If you have a broomstick, a mop handle, or a length of PVC pipe, you have everything you need to train your obliques.
Broomstick twists are the move Frank Zane used to build a Mr. Olympia waist, but only when performed with intent.
Exercises
Suitcase Crunches: How to Do Them, Muscles Worked, and Variations
A suitcase crunch folds a regular crunch and a reverse crunch into one movement, closing your body like a suitcase.
It trains the upper and lower regions of your rectus abdominis, your hip flexors, and your obliques in a single rep.
Medicine Ball Side Throws: How To, Muscles Worked, Benefits, and Variations
Medicine ball side throws are one of the most effective exercises almost nobody does.
They train your obliques, hips, and entire rotational chain at once, which is the exact movement pattern your body uses when swinging a bat, hitting a tennis ball, throwing a punch, or turning to grab something off a high shelf.
Squat Kickbacks: Form, Muscles Worked, and Variations
Most glute exercises force you to choose: squat for your quads or kickback for your glutes.
Squat kickbacks give you both in one fluid rep. You drop into a squat, drive up, and extend one leg behind you into a standing hip extension.
The result is a compound movement that builds your quads, glutes, and core without any equipment.
Bayesian (Face Away) Cable Curls: The Stretch That Builds Bigger Biceps
The bottom of every dumbbell curl has a dirty secret. When your arm hangs fully extended and your bicep is stretched the most, there’s almost zero resistance on the muscle.
That’s a problem, because research shows the stretched position is where most bicep growth happens.
Oblique Crunches: The Complete Guide To Building A Stronger Core
Oblique crunches target the muscles running diagonally along your sides, and they are one of the most commonly butchered exercises in any gym.
The difference between an effective oblique crunch and a neck-straining waste of time comes down to technique.
Overhead Marches: Muscles Worked, Form, Benefits & Programming
Most people treat overhead marches as a warm-up throwaway. They’re wrong.
Overhead marches are a loaded carry where you hold a weight overhead and drive your knees up in an alternating march.
You can use a dumbbell, kettlebell, barbell, or even a weight plate. What makes this exercise unique is that it’s the only loaded carry combining overhead stability, hip flexor strength, and anti-lateral flexion into one movement.
Spanish Squats: Muscles Worked, Benefits, and Programming Tips
You want bigger quads but knee pain shuts down every squat variation you try. You’re not alone. Between 8 and 33% of knee injuries involve the patellofemoral joint, and standard squats can aggravate every one of them.
Spanish squats offer a way out. This variation uses a thick resistance band anchored behind your knees to keep your shins vertical and your torso upright, shifting the load onto your quads while reducing stress on the knee joint.
9 Best Dumbbell Lat Exercises for a Wider, Stronger Back
You’ve been rowing for months. Your back is getting thicker, but not wider. Every set of rows feels more like a bicep curl than a back exercise.
The problem isn’t effort. It’s exercise selection and technique. Dumbbell lat exercises work best when you match the pulling path to your lat muscle fibers, keeping elbows tight to your body and driving toward your hip.
Standing Cable Rows: The Back Exercise That Trains Your Whole Body
Your arms give out before your back does. Your biceps burn, your traps cramp, and your lats barely register a thing.
The standing cable row fixes that by forcing your entire posterior chain to work as a unit. Unlike a seated cable row, the standing version demands core stability through every rep.