Affiliate Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I make a small commission off purchases, at no extra cost to you. Read my full disclosure here.
Health & Safety Disclaimer: This post may contain workout and health advice and information, designed for entertainment and/or educational purposes. Without delay, always consult your doctor before trying out a new fitness regimen. Bodyweight MAX should not be used as a substitute for professional medical services.
Resistance Band Abs Workout
My wrist injury is healing up (finally), but I am still finding ways to have a blast with my resistance bands. I’ve covered a lot of different workouts with them already, and today I will show you a resistance band abs workout. Don’t worry – my love for bodyweight training is still going strong.
Anyway, the first time I did this workout, the entire rest of the day my core was very sore! It was so effective that I actually thought I had a stomach ache, but it was just my ab muscles recovering from the intensity of the workout.
As with other exercises with this type of equipment, the best way to see results with this resistance band abs workout is through slow and controlled reps.
This workout is intended to be gone through TWICE – you can do a third time if you are still energized after two.
1. Russian Twists
Anchor the band to the floor (like with a heavy table leg) and grip it while sitting several feet away. Put out your legs and stretch them a bit (to avoid the band hitting them), and lean back a little bit if you want. Slowly rotate your upper body at your hips while holding the grips close to your chest. Go left and right, back and forth.
15-30 reps per side or until failure
2. Kneeling Woodchoppers
Personally, I think this should be called the Lumberjack or Lumberjill. People don’t chop wood like this.
Anyway, I need to mention that I busted up the door frame with my resistance bands, rendering it useless as a mid-level and high anchor point for my resistance band workouts. Whoops! So keep that in mind – you don’t have to anchor the band on the floor for the woodchopper moves.
Anyway (again), anchor the band and move over so that the anchor is at your side. Grip the handles and extend your arms out, and then swing your arms to the opposite side, rotating at the hip.
This is one of my favorite moves in this ab workout. Don’t just do this in a parallel motion–go from low to high, and high to low, if your anchor point allows. Hit as many muscles as you can! This move having three different possible motions is a good incentive to go through this resistance band abs workout three times instead of two.
10-20 reps per side or until failure
3. Resistance Band Crunches
You may already know that I don’t like situps. But, crunches are alright. They engage most of the same parts of the core that situps do, but with a far lower risk of hurting your back and neck.
Doing crunches with resistance bands is as simple as anchoring the band behind you and gripping the handles at your sides (instead of crossing your arms over your chest). Perform the crunch and you will immediately feel the new resistance that you can’t get with a normal crunch. The band will also try to pull you back down, so be sure to stay in control and slowly lower yourself back down to the starting position with each rep.
15-30 reps or until failure
4. Resistance Band Leg Lifts
This is a great progression for people who are struggling to accomplish a hanging leg lift. Anchor the resistance band to the floor, and wrap them around your feet. Lie flat on the floor in front of the anchor, and lift your feet up to the air, keeping your legs as straight as possible.
For an additional challenge, make this a hollow-body, V-hold type of move: extend your arms behind your head. I don’t have room to do this myself, but will definitely challenge myself to do it once I get more space.
5-15 reps or until failure
5. Standing Woodchoppers
This is the same exact motion as the kneeling woodchoppers, but there is more of a balance factor involved due to having a smaller center of gravity. In turn, you are working your core in a new way compared to the kneeling version.
Remember that, like the kneeling version, there are three ways you can do this move: parallel to the floor, low-to-high, and high-to-low.
15-20 reps per side or until failure
Resistance Band Abs Workout: In Conclusion
There are many benefits to working out your ab muscles, and thankfully there are also many ways to do so. Doing a resistance band abs workout is great because you can do it anywhere you want, including while traveling, since bands are so small and lightweight. They are a great alternative to using weights or bodyweight exercises, and add a whole new dimension to your workouts.
Although my wrist injury didn’t really negatively affect my abdominal exercises (as much as, say, my chest and shoulder exercises), I still wanted to be able to cover all the main muscle groups with these resistance band posts. In doing so, I learned about so many amazing ways to use resistance bands, and have officially adopted them as a mainstay to my workouts. Calisthenics and bodyweight training will always be my heart and soul, but I can’t dismiss the potential that resistance bands have.
Do you have your own resistance band abs workout, and did I not include any of your favorite moves in this post? Let me know in the comments below! And as always, remember to stretch!
