Core of Iron Workout

Four workouts designed to hammer your upper, lower abs and oblique muscles and leave you stronger and ready for any of life’s challenges

Welcome to our Core of Iron Workouts.

The importance of core exercises cannot be underestimated.  Inclusion of core exercises in your weekly routine can allow you to improve overall function in everyday life.  They help stabilize the spine, correct postural issues and improve balance and functional movement.  On a more superficial level core exercises can also give a cosmetically pleasing ‘washboard’ look.  Which is great when you want to look good in shorts/bikini on the beach!  Basically, core training is win-win.

Warm up

(Always warm up before starting any routine.  Start by performing mobility drills on shoulders, hips, ankles, wrist and neck muscles.  Use light core stretches to activate the muscle groups we shall be using.

After mobility drills use three rounds of the warm-up drills below.

The Circuits

These circuits each contain 9 core exercises with 3-5 rounds.  The routines are in a ‘tabata’ style format and involve 45 seconds of work and 15 seconds of rest.  Do as prescribed and flow from one exercise to the next with 15 seconds max rest.  Concentrate on good effort and technique and try not to exceed rest times.  Keep going.

3 rounds (beginner) 4 rounds (intermediate) or 5 rounds (advanced).  Allow between 15/30 seconds rest at the end of each round.  On the final round (ignore the clock/timer) and aim for as many reps as possible (i.e. to failure).

Workout 1

1. Swiss ball rollouts.
2. Medicine ball woodcutters.
3. Planks with alternate shoulder touches.
4. Medicine Ball Saxon twists.
5. In and outs.
6. Russian medicine ball twists.
7. Weighted crunches (standard).
8. Reverse Crunches.
9. Crocodile walks.

Workout 2

1. T-Push ups
2. Butterflies/Scissor kicks.
3. V-ups.
4. Ankle touchers.
5. Plank to push-ups.
6. Spiderman push-ups.
7. Side planks (45 seconds each side).
8. Prone cobras.
9. Leg raises.

 Workout 3

1. Mountain climbers (TRX).
2. TRX pendulum obliques.
3. TRX pendulum swings.
4. Hip bridge raises (TRX).
5. TRX buzzsaws.
6. Sandbag crawl and drags.
7. Push-up and drag using sandbag.
8. Sandbag half get-ups.
9. Battle ropes.

Workout 4

1. Kettlebell swings.
2. Turkish get-ups (see our kettlebell flow workout for how to undertake Turkish get-ups.)
3. Kettlebell side dips  (45 seconds each side).
4. Russian medicine ball twists.
5. Overhead Kettlebell carries (left side).
6. Kettlebell half get-ups (left side).
7. Overhead Kettlebell carries (right side).
8. Kettlebell half get-ups (right side).
9. Kettlebell high reach sit-ups.
10. Medicine ball slams.

All done? Good, its time for the finisher.  A burpees and push up 10 round combination for that additional metabolic boost.

Final round

10 burpees/1 push-up.

9 burpees/2 push-ups.

8 burpees/3 push-ups

7 burpees/4 push-up

Continue… until round 10:1 burpee/10 push-ups.

Try to get at least two to three core of iron workouts in per week.  As you progress you can add more and more core work until you can undertake some every day.  Hope you have had fun, for more on developing your core training check out our section on training the core muscles.