal.