maratoolPlate Twist
How to do the plate twist
- Lie down on the floor or an exercise mat with your legs fully extended and your upper body upright. Grab the plate by its sides with both hands out in front of your abdominals with your arms slightly bent.
- Slowly cross your legs near your ankles and lift them up off the ground. Your knees should also be bent slightly. Note: Move your upper body back slightly to help keep you balanced turning this exercise. This is the starting position.
- Move the plate to the left side and touch the floor with it. Breathe out as you perform that movement.
- Come back to the starting position as you breathe in and then repeat the movement but this time to the right side of the body. Tip: Use a slow controlled movement at all times. Jerking motions can injure the back.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the rectus abdominis and the obliques, which flex the trunk forward and resist it being pulled into extension or twisted out of line.
Every exercise for:Abdominals
How this movement works
The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
These train the abdominals too, using equipment this one does not:
- Press Sit-Upbarbell
- Reverse Crunchbody only
- Rope Crunchcable
- Side Bend with Dumbbelldumbbell
- Smith Machine Hip Raisemachine
Difficulty
Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.
Of the 97 abdominals exercises in this database, 17 are listed at intermediate level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.