So if ab exercises are of very little use (unless you have managed to strip fat down first), why do we still see people doing planks and other exercises?

In one word CORE,  The “core muscles,”  are the muscles responsible for giving us strength and stability when bending or twisting.

The major core muscles are pelvic floor muscles, transversus abdominis, multifidus, internal and external obliques, rectus abdominis, erector spinae (sacrospinalis) especially the longissimus thoracis, and the diaphragm.  

We use these muscles a lot during our workouts: squats, deadlifts, lunges and pulldowns to name a few.  

So how do we work them?

Exercises such as planks, planks with rotation, Palloff press (anti-rotation) and dead bugs are really good examples of exercises that can really help to strengthen your core. 

We would suggest doing these at the end of your workout – if you do them at the start and weaken your core through exercise then you may suffer during the bigger lifts in your routine.

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