When it comes to workouts that promise to give you abs, I’ve tried them all — from Daisy Keech’s hourglass workout, to that time I did 100 dead bugs a day for a week, my quest for a stronger core has involved a number of weird and wonderful workouts. With that in mind, when I heard of a new TikTok ab workout that was making the rounds, I had to unroll my exercise mat and find out more.
The workout, posted by TikTokker Annabel Lucinda, has amassed 2.5 million views on TikTok, after Lucinda credited it for a body transformation. Lucinda did the ab exercise once a week for four months, and was keen to point out in the comments that she paired it with good nutrition.
As Chris Hemsworth’s personal trainer Luke Zocchi told us, “It doesn’t matter how hard you train your abs if you don’t have a low enough body fat percentage, you stand no chance of seeing that beloved six pack you have been working so hard for. That all comes down to diet and nutrition. In order to see those washboard abs you have to be lean; I recommend men to have between 8-12% body fat and women around 14-18% body fat for best form.” Read Zocchi’s advice on the best ab exercises to do here.
It’s also worth pointing out that what works for someone on TikTok might not work for you and your body. If you’re a complete beginner, the number of reps in this workout might be a little intense. It’s also important to check with a personal trainer to ensure you’re getting your form right before upping the number of reps or adding weights to exercises.
@annabel.lucinda
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According to TikTok, this workout gives you abs
According to the TikTok video, this is the workout that’ll give you abs:
100 x bicycles
75 x scissors
75 x leg raises
Plank until failure
3 x 10 weighted hanging crunches
3 x 10 hanging crunches
3 x Static hold on decline bench until failure
In the comments, Lucinda revealed she did the workout once a week for four months to tone her stomach, as well as following a healthy diet.
I tried the viral TikTok ab workout — here’s what happened
As I mentioned in the intro, I’m no stranger to an ab workout. As a fitness editor and enthusiast, I run, strength train, and make it to a Pilates class or two at least twice a week, so none of the exercises in this workout were new to me. That said, it’s definitely an intense number of reps, so if you’re a complete beginner, you might want to half the number of reps in the workout and build up.
Starting with 100 bicycles, I took my time to ensure I was getting my form right — it’s essential to keep your lower back pressed into the ground for the entire exercise, and actually, moving slower forces you to really engage your core. For the scissors and leg raises, I kept my hands under the small of my back for extra support — as I’ve mentioned in previous workout stories, I suffer from sciatica after a horse riding accident as a teen, so it’s essential for me to ensure I don’t put too much pressure on my lower back when working my abs. I also had my legs at a 45-degree angle for the scissors and didn’t lower them quite to the floor, as Lucinda did in her video.
For the plank, I lasted just over two minutes until I admitted defeat — I tried this workout not too long after I’d added a minute-long plank to my daily routine, so I’d definitely spent some time working on my plank technique. Next up, the hanging crunches, which really burned my core, and the static holds at decline, each of which I lasted for around a minute.
There’s no doubt about it — this workout is no joke, and really does force you to work your abdominal muscles hard. Did it leave me with the sculpted core of my dreams? Of course not. As we’ve mentioned countless times before, defined abdominal muscles depend on a low body fat percentage. (Here’s how to calculate your body fat percentage.) But I did feel like my core felt pretty strong, and ached for a good few hours after this workout. I’ll definitely be trying it again, once my core has recovered.
