Core training does not need more exercises. It needs better reasons for choosing them. If the same plank, crunch, Russian twist, and bird dog variations have occupied the same places in your programs for years, the question is not whether those exercises are ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ The question is whether each one is still earning its place.
The core has to do more than create visible abdominal fatigue. The trunk transfers force between the upper and lower body, contributes to movement and position, and responds to forces coming from multiple directions. Yet core programming can easily become a collection of familiar exercises added at the end of a workout. It should be a deliberately programmed part of the training plan.
An audit changes that. Instead of asking which five exercises every client should perform, examine five common core exercises. Ask what each one trains, who it serves, how it can progress, and when another choice might better match the client’s goal.
That last piece matters. Exercise selection is not a loyalty program. A movement does not deserve permanent residency in a client’s program simply because it has always been there.
1. The Plank: Audit Whether Endurance Has Become the Entire Goal
The plank remains a useful core exercise when the goal is resisting trunk extension and maintaining position under load. Its value decreases when progression consists only of asking clients to hold the same position longer. Once the client owns the position, increase the challenge rather than simply extending the clock.
The traditional forearm plank is familiar for good reason. It requires little equipment and is easy to teach. It also gives a coach an accessible way to observe whether a client can maintain trunk and pelvic position while managing body weight. The programming problem often begins after the client becomes competent.
Say a client can maintain an appropriate plank for 30 seconds. Moving automatically toward 60, 90, or 120 seconds may simply turn a strength-oriented exercise into an increasingly long endurance task. That may be appropriate when endurance is the goal, but it should be a deliberate choice.
For a general fitness client, start with 2 to 3 sets of 15 to 30 seconds, with approximately 30 to 60 seconds of recovery between sets. Over a four- to six-week progression window, first improve position and breathing. Then increase leverage or load rather than chasing increasingly long holds.
Progression might move from an elevated plank to a floor plank, then toward a long-lever plank or loaded plank. Any variation works if it increases demand while preserving control. The audit question becomes this: What quality is the client developing now that they can already hold the plank? If the only answer is ‘a longer plank,’ it may be time to progress.
2. The Dead Bug: Audit Whether the Client Is Actually Controlling the Trunk
The dead bug is valuable because limb movement challenges the client to maintain trunk position. Moving the arms and legs farther does not make the exercise better if the client loses the position that created the training effect. Range of motion should be earned through control rather than prescribed automatically.
The dead bug can look deceptively easy. A client lies on the floor, moves an arm and leg, and returns to the starting position. Yet the exercise creates a useful challenge: can the client move the extremities while controlling the trunk? It is most useful when coaches treat it as a coordination and control exercise. It is not a race to get a heel as close to the floor as possible.
Begin with 2 to 3 sets of 5 to 8 controlled repetitions per side, allowing roughly 30 to 45 seconds between sets. Over four to six weeks, progress from shorter lever movements or heel taps toward contralateral arm-and-leg extensions. Resistance bands or light external resistance can follow when appropriate.
Watch what happens as the limbs move away from the body. If the client cannot maintain the intended position, reduce the range or simplify the variation. The regression is not a punishment. It restores the reason the exercise was selected.
This is also where cueing can become unnecessarily complicated. Instead of giving the client five anatomical instructions, give them an external task or one clear point of attention. Observe the response, and adjust.
“It is great training practice for coaches to move beyond simply delivering an exercise and adopt a new perspective to better understand the functions, abilities, and capacities of targeted muscles and exercises. Thinking about core training as controlling and transferring force rather than simply ‘working the abs’ is smarter coaching that will help clients better understand their bodies and performance opportunities, and will help elicit better movement precision, power, efficiency, strength gains, and open up new exercise possibilities and selection, beyond the typical ‘core exercises,’ because there is more than one function or way of training the core.”
— Kia Williams, MBA, MS, 200hr E-RYT, ACE-CGFI, 2022 IDEA Fitness Instructor of the Year
3. The Pallof Press: Audit Whether ‘Anti-Rotation’ Is Actually Challenging Rotation
The Pallof press earns its place when the cable or band creates a rotational demand the client must resist. The resistance may be too light, the client may stand too close to the anchor, or the setup may remove meaningful tension. In each case the movement can look correct without providing the intended challenge.
The Pallof press is often labeled an anti-rotation exercise, but the name does not create the stimulus. The setup does. When a client presses the hands away from the chest, the longer lever increases the rotational demand created by the cable or band. The trunk has to resist being pulled toward the anchor while the client maintains position.
Start with 2 to 3 sets of 6 to 10 controlled presses per side, pausing briefly at full extension and resting 30 to 60 seconds between sets. Across a four- to six-week progression window, coaches can manipulate resistance, stance, lever length, tempo, or movement complexity.
The goal is not to make the exercise look unstable for the sake of difficulty. Progression should increase the demand while preserving the client’s ability to control it.
This is also an exercise worth auditing for endless variation. Half-kneeling, tall-kneeling, split-stance, presses with steps, circles, overhead patterns, and dozens of other versions can all have a purpose. Variety itself is not the purpose. Before changing the variation, ask what the new version solves that the current one does not.
4. The Side Plank: Audit the Frontal Plane
A core program dominated by forward-facing exercises may leave frontal-plane demands underrepresented. The side plank provides a simple way to challenge lateral trunk control. The appropriate version depends on whether the client can maintain alignment without turning the exercise into a battle for survival.
Planks and dead bugs can dominate core programming because they are familiar and easy to organize. The side plank changes the direction of the challenge.
For many general fitness clients, begin with a modified version from the knees or an elevated side plank. Program 2 to 3 sets of 15 to 30 seconds per side, with approximately 30 to 60 seconds of recovery. Progress over four to six weeks toward a full side plank before adding longer levers, load, or controlled movement.
As with the traditional plank, more time is not automatically better. If the client owns a 30-second side plank, consider greater resistance or a more demanding variation. Either may serve the goal better than simply doubling the duration.
Coaches should also distinguish effort from execution. Shaking does not automatically mean an exercise is effective, and a client does not need to reach failure for a set to matter. Stop the set when the client can no longer maintain the position or strategy the exercise is intended to train.
The audit question becomes: Does the program expose the client to meaningful demands from multiple directions? Or has ‘core’ quietly come to mean exercises performed facing the floor or ceiling?
5. The Loaded Carry: Audit Whether Core Training Transfers Beyond the Mat
Loaded carries challenge trunk control while the client is upright, moving, breathing, and managing external load. They can bridge isolated core work with whole-body tasks. That only works when coaches resist turning every carry into a test of grip strength, exhaustion, or how much weight the client can tolerate.
Carries deserve consideration because life rarely asks the trunk to function while someone lies perfectly still on a mat. A suitcase carry creates an asymmetrical load and asks the client to maintain position while walking. A farmer carry increases total external load. Other variations can manipulate where the weight is held and the demands created by that position.
For a general fitness client, start with 2 to 4 carries of approximately 20 to 40 meters or 20 to 30 seconds. Allow 45 to 90 seconds of recovery between efforts. Across four to six weeks, increase load, distance, duration, or complexity one variable at a time.
The correct load is not simply the heaviest implement the client can transport from one end of the gym to the other. It should be heavy enough to create the intended challenge while allowing the client to maintain gait and trunk control.
Carries also expose a weakness in the way core training is sometimes programmed. Some programs ask a client to lie down, brace, complete a set, and rest for every core exercise. Those programs may be missing opportunities to integrate trunk control into locomotion and external loading.
“Widely accepted research shows that proper core training conditions the torso’s critical stabilizing muscles, such as the abdomen, low back, and pelvic region, to protect the spine from injury and improve overall movement quality. A functional core helps you maintain postural strength and an upright position while sitting, standing, and ambulating independently. Training carries and integrated movements, along with isolated trunk exercises, supports more functional movement patterns and real-life scenarios.”
— Kia Williams, MBA, MS, 200hr E-RYT, ACE-CGFI, 2022 IDEA Fitness Instructor of the Year
That does not make carries superior to dead bugs, planks, or Pallof presses. It makes them a different tool for a different job.
Audit the Program, Not Just the Exercise
A core exercise should stay in a program because its purpose remains relevant to the client, not because the coach considers it a permanent staple. A useful audit examines the movement’s purpose, dose, progression, transfer, and fit with the rest of the program. Then it decides whether to keep, progress, regress, or replace it.
This is the gap core programming often misses. Coaches spend considerable time asking whether an exercise is performed correctly but less time asking whether it still belongs in the program at all.
A simple Five-Question Core Audit can change that:
- Purpose: What specific quality is this exercise intended to develop?
- Execution: Can the client perform it with the control needed to create that stimulus?
- Dose: Do the sets, repetitions, hold times, and recovery match the intended adaptation?
- Progression: Has the exercise meaningfully progressed during the last four to six weeks?
- Transfer: How does this exercise support the client’s larger training or life goals?
If those questions produce clear answers, the exercise is probably earning its place. If the answers become vague, the program may be running on habit.
There is an important tradeoff. Core training does not need to include every movement category in every workout, and novelty should not replace consistency. Clients need enough exposure to an exercise to learn it and progressively adapt. Constantly rotating exercises can make progression just as difficult to evaluate as never changing them.
The goal is more intention. A plank can remain in a program for months if it continues to serve the client. A sophisticated core exercise can disappear after two sessions if it does not. Neither decision says anything about the inherent quality of the exercise. It says something about the quality of the programming.
Related: Strength After 50: The Programming Adjustments That Actually Matter
FitHire — Find a Gym That Values Smart Programming
The best clubs and studios want coaches who program with intent. FitHire by Coach360 connects health, fitness, and wellness coaches with the organizations hiring now. Build your profile once and let the right opportunities find you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best core exercises for personal training clients?
There is no universal list of best core exercises. Selection should reflect the client’s goals, abilities, training history, and the demands already present elsewhere in the program. Planks, dead bugs, Pallof presses, side planks, and loaded carries provide coaches with options for challenging trunk control in different positions and directions.
How often should clients train their core?
Frequency depends on training volume, intensity, exercise selection, and the client’s larger program. Core musculature is also challenged during many compound exercises, carries, and athletic movements. Coaches should consider total weekly demand rather than treating direct core work as completely separate from the rest of the program.
How should coaches progress core exercises?
Progression can involve resistance, leverage, range of motion, duration, movement complexity, or changes in position. Increase the variable that best matches the training goal rather than automatically adding repetitions or longer holds. Allow several weeks of consistent exposure so the client’s response can be evaluated.
Do clients need direct core exercises if they already squat and deadlift?
Compound lifts can create substantial demands on the trunk, but that does not automatically make direct core training unnecessary. Direct exercises may allow a coach to emphasize qualities or directions that receive less attention elsewhere in the program. The decision should come from the client’s needs and total program rather than a rule that every client either does or does not need isolated core work.
About Erin Nitschke
Dr. Erin Nitschke, NSCA-CPT, NFPT-CPT, ACE Health Coach, ACE-CPT, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, Therapeutic Exercise Specialist, Pn1, FNMS, and DSWI Master Health Coach, is a seasoned college professor in health and human performance. She is a nationally recognized presenter, industry writer for IDEA, NFPT, Fitness Education Online, and Youate.com, and an active member of the ACE Scientific Advisory Panel. With extensive experience in health and exercise science, Erin specializes in holistic, evidence-based approaches to wellness. Her passion lies in empowering individuals to lead healthier, more vibrant lives through personalized coaching. Erin’s philosophy centers on education, accountability, and sustainable behavior change—guiding clients to achieve long-term success in nutrition, fitness, stress management, and overall well-being. To connect with Dr. Nitschke, email her at erinmd03@gmail.com or on Instagram: @nitschkeerin
