You are probably used to using weight plates to load up barbells or on the leg press machine at the gym, but this piece of strength training equipment is much more versatile than you might think. Take this weight plate workout from NASM-certified personal trainer and Sweat trainer Kelsey Wells. Wells put together a 15-minute ab burnout using a weight plate that will target your core and strengthen your abdominal muscles.
“All you need for this workout is a weight plate and about the space of a workout mat,” Wells tells POPSUGAR. “If you don’t have access to a weight plate, all the exercises in this workout can be done with a
dumbbell, kettlebell, or any weighted object with a handle.” This workout is inspired by Wells’s gym-based PWR program. Sweat launched PWR 6.0, which now has a total of 60 weeks worth of workouts for the gym.
Check out the workout below and scroll through to see demonstrations on how to do each move. Get ready to grab a weight plate (or any weighted object with a handle!) and get to work!
Kelsey Wells’s 15-minute Weight Plate Ab Workout
Equipment needed: A medium weight plate, dumbbell, or kettlebell (check out our guide on how to choose the right weight) and a yoga mat.
Directions: Before starting the workout, Wells recommends taking a few minutes to warm up. You can do three to five minutes of cardio, such as jogging in place or skipping, to get your heart rate up. You can also warm up with dynamic stretches such as leg swings and torso twists to increase range of motion.
After the workout, Wells suggests cooling down with with three to five minutes of walking to get your heart rate down and static stretching.
For the 15-minute workout, complete the first two exercises — scissors (20 reps, 10 on each side) and Russian twist (20 reps) — as a superset three times through. Then rest for 30 seconds. Continue to the next superset with two exercises — oblique crunch (20 reps) and sit-up (12 reps) — three times through. Then rest for 30 seconds. Finally, finish with the bent-leg raise as a burnout for 60 seconds to complete the workout.