How to get ripped abs and obliques year round…
People often say that they want to get tight abs and obliques, but it’s often a phrase used to mean having a ripped six pack and a flat stomach. When taken literally however, tight abs and obliques require stretching or else dysfunction will soon set in to your training and disrupt many of your other lifts. In this video, I show you abs and oblique stretches that you can do in your ab and obliques workouts and after them to ensure that your abs remain adequately flexible.
All you need to perform these abs and oblique stretches is a physioball. Begin by laying on your back over the ball and stretching your arms up and over your head. Understanding that your rectus and obliques run from your ribs to your pelvis requires that you need to separate these two points as much as possible if you are going to maximize the stretch.
In order to do this, you will want to drop your hips and pelvis down along the curvature of the ball. This will separate your rib cage from your pelvis and intensify the stretch on your abs. Take it even a step further by taking a big deep breath in to expand your ribcage even further away from your pelvis.
The obliques can also be hit using the same ball. Reposition yourself on the side of the ball and place it under one hip as you lean across the ball. Reach across your body and over your head to set up the stretch on your obliques. If you tilt and twist your body upward and roll back on the ball you will preferentially hit the external obliques with a great stretch. Tilt forward and roll towards the ground with your upper body and you will shift the focus to your internal obliques.
Each of these abs and oblique stretches can be held for 45-60 seconds and repeated 3-5 times. You should aim to perform them at least a couple times each week to try and counteract the posterior rotation pull of the pelvis that is caused from all of the sitting that we do throughout the day. When not stretched, these tight abs and obliques can not only dramatically impact the performance of your ab and oblique workouts but also how you do your squats.
Trying to squat with a posteriorly rotated pelvis will severely compromise the stability and integrity of your lower back. In order to get your pelvis to drop away from your ribcage to establish a slight arch in your low back, you need to be able to anteriorly rotate your pelvis. Tight abs will not allow this.
For a complete workout program that not only gives you abs you can see year round but teaches you how to train them effectively for best results, head to and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System.
For more abs and oblique workouts and videos on how to get a 6 pack fast, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at
21 comments
Should I do these stretches before or after working out?
How to do this without a yoga ball?
Will is still develop a 6pack if i stretch the abs or it will just make the abs floppy?? Please answer i need to know
Thanks Jeff! I am in the progress and i get the need to work on my abs and i see your video and great! great great great..getting closer to the right posture..releasing tension. I think that this is going to help me much in my workout to have better results." Breathing into your balls" from Yo Elliott is the aim…spinal cord breathing from taoist Iron shirt chi kung is the goal. Jeff, your videos are magnific, i found you in my way and I appreciate you very much!
3:07 Did he faint while stretching?
Can this be reason why I get muscle spasms/cramp/twitch? I’ve covered all the nutrients but still getting them when used my stomach a lot.
Can I do this before a workout or wait until after finishing the workout?
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT VID, videos like these are the ones needed most.
Thanks Jeff for this wonderfull video. My abs are permanently contracted, hard belly ,…with breathing problems especially when I sit on a chair for a long time ….these exercices sound very interesting but can a bad posture ( weak back muscles) also be the source of "hard" abs" ?
Tight abs ruined my life
this was a particularly good one for me. very tight abs. very uncomfortable!
Step 1: Get a big ballon
Failed
Great stuff! This topic gets ingnored by so many people. Important for even those who dont train at all and are sitting in an office the whole day.
When I stand, breathing "with my stomach" becomes difficult and painful and when walking this becomes almost impossible. I have had this issue for at least two decades now and it is so bad that every time I walk or stand up, I automatically tighten my abs without thinking.
Will the stretching exercises shown in this video help me? or do I need some other exercise.
Also, due to this my stomach is always bloated as well.
Woke up with ab muscles so tight I thought I had a food poisoning. Thanks for saving my day with this video!
I don't have that ball 😩
what size ball is that? and what size do i need?
So grateful I found this video amazing piece of info.
Found this video because of the crazy intense cramping I’d get when working abs a lot. Stretch worked, but caused the same cramps in my back.lol Do you have any stretches for that?
No wonder I have a bad posture(not really bad) , I workout without stretching at all
i did an ab workout the other day and even tho i stretched i still felt sore
this helped sm