Fitness
This exercise works every ab muscle at once – here’s how to do it the right way
Core exercises can make everything easier. Whether or not you realise it, a strong core is essential for pretty much all your daily habits. ‘You need your core to be solid to do literally everything in life: get out of bed, pick up your baby, push open a door,’ says Bree Branker Koegel, NASM-certified trainer.
Sure you can rep out basic abs moves (think crunches and sit-ups), but if you want results consider the flutter kick. This is an advanced, and fun, move targeting your rectus abdominus (six pack abs), transverse abs (deep abs muscles), obliques (side abs), lower back, hip flexors, and quads.
Meet the experts: Bree Branker Koegel is a NASM-certified trainer. Melissa Kendter, ACE-CPT, is an EvolveYou trainer.
The best part of flutter kicks is you don’t need any equipment to work all those muscles. All you have to do is lie on the floor, lift your legs to a forty-five-degree angle, and then “flutter” them up and down, keeping your lower back pressing into the floor.
It only sounds easy. ‘The motion might be small, but it’s building serious core strength and stability,’ says Melissa Kendter, ACE-CPT, an EvolveYou trainer. That makes them awesome cross-training exercises for runners and swimmers.
A quick word of warning: If you’re just starting to venture into the world of abs exercises, it might be better to begin with some easier moves before jumping into flutter kicks, since they’re a little more, uh, difficult.
Find out all you need to know about flutter kicks, including form tips, the benefits, and modifications and variations for all levels, according to trainers.
How to do flutter kicks
How to:
- Lie on your back on a mat. Pull your belly button to your spine to engage your core.
- Raise your head, neck, and shoulders off the ground, with your hands behind your head. Keep your chin tucked.
- Lift your legs up off the floor, maintaining contact between your lower back and the mat.
- Swiftly move your feet up and down like you’re swimming in air.
Sets/reps for results: Set a timer for 30 seconds and see how long you can maintain good form while performing the exercise. That is now your benchmark time for three to four rounds. It should change all the time depending on how the rest of your day/life is going!
Pro tip: Make sure your low back is pressing into the floor beneath you the whole time. “I like to imagine I’m a spoon, or the bottom of a rocking chair, with contact to the floor at all times,” says Branker.
Benefits of flutter kicks
You’ll feel the burn of flutter kicks almost instantly. Trust: It’s so worth it, if you ask trainers. The biggest perk of flutter kicks is they target multiple parts of your core, Branker says. ‘The stronger the core, the more functional you move as a human,’ she adds.
- Target multiple muscles. The move ‘activates the hip flexors, the lower back, and the quads a bit more than other exercises,’ says Kendter.
- Up cardio health with low-impact. ‘Usually, you do it timed or thrown in at the end of the workout, so it really can elevate your heart rate,’ she explains. You don’t have to jump around to do it.
- Improve muscular endurance. ‘It works muscular endurance in that ab core area because of the time under tension,’ she adds. (FYI: Time under tension means you’re holding a specific muscle under tension for an extended time.)
Want to really target your core? Try this full workout:
Make flutter kicks part of your workout
There are many ways to incorporate flutter kicks in your typical sweats to work your abs efficiently. ‘Flutter kicks are a great finisher, as well as a great primer to get the core engaged for the rest of your workout,’ says Branker. ‘You can’t really go wrong here!’
You can also include flutter kicks as a part of any dedicated abs workout. Aim for three or four sets of 15 to 60 seconds, depending on your baseline time. Just keep in mind this isn’t the easiest move, so it’s important to pay close attention to your form.
Warm up with a pelvic tilt before starting your flutter kicks, so that ‘you’re engaging before you even begin the motion,’ says Kendter. If you feel your back lifting off the ground, take a break and make that your stopping point.
As you get stronger, you’ll be able to sustain longer and longer sets of flutter kicks. But whether you do them for 15 seconds or a full minute, expect to feel the burn.
Flutter kick modifications and variations
Whether you want to increase or decrease the challenge, there’s an awesome variation for you. For example, grabbing a weight adds more resistance to the already tough exercise or bending knees reduces strain. Try one of these flutter kick variations when you want to switch things up:
1.Flutter kicks with bent knees
‘If you have sensitive hips or weaker core muscles, take the modification of bending your knees,’ says Kendter.
How to:
- Lie on your back on a mat with legs bent and feet on the ground.
- Lift your head, neck, and shoulders off the ground, putting your hands behind your head.
- Lift your legs up off the floor, and press your lower back into the mat.
- Swiftly move your feet up and and down like you’re swimming in air, maintaining the bend in the knees.
2. Alternating leg lowers
How to:
- Lie on your back on a mat.
- Lift your head, neck, and shoulders off the ground, and place your hands behind your head.
- Bring your legs straight up into the air over hips.
- Alternate slowly lowering one leg down to almost touch the floor a time.
3. Flutter kicks with ankle weights
How to:
- Lie on your back on a mat with ankle weights on both legs.
- Lift your shoulders off the ground, putting your hands behind your head.
- Lift your legs up off the floor, and press your lower back into the mat.
- Swiftly move your feet up and and down like you’re swimming in air.
4. Flutter kicks with weight overhead
How to:
- Lie on your back on a mat, and hold a single dumbbell (or medicine ball) with both of your hands.
- Lift your head, neck, and shoulders off the ground, and hold the dumbbell above your head with arms straight.
- Lift your legs up off the floor, pressing your lower back into the mat.
- Swiftly move your feet up and and down like you’re swimming in air.
5. Dynamic flutter kicks
How to:
- Lie on your back on a mat.
- Lift your head, neck, and shoulders off the ground, putting your hands behind your head.
- Lift your legs up off the floor and press your lower back into the mat.
- Swiftly move your feet up and down like you’re swimming in air. While fluttering, lift your legs up higher and then back down.
Kristine Thomason is a writer and editor with nearly a decade of experience creating content for print and digital publications. Previously, she was the health and fitness director at mindbodygreen, and the fitness and wellness editor at Women’s Health. Kristine’s work has appeared in Men’s Health, Travel + Leisure, Health, and Refinery29, among others. She holds a journalism degree from New York University, and is certified in personal training by the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM).
Addison Aloian is the associate health & fitness editor at Women’s Health, where she writes and edits across the health, weight loss, and fitness verticals. She’s also a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). In her free time, you can find her lifting weights at the gym, running on the West Side Highway in New York City—she recently completed her first half-marathon—and watching (and critiquing!) the latest movies that have garnered Oscars buzz. In addition to Women’s Health, her work has also appeared in Allure, StyleCaster, L’Officiel USA, V Magazine, VMAN, and more.
It never feels like there’s enough time in the day – after prioritising your kids, work and other commitments, simply finding an opportunity to get in the gym can prove tricky. But instead of obsessing over gym sessions, Lawrence Price – former professional rugby player, coach and recent guest on MH’s Built for Life podcast – says busy dads should instead prioritise three weekly pillars.
These pillars are less about creating a perfect environment and more about building consistency that works with your life. The idea is that if life gets hectic and one pillar drops off temporarily, the other two pillars keep progress moving.
‘If pillar one is out the window because we can’t train for a couple of weeks, we can still manipulate things by making sure we’re hit hitting pillar one and three by getting those things on point,’ Price tells MH.
The 3 Pillars Every Busy Dad Should Follow
1. Increase Your Daily Movement
Price is a big proponent of increasing your NEAT – non-exercise activity thermogenesis – which is the energy your body uses for daily, non-structured exercises. These include things like walking more, taking the stairs instead of the lift or escalators, and moving during phone calls.
‘If your training window for the day has gone, then the reality is you can still take phone calls on your feet, you can take the stairs. It’s just boring to talk about – it’s unsexy, it’s uncool. But if you get people into that mindset where, whatever your life looks like, you’re prioritising that need. It’s 15% of your total daily expenditure or more,’ Price says.
‘Even even when your training window is put on the back burner, because the hierarchy of needs outside of your own health needs is obviously undulating and sometimes it pulls us away, whatever circumstance you have during the week, just moving more is something you can go towards.’
2. Strength Training
There’s no such thing as training too little – if you’ve only got time for one gym session a week, then make the most of that time and incorporate some strength training. Compound movements help to stimulate muscle growth efficiently.
‘Resistance training is the second pillar. Even if you only get one or two sessions in a week and it’s a really targeted, simple, basic functional hypertrophy routine, you know that when you’re sitting at your desk or when you’re doing the school run, your body is trying to adapt to that stimulus.’
‘If pillars one and two are the energy output pillars, pillar three is the energy input pillar,’ Price concludes.
‘If we have a rough idea of eating in alignment with our energetic needs and body composition goals, even if the environment changes we can still embody the habits and actions that align with our goals and and our visions.’
This is crucial for when you might not have time to train as much as you’d like – adapting your nutrition will still keep you on track with your goals, even if you’re expending less daily energy.
If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.
Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.
Ryan is a Senior Writer at Men’s Health UK with a passion for storytelling, health and fitness. Having graduated from Cardiff University in 2020, and later obtaining his NCTJ qualification, Ryan started his career as a Trainee News Writer for sports titles Golf Monthly, Cycling Weekly and Rugby World before progressing to Staff Writer and subsequently Senior Writer with football magazine FourFourTwo.
During his two-and-a-half years there he wrote news stories for the website and features for the magazine, while he also interviewed names such as Les Ferdinand, Ally McCoist, Jamie Redknapp and Antonio Rudiger, among many others. His standout memory, though, came when getting the opportunity to speak to then-Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher as the club won League One in 2023.
Having grown up a keen footballer and playing for his boyhood side until the age of 16, Ryan got the opportunity to represent Northern Ireland national futsal team eight times, scoring three goals against England, Scotland and Gibraltar. Now past his peak, Ryan prefers to mix weightlifting with running – he achieved a marathon PB of 3:31:49 at Manchester in April 2025, but credits the heat for failing to get below the coveted 3:30 mark…
You can follow Ryan on Instagram or on X
Fitness
Lawlor: It’s a fitness exercise, but there were lots of positives – Fleetwood Town Football Club
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The latest NHS exercise guidance reinforces what we’ve been preaching for years: hitting that 150-minute weekly movement target isn’t necessarily a get-out-of-jail-free card. It states that prolonged sedentary time is independently harmful, even for those of us who diligently carve out time for the gym. Verbatim, it says ‘prolonged sitting is harmful, even in people who achieve the recommended levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity’.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty has been especially vocal about how detrimental it could be, highlighting hybrid working as a potential health hazard. ‘Without wanting to exaggerate, I think it’s important people think through, for example, hybrid working means quite a lot of people could very easily do very little other than leave their homes, where previously people would be routinely going to work, and that often meant at least some physical [activity],’ he said at a briefing.
I understand his logic, but it’s pretty reductive. Working from home isn’t the villain here – working from one chair is.
When we label remote work as “bad for your health”, we risk throwing the baby out with the bath water. In reality, for many – certainly the whole of the Women’s Health office, but also my less-fitness-conscious sister and stepdad, plus my entire friendship group – working from home often means being more active. It means more time to fit in a lunchtime run, to get some steps in before work, or to run some errands on a quick break.
On the other hand, plenty of office workers are more sedentary than they are at home. They sit at a desk for nine hours straight before driving home, whether to be seen to work tirelessly in front of their manager, or simply because they’re pulled from pillar to post in an office setting. For those who do have an office commute, eliminating that often stressful period of the day allows for better sleep, and more time for the movement breaks we need to break up the dreaded sedentary time. Not to mention that many commutes are almost entirely sedentary on a train/tube/bus.
The potential problem, the advice suggests, is the lack of incidental movement – the walk to the train, the stroll to a meeting room, or heading out for lunch – that’s naturally baked into your day when you’re in the “official” office. Without a commute or a day in the office, the onus is on you to manufacture movement in.
Regular stretching counts as a movement break
Without sounding evangelical, I’ve made this a non-negotiable part of my day. On WFH days, I work out or walk every single morning before I log on, and walk again every evening, even if just a lap around the block. During the day, I have a personal rule: if I’m downstairs, I use the upstairs toilet (and vice versa). Sounds excessive, but it forces me to activate my muscles and add to my step count every few hours.
Beyond that, the options are endless if you’re intentional. Use a standing desk or put your laptop on a kitchen worktop during calls. Take every phone meeting on foot, pacing your hallway if necessary. Set a timer to stand up every 30 mins to stretch, grab a glass of water, or do a quick load of laundry.
We don’t need to return to the office to be healthy; we need to bring movement back into our homes. The goal: to stop being professional sitters.
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.
After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!
Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.
She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.
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