I often get asked for my favourite core training exercise. The answer is usually five reps of “drop the cheesecake” 🙂

Okay, that’s a bit of tough love – you might want a flat belly and toned stomach but without improving what you eat any exercise I show you will have little effect.

For those of you who do have their nutrition sorted, I share with you the one exercise that I recommend everyone does.

Stir The Pot.

We’ve talked about the plank being a great exercise for beginners but to progress we need a more challenging exercise. Stirring The Pot is just such an exercise. Doctor Stuart McGill, a leading researcher on core training and back pain, is a big advocate of this, so if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for everyone 🙂

• Start in a kneeling position with a Swiss ball in front of you and place your elbows on the ball as if you’re performing a plank on it and, from the waist, extend your arms and roll the ball in a circle. Maintain a flat lower back, engaging your glutes and rolling your hips up towards your ribs helps with this.
• The difference between “stirring the pot” and the rollout is the circular motions. Start with a small circle and once you get more confident with the move, increase the size gradually.
• Once you are very confident with this, ask a training partner to gently(!) shake the gym ball and once you’re even more confident than that, you can do this from a standing position!