Building a strong core can improve your posture, reduce back pain and better the way you move during exercise and in everyday life. And you don't need to dedicate tons of time to core exercises to experience the benefits.
Personal training duo Jason and Lauren Pak recently shared a workout on Instagram that only takes five minutes but will leave your core muscles burning.
All you'll need for this routine is a kettlebell, which means you can do it from the gym or at home if you have one
The Paks offer both beginner and intermediate options for this workout, so take a look at their Instagram reel below where they demonstrate each move, so you can figure out which option is best for you.
Watch Jason and Lauren Pak's five-minute core routine
Only go for the more difficult option if you can do the beginner version with the correct form for the prescribed number of repetitions. The easier variations still target and strengthen the same set of muscles, so master them first and you can eventually work up to the advanced version.
This is an EMOM (every-minute-on-the-minute) style workout, which means you'll have one minute to complete the prescribed number of repetitions for each exercise and you can use the remainder of the minute to rest. If you have more time on your hands and you want to push yourself, repeat the workout once or twice with 90 seconds of rest in between rounds.
Benefits of this workout
You might be familiar with exercises like sit-ups and crunches as part of a core workout—and these can be helpful for targeting the central abdominal muscles—but if you want to target a wider range of muscles in the core, including the lower back, hips and obliques, it's important that your movements are varied and dynamic, like the ones in this workout.
Adding a weight such as a kettlebell into your workouts will also allow you to challenge your core further and progressively overload your workouts by increasing the weight over time.
Combine this routine with this kettlebell workout for beginners to help you build full-body strength.
Need some new weights for your home workouts? Our guide to the best kettlebells can help
