

This No-Equipment Ab Routine Works Your Core In 20 Minutes Or Less
The core of a healthy, functional body is its structural support. It is crucial to have a strong core since it can improve balance, flexibility, posture, cardiovascular health, and injury prevention. Our core muscles softly power everything we do by playing a critical role in the connection and transfer of power between the upper and lower bodies during movement. They assist in preserving the spine's health and support both passive and active movements. Therefore, it's important to periodically exercise and check on these muscles.
Exercises like the HIIT abs routine below can help you develop stronger abs and core muscles more quickly. Not to mention that you can achieve your goal of having washboard abs that you can show off in the summer with the help of these exercises.
Pro Tip: For intense intervals, aim for a heart rate of 85 to 90 percent.
Before you begin, determine your rest-to-work ratio:
- Week 1: 30-sec work/60-sec rest
- Week 2: 30-sec work/45-sec rest
- Week 3: 30-sec work/30-sec rest
- Week 4: 45-sec work/30-sec rest
Mountain Climbers
- Get into position. Your hands should be directly below your shoulders, your elbows should be extended, and your feet should be slightly wider than hip-width apart. This is the high plank (pushup) position. Your hips and shoulders should be in proportion.
- To create full-body tension, tighten your glutes, core, and shoulders. Keeping your head in neutral, look down at the ground.
- As if running, drive one leg up high to your chest. Return that back to its initial position. Drive the other leg to your chest, and back again. Then repeat.
- Keep your torso in alignment with your shoulders higher than your hips as you perform alternate reps. To maintain balance, brace your core. To maintain form, make sure your butt stays down and your arms are resting on your shoulders.
Russian Twist
- Bring your legs straight out as you sit down on the ground.
- Brace your abdominal wall to activate your core while you lean back a little so that your torso and legs form a V-shape.
- While maintaining your balance, rotate your torso from side to side while keeping your legs still. Breathe and move slowly, always. Keep your core active the entire time you are exercising.
Plank
- Start out face down in a plank position with your forearms and toes on the ground. Your forearms are facing forward, and your elbows are directly under your shoulders. You should be gazing at the ground with your head relaxed.
- Draw your navel toward your spine by contracting your abdominal muscles. Your body should remain firm and straight from your ears to your toes, without sagging or bowing. The neutral spine posture is shown here. Check that your shoulders are relaxed and not rising toward your ears.
- For 30 seconds, maintain this posture. Then, drop to the ground.
Alternating Heel Touch
1. Lie on your back with your knees slightly bent, your arms by your sides, and your feet flat on the mat.
2. Squeeze your left heel with your left hand while bending forward and to the left.
3. Slowly retrace your steps to the beginning, then carry out the movement on the right side.
4. Continue performing this side-to-side motion until the set is finished.
30-sec work/60-sec rest or preferred rest-to-week ratio
Alternating Toe Tap, Sit- Up
- Place your upper back on the mat to begin each exercise. As you exhale, bend at the waist and raise both your leg and your body. Lay on your back with your arms at your sides and your legs completely extended.
- Raise your left hand toward your right foot while simultaneously raising your right leg at a 45-degree angle and your chest.
- Take a deep breath in as you return your leg and torso to the beginning position. Repeat on the other side, then go back to your starting position.
30-sec work/60-sec rest or preferred rest-to-week ratio
Bicycle Crunch
- To start, have your knees bowed and your lower back pressed to the floor. Your hands should be behind your head, and your feet should be flat on the ground. To support your spine, tighten the abdominal muscles in your core.
- Pull your shoulder blades back while holding your head gently in your hands. Next, carefully elevate your feet off the floor by bending your knees to about a 90-degree angle.
- Exhale and begin slowly pedaling your legs like a bicycle, keeping both legs elevated higher than your hips and bringing one knee up to your armpit while straightening the other.
- Turn your body such that your elbow touches the rising knee on the opposite side. Twist to the opposite side alternately, bringing the opposite knee to your armpit and extending the other leg until your elbow touches the opposite knee.
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Taysha Robinson is a writer and high school English teacher, based in metro-Atlanta. A self described philomath, you can find her reading books and articles of every genre, attending educational conferences, and hiking wherever the terrain will allow.
Smile, Sis! These Five Improvements Can Upgrade Your Oral Hygiene Instantly
This article is in partnership with Sensodyne.
Our teeth are connected to so many things - our nutrition, our confidence, and our overall mood. We often take for granted how important healthy teeth are, until issues like tooth sensitivity or gum recession come to remind us. Like most things related to our bodies, prevention is the best medicine. Here are five things you can do immediately to improve your oral hygiene, prevent tooth sensitivity, and avoid dental issues down the road.
1) Go Easy On the Rough Brushing: Brushing your teeth is and always will be priority number one in the oral hygiene department. No surprises there! However, there is such a thing as applying too much pressure when brushing…and that can lead to problems over time. Use a toothbrush with soft bristles and brush in smooth, circular motions. It may seem counterintuitive, but a gentle approach to brushing is the most effective way to clean those pearly whites without wearing away enamel and exposing sensitive areas of the teeth.
2) Use A Desensitizing Toothpaste: As everyone knows, mouth pain can be highly uncomfortable; but tooth sensitivity is a whole different beast. Hot weather favorites like ice cream and popsicles have the ability to trigger tooth sensitivity, which might make you want to stay away from icy foods altogether. But as always, prevention is the best medicine here. Switching to a toothpaste like Sensodyne’s Sensitivity & Gum toothpaste specifically designed for sensitive teeth will help build a protective layer over sensitive areas of the tooth. Over time, those sharp sensations that occur with extremely cold foods will subside, and you’ll be back to treating yourself to your icy faves like this one!
3) Floss, Rinse, Brush. (And In That Order!): Have you ever heard the saying, “It’s not what you do, but how you do it”? Well, the same thing applies to taking care of your teeth. Even if you are flossing and brushing religiously, you could be missing out on some of the benefits simply because you aren’t doing so in the right order. Flossing is best to do before brushing because it removes food particles and plaque from places your toothbrush can’t reach. After a proper flossing sesh, it is important to rinse out your mouth with water after. Finally, you can whip out your toothbrush and get to brushing. Though many of us commonly rinse with water after brushing to remove excess toothpaste, it may not be the best thing for our teeth. That’s because fluoride, the active ingredient in toothpaste that protects your enamel, works best when it gets to sit on the teeth and continue working its magic. Rinsing with water after brushing doesn’t let the toothpaste go to work like it really can. Changing up your order may take some getting used to, but over time, you’ll see the difference.
4) Stay Hydrated: Upping your water supply is a no-fail way to level up your health overall, and your teeth are no exception to this rule. Drinking water not only helps maintain a healthy pH balance in your mouth, but it also washes away residue and acids that can cause enamel erosion. It also helps you steer clear of dry mouth, which is a gateway to bad breath. And who needs that?
5) Show Your Gums Some Love: When it comes to improving your smile, you may be laser-focused on getting your teeth whiter, straighter, and overall healthier. Rightfully so, as these are all attributes of a megawatt smile; but you certainly don’t want to leave gum health out of the equation. If you neglect your gums, you’ll start to notice the effects of plaque buildup, which can irritate the gums and cause gingivitis, the earliest stage of gum disease. Seeing blood while brushing and flossing is a tell-tale sign that your gums are suffering. You may also experience gum recession — a condition where the gum tissue surrounding your teeth pulls back, exposing more of your tooth. Brushing at least twice a day with a gum-protecting toothpaste like Sensodyne Sensitivity and Gum, coupled with regular dentist visits, will keep your gums shining as bright as those pearly whites.
The $1900 Anti-Aging Beauty Find Kelly Rowland Uses Almost Every Night
Every now and then, a celebrity name drops a tool or regimen that they swear by to keep their beauty and fitness game on lock. And every now and then, those finds make us think that whatever product they're using might be worth the investment. Today, Kelly Rowland just so happens to be that girl.
Over the weekend, while headling Beautycon, the 42-year-old singer revealed to PEOPLE that her biggest beauty splurge comes in the form of LED light therapy. She told the outlet, "There's this light by Shani Darden, the LED light, and it's not cheap. But I literally sleep under it every night."
LED stands for Light Emitting Diode, and in light therapy, these little diodes emit different wavelengths of light to benefit your skin. LED light therapy has seen an uptick in popularity for its benefits, which range from acne reduction and skin rejuvenation to pain relief and a more even skin tone.
She continued, “It's like a 20 to 30-minute time limit. When I'm under there, it [has] red lights, blue lights, and other colors of light. But those are the ones that I use the most, and they are so awesome because of the simple fact that they are like killing germs and [helping with] anti-aging, which is amazing."
Kelly didn't lie when she said her go-to beauty device was a "splurge." Retailing at a whopping $1,900, the Shani Darden best-selling LED Light Therapy Mask "is clinically proven to reduce acne, pigmentation, and wrinkles." Per the website, the re-engineered "diode LEDs deliver the highest dose of red, blue and near infrared light therapy in cutting-edge wavelength combinations for smoothing, clearing and brightening benefits."
Kelly is someone who gets badder with age, and over the years, the wife and mom have been vocal about her dedication to self-care through the use of beauty products. In a 2022 interview with PEOPLE, she shared her inner beauty philosophy, "Give yourself as many compliments as you possibly can. You start with one, you can have two. You have two, you can have four."
Keep scrolling for some of Kelly Rowland's other beauty faves, including a couple of additional Shani Darden finds:
Pat McGrath Labs Sublime Perfection Foundation
Pat McGrath Labs
"For me [with foundation] it was either not enough coverage or too much coverage … Pat [McGrath] found the perfect blend of them both," Kelly told PEOPLE. "This is actually my color, and it blends in beautifully with the skin – the texture of it is just like silk. I brush it on, or, sometimes I use the little sponge and push it into the skin. It's my favorite. She just nailed it, she really nailed it."
Shani Darden Skin Care Facial Sculpting Wand
The Cut
Regarding this product, Kelly revealed to The Cut, "I go up my cheekbones, across my skin and my temples with her wand — it’s incredible."
Shani Darden Skin Care Retinol Reform
"I've been with [esthetician] Shani [Darden] for almost 10 years. I was having the toughest time with my skin after I had Titan [seven years ago]. Before she sold this, she put it in a little tube for me and told me when and how to use it–she likes to educate, which I really appreciate–and my skin changed in a matter of two weeks." - via PEOPLE
Augustinus Bader the Rich Cream
The Cut
“Sometimes I use the Rich Cream, and sometimes I just use the Cream," she explained to The Cut about her product preferences.
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Featured image by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Beautycon™