Forget the gym — you just need 12 minutes to sculpt your abs and obliques with this core workout

You can achieve a lot in just 12 minutes, especially if you spend that time doing this core workout from fitness trainer Kat Boley, which involves doing three circuits of five moves that will get your abs and obliques burning.

It’s an effective session that’s easy to slip into your day, because you don’t need any equipment for it aside from one of the best yoga mats , and the floor space to get down and do it. You can do the session as a standalone workout, or use it as a challenging finisher for a full-body workout to really target the core.

Kat Boley's workout is suitable for people of all fitness levels, but you might want to reduce the amount of reps you do or take longer rest periods if you’re a beginner. In particular the exercises that focus on your obliques can be difficult if you’re not used to them.

Watch Kat Boley’s 12-minute abs circuit

You can see each move in the workout demonstrated on Boley’s Instagram post, along with the info on sets and reps. You do 10 reps of each move in the workout — that’s 10 in total if it’s an exercise where you work each side of the body in turn, like the side plank crunch — and take 5-10 seconds of rest between each.

After you complete a full circuit of five exercises take a break of up to a minute, then go into your next circuit. Aim to complete three circuits in the 12 minutes — you can always add more on if you’re still feeling fresh after three rounds.

The five moves in the workout are below; make sure to watch Boley’s demonstrations of each before you start so you know what you’re doing and can move on to the next exercise quickly during the workout. The aim is to keep your abs and obliques working as much as possible during the 12 minutes, maximizing their time under tension to increase the strength-building benefits of the session.

• Side plank crunch
• Dead bug
• Wide leg sit-up
• Spiderman plank
• Russian twist

The workout contains several classic core exercises like the dead bug and Russian twists, along with variations on moves like the sit-up and plank . There is more of a focus on the obliques muscles in the workout than you get with many ab workouts, with twisting exercises and other moves designed to target the sides of your core.

You do also work the central abs as well, with moves to target the upper and lower abs, and the session will also help to increase the strength of your lower back and improve your posture.

If you use the session regularly and start to find it easier, then you can increase the reps or circuits you do to keep progressing, or try this 20-minute ab workout for a more challenging abs and obliques routine.

More from Tom's Guide

• A Pilates instructor shares an 8-minute Pilates abs workout for deep core activation — so I tried it
• Forget sit-ups — this no-equipment ab workout blasts your deep core
• Three 10-minute ab workouts that hit all your core muscles