Barlates: 5 Best Muffin Top Melter Exercises

***5 Best Muffin Top Melter Exercises is part of Linda Wooldridge‘s 5 Best Exercise Series. This review will eventually be double posted. It is available for free on YouTube (this review) but it is also part of Linda’s 5 Best Exercise Series DVD which contains 11 mini workouts. I am using the DVD version but I am also posting individual reviews of the workouts so others can also enjoy them on YouTube. The DVD review will post eventually, tho. However, Linda has also created a 5 Best Exercises playlist on YouTube that includes every one of the workouts on the DVD.***

5 Best Muffin Top Melter Exercises is 8 minutes long. Equipment needed: a fitness mat and nothing else. 5 exercises; each exercise is done for one minute. This is a tough little core workout that focuses on obliques. Some of these exercises were difficult to do for a solid minute (for me at least). More than my core was protesting sometimes–they hit your hip flexors pretty hard, too. Just like the other workouts in this series, you could easily stack several of her 5 Best core workouts together to create a killer core workout or stack a bunch of other 5 Best body part workouts together and end your workout with this to finish it off. Or you can use it like I did, to finish off another/different longer workout (Paul Katami 4×4 workout).

1. Oblique knee tucks (C sit w/ hands on floor behind you, knees bent and feet raised off floor; pull knees in and out while tilting hip to side; alternate sides)
2. Diamond touch downs (lay back onto elbows, raise bent legs bringing toes together so there is diamond shape between legs; roll legs side to side, tapping outer thigh on ground)
3. Side jack knives (lay on one hip and bottom elbow, raise and lower straight legs to meet straight top arm)
4. Side elbow touches (get into C-sit, lace fingers together so elbows are out to side and twist side to side, tapping mat w/ elbows)
5. Side heel reaches (lay on back, knees bent and feet on floor, head/neck raised and arms straight at sides, tilt torso to side and tap heel w/ same side arm; alternate sides)

For more info on Barlates and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.