YOUR ABS HELP you to move in a number of ways. They’re muscles that are tasked with bending you forward, shifting your trunk side-to-side, or even resisting motion when the goal is to stay still. An often underrated function of your core is rotation—a motion required to check your blind spot, swing a golf club, or even get out of bed.
One of the most popular, basic exercises that trains rotation is the Russian twist. Done properly, it can fire up your core and strengthens your abs to promote better movement. But, many people rush through the twist, wasting their efforts—and even potentially putting themselves at risk of injury.
Here, Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. and fitness editor Brett Williams, NASM-CPT slow down the exercise, and teach you exactly how to do the Russian twist.
How to Do the Russian Twist Safely
Follow these form cues to learn how to do the Russian twist more safely. Once you’ve read the step-by-step directions, follow along for some higher-level tips from Samuel to dive deeper into the exercise.
- Sit down on the floor or on a mat, keeping your feet on the ground. Your heels should stay on the floor, but your toes can be off the ground. Squeeze your glutes for stability.
- Lean back, forming a right angle from your torso relative to your thigh.
- Raise your arms out in front of you. Look up at your hands (and the weight, once you progress to working with a load)—you’ll keep your gaze trained there throughout the movement.
- Rotate your torso from one side to the other, pausing for a beat in the middle position between each rep. Move slowly, and keep your eyes on the weight. Keep the load out as far as possible to keep the lever long to challenge your abs. Only work within you range of motion; once your hips and knees begin to shift, you’ve gone too far.
- Work for time or reps.
Keep Your Torso Long
Eb says: Make sure your back isn’t rounding forward to start the Russian twist. Instead, get as long as you can. Think about raising your entire torso from your waist, then extending your torso long. This will protect your spine from injury while still letting your obliques reap the benefits from the Russian twist.
Feet Down
Eb says: Yes you can do the Russian twist with your feet floated in the air, but start with your feet flat on the ground and master that. Too many people start floating their feet in the air too early on, because they’re told that it levels up the move. Sure it does—if and only if you’re going to battle to keep your legs steady and not let them flit back and forth.
Keeping your feet on the ground offers you more feedback to learn that battling process. So start here, and know that there can be plenty of challenge from this position alone.
Long Levers
Eb says: Whether you’re using a load or not, reach your arms out as far as possible. The longer a lever you create, the more your core will have to work to rotate. And you want your core to work, don’t you?
Creating this long lever will also help you protect your lower back. You’ll instantly have to load less, but you’ll get more benefit from that lighter load. And your core has to brace from the start to manage that longer lever, instead of winding up in a relaxed position.
Eyes On the Prize
Eb says: One of the most common problems with the Russian twist: People do half-hearted rotations. They don’t rotate their shoulders all the way over, instead just moving their hands, and thus completely missing the full benefit of the ab work they could be getting.
To get the most out of the Russian twist, your shoulders must go along with the ride, rotating as far in each direction as possible. Following your hands will help create that rotation. If you look straight ahead, it’s easy to fail to rotate. By following your hands, your upper body will rotate more too.
What Muscles Do Russian Twists Use?
Russian twists work almost every muscle of your abdomen, but are meant to target your obliques, which are the muscles along the sides of your torso. Your rectus abdominis, or the muscles that make up the “six-pack”, and the transverse abdominis both power the movement as well. Your hip flexor muscles will also engage, especially if you choose to do the movement with your feet elevated off the ground.
Benefits (and Risks) of the Russian Twist
People like Russian twists because they take advantage of your core’s ability to rotate your torso, one of its four key functions. This movement targets your obliques, the long muscles that run along the sides of your torso and help to flex, laterally bend, and rotate the spine. If you want a strong, symmetrical core, your obliques need focused attention.
The main issue with the way that most people do the Russian twist is that they rush. This is a common problem with plenty of ab exercises, but it’s a particularly bad idea when you’re rotating your trunk with a load, which will increase the likelihood of injury. Samuel says that doing the movement properly takes perfect form, but there are so many spots where you can cheat, so it’s likely a bad choice for exercisers who don’t take the time to do it right.
How to Add the Russian Twist to Your Workouts
The Russian twist is it’s easily adaptable, and you can add it to a variety of workouts (so long as you’re focused on form). Load up the move with whatever equipment you have you can hold in your hands: a dumbbell, a kettlebell, a medicine ball, etc.
There are two main ways you can include this exercise into your repertoire. Add it into a circuit workout and perform reps for time—think 30 seconds of work and 30 seconds of rest—mixed in with burpees, wall sits, and other core moves.
Or, you can tack it onto the end of any of your lifting days and go for 3 sets of 15 to 20 slow and controlled repetitions. However you choose to do it, make sure you really own each rotation.
Want to master even more moves? Check out our entire Form Check series.
Brett Williams, NASM-CPT, PES, a senior editor at Men’s Health, is a certified trainer and former pro football player and tech reporter. You can find his work elsewhere at Mashable, Thrillist, and other outlets.
Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., is the fitness director of Men’s Health and a certified trainer with more than 10 years of training experience. He’s logged training time with NFL athletes and track athletes and his current training regimen includes weight training, HIIT conditioning, and yoga. Before joining Men’s Health, he served as a sports columnist and tech columnist for the New York Daily News.
Cori Ritchey, C.S.C.S., is an Associate Health & Fitness Editor at Men’s Health, a certified strength and condition coach, and group fitness instructor. She reports on topics regarding health, nutrition, mental health, fitness, sex, and relationships. You can find more of her work in HealthCentral, Livestrong, Self, and others.
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