A personal trainer says "you’ll never do sit-ups again" after trying these five exercises

Training the core is an essential part of any well-rounded fitness routine.

Not only do these muscles support your body during any kind of movement, they also protect your internal organs and facilitate important functions like breathing.

Sit-ups are a classic core-strengthening exercise, great for working the abdominal muscles near the surface of your torso.

However, sit-ups don’t really work the deeper muscles of your core that attach to your pelvis and spine.

Certified personal trainer Sia Clyde claims that her five-move core workout will make sit-ups a thing of the past.

My own abdominal routines have felt a bit stale lately, so I decided to roll out my yoga mat and try her program.

How to do Sia Clyde’s five-move core workout

There are five exercises:

• Seated overhead dumbbell pass with both arms
• Seated overhead dumbbell pass with single arm
• Kneeling woodchop
• Kneeling overhead dumbbell pass with both arms
• Kneeling overhead dumbbell pass with single arm

You need a yoga mat and a light dumbbell for Clyde’s program. She uses an 8lb dumbbell, and that weight felt appropriate for me too. If you’ve just begun to exercise regularly, I would suggest a lighter dumbbell to start.

Everything in Clyde’s program is done either in a sitting or kneeling position. Use a rolled up towel or pillow for additional cushioning if needed.

The exercises are done for three sets of 20 repetitions. Clyde doesn’t specify whether to perform the exercises as a repeated circuit or to finish all sets of one exercise before moving on to the next, but I chose to do the latter.

My verdict

The exercises are all similar

All of the exercises involve passing the dumbbell from one side of your body to the other, and all but one of the exercises are performed passing the weight overhead from shoulder to shoulder.

The plus side to this similarity is that with each movement, your deep core muscles have to work hard to stabilize your body against the moving weight. This is an effective way to engage and strengthen these sometimes hard-to-target muscle groups.

The downside is that the workout gets a bit boring and repetitive. If you’re prone to losing focus, doing the exercises as a circuit may help to keep things a little more interesting.

It’s easy to cheat

Maintaining an upright and neutral posture throughout this workout is vital. That’s easier said than done though, especially on the exercises that are performed in a seated position.

As a certified personal trainer myself, I’m pretty aware of my form and posture. Still, I found myself starting to slouch as the workout progressed and my core muscles fatigued. I had to give myself constant reminders to stay upright and not lose engagement in the muscles that were supposed to be working.

Trainer tip: If you’ve just started an exercise routine, you might find it helpful to do this workout with a mirror. That way you can ensure that your spine doesn’t round and your form stays consistent.

My posture improved

Speaking of posture, I noticed that mine started to improve after doing this workout several days in a row.

The usual ache in my lower back diminished, and I sat a little taller at my desk all day—evidence I need to keep doing these exercises as part of my normal routine.