What You Need to Know for Strong External Oblique Muscles (and Back Pain Relief)

Maybe you’ve never heard of your external oblique muscles. However, if you’ve ever had low back pain, a potbelly, or difficulty bending to the side or twisting; you need to find out now!

Most people think there’s only one abdominal muscle. You know the one—the glamour muscle, the six-pack abs muscle, the rectus abdominis.

The truth is, we have four abdominal muscles and all four are just as important. In fact, if any of these abdominal muscles don’t work correctly, your core weakens and the Jenga stack that is your spine topples.

This leads to low back pain.

The good news is, it’s really easy to keep all four of your abdominal muscles healthy. Here’s what you need to know about your external oblique muscles and how to keep them strong.

You don’t have to wonder what you need to do to get rid of our pain. Download your free copy of The Secret to Immediate + Lasting Pain Relief and learn this simple pain-relieving activity.

Where Are the External Oblique Muscles?

The external oblique muscles begin on the external surfaces and bottom edges of your lower eight ribs. When you look at the picture from Kenhub.com, it’s the green part toward the outside of your rib cage.

According to Flash Anatomy Muscles Flash Cards, the external oblique muscles insert on the “linea alba by means of the broad abdominal aponeurosis from ribs to crest of pubis, inguinal ligament, and the anterior half of the iliac crest along the outer lip.”

Uh huh. Let’s take a moment to break that down.

The linea alba is the line that runs down the middle of your rectus abdominis. It splits your three-pack into a six-pack.

An aponeurosis is a fibrous tissue that takes the place of a tendon. It works similarly to a tendon, but they’re not the same thing.

You may remember that tendons attach muscles to bones. That’s what this aponeurosis does, connecting the external oblique to the crest of the pubis. However, it also connects the external oblique to the linea alba.

The external oblique also inserts on the inguinal ligament and the anterior half of the iliac crest. If you put your fingertips on the front of your pelvis and trace down about halfway, this is where the external oblique insertion starts. As your fingertips move toward your pubis, you are tracing your external oblique insertion.

But Here’s the Best Way to Figure Out Where the Heck This Muscle Is…

My Pilates instructor and guru, Tracy Maxfield, taught me to find the external oblique muscles this way:  To trace the external obliques, your hands start on the front of your rib cage. They slide down toward your pubis. That zone is X-rated. Thus, you get “X-ternal obliques.”

What Do They Do?

Because you have external oblique muscles on each side of your body, the external obliques can move both unilaterally and bilaterally. This means they can either work separately from each other or together.

When just one of the external obliques is firing, the working muscle will rotate the trunk to the opposite side (with a little help from the opposite side’s internal obliques). It will also bend to the side in the direction of the working muscle.

But, when both external oblique muscles work, the torso bends forward. Plus, these muscles help with forced exhalation.

The external obliques also provide structural support. These important muscles support the spine, especially the low back. Also, the external obliques help hold the other abdominal muscles in their places.

Whew! That’s a lot of work.

But What If They Don’t Work…

If your external obliques don’t work correctly, you can be faced with a number of issues. The most common issue is low back pain.

Without the muscle tone and stability of the external obliques, your personal contents shift. This places strain on your low back.

When You External Oblique Muscles are Weak…

Imagine for a moment that your ribs and hips form a cylinder to contain your internal organs. Your transverse abdominis, or transversus, is the first muscle trying to keep your organs in that cylinder. However, it’s a very thin layer. It needs additional help.

This is where the external obliques come into play. They are the additional force to help keep your organs inside the cylinder.

Now, let’s say your external obliques are weak or injured. They will not be supportive. With your spine closing the space in your back and your ribs and hips coming close to closing the space in the sides, there is only one area of weakness—your front.

When you have weak abdominals, your organs tend to spill forward out of your cylinder. This creates a pull on your low back. It’s kind of crazy to think this is the cause of your low back pain but, for many people, it is.

When Your External Obliques Are Tight…

In some cases, though, people might have one tight external oblique muscle. This can cause either the rib cage or hips to be slightly rotated.

When this happens, it’s not always noticeable or painful, but it does take its toll on your spine over time. Your spine wants to have equal pull from your muscles. If one muscle pulls harder than the other or seems to always be pulling, it will cause issues.

I highly recommend you consult your doctor if you have back pain. Your doctor can order the appropriate imaging, therapy, and medication to correctly treat your issue.

That being said, sometimes you might notice small, correctable issues. Maybe you can rotate or bend really well to one side and not the other. You can probably do exercises to correct this imbalance. Again, though, let me remind you that if you feel pain, you need to call your doctor.

How to Keep Your External Obliques Healthy

In order to increase strength and recover from injury in your external obliques, you need to correctly perform rotation and side flexion exercises. As you rotate one direction, you will stretch the external oblique that you are rotating toward.

Remember, your right external oblique rotates you to the left. Therefore, as you rotate to the left, it will be your left external oblique stretching.

The 5 Best Rotation Exercises for Your External Oblique Muscles

1. Spinal rotation

This is one of my very favorite exercises. It helps lift your mood when you’re in a funk, and it helps relieve back pain immediately. Conquering a bad attitude and back pain in five minutes? Yes, please!

The Set-up

1. Begin on your side with your shoulder directly under you and your arm straight ahead. If you’ve got your bottom shoulder set correctly, you should be able to reach your top arm out and have your fingertips match up. If your bottom arm looks like it’s longer, that means your shoulder is a little too forward so scoot it back and try again.
2. Bend your knees so they’re in line with your hips and ankles. You want to have two perfect right angles.
3. Make sure your head and waist are lifted away from the mat. You should feel enough space between your waist and the mat so a mouse could squeeze through. This ensures your spine is completely straight.
4. Hug your belly toward your spine. This ensures your spine is supported.

The Exercise

1. Inhale through your nose and exhale through pursed lips.
2. Lightly engage your abdominals as you inhale. Lift your top arm up toward the ceiling, moving only from the shoulder. Look at your hand as it raises.
3. Exhale and rotate your spine by letting your rib cage open toward the ceiling. Keep looking at your hand as your spine rotates. Try to keep your knees close together. Allow your head to lower to the mat.
4. Hold here for a couple of breaths. As you breathe, tight muscles should relax. You might feel a pop or two in your spine.
5. To come out, find your obliques to help rotate you back to center as you inhale. Feel your rib cage rotate. Your top arm should be sticking straight up toward the ceiling.
6. Exhale and lower your top hand to meet the bottom hand. If you have come back to neutral position, your fingertips will align.
7. You can do as many of these as you want, but I normally just do 2 or 3. Also, feel free to hold and breathe so that any tight muscles you might have can loosen up.
8. Switch sides and repeat steps 1-11.

Pro Tip: You’re working on your external obliques, so you want to be really focused on what you’re doing and how these muscles are moving. Feel the obliques work to rotate you open. Notice how they stretch as you hold and breathe. Then, feel them work again to bring you back to center.

2. Spine twist

Whenever I do Spine twist, I think about an old barbershop pole. Remember how that red stripe would spiral up to the top of the pole? That’s what you want to feel like whenever you do this Pilates exercise.

1. Begin sitting on your bottom with your legs about a fist’s distance apart. Press the backs of your heels into the mat.
2. As you feel your bottom press down into the surface beneath you, feel an energetic lift through the top of your head.
3. Gently hug your abdominals toward the center of your body.
4. With broad collarbones, reach your arms out to your sides. Your arms should be in a straight line with each other or slightly forward of your shoulder joint. Do not let the arms drift behind you. As a modification, you can hold a pole, bend your elbows, or place your hands over the center of your chest.
5. Inhale through your nose and hold here at center.
6. Exhale through pursed lips and twist 3 times to the right. Personally, I think deep, deeper, deepest as I twist. As you exhale, keep hugging your low belly toward the center of your body. Keep lifting through your spine so that, as you twist, you spiral upward like a barbershop pole.
7. Inhale and rotate back to center.
8. Exhale through pursed lips and twist 3 times to the left.
9. Do 5-10 sets, alternating which direction you’re twisting.

Pro Tip: Pay attention to make sure that your hips are not shifting and your legs are not sliding. Your lower body should be completely still and stable as you rotate. If you notice that your lower body is moving, come back to center, give your hips a break for a moment, and try again. Finding the connection for the SITs bones (those bones you feel when you sit on your bottom) and the back of the heels is key to good form. So, before you try again, press your SITs bones and the backs of your heels into the mat to help you lift through your spine.

3. Simple seated twist pose

I absolutely love an easy-yet-effective exercise, and this is one of them. The Simple seated twist pose is another one of those opportunities to stretch one side of your external obliques while challenging the other side to work.

1. Inhale and exhale through your nose.
2. Begin sitting with your legs straight in front of you. Feel your SITs bones (those bones in your bottom that press into the floor when you’re sitting) press into the floor. If you can’t feel them, feel free to rock from side to side and use your hands to scoot your tush out of the way.
3. Bend both legs to the right side of your body, tucking your left toes onto your right ankle.
4. Inhale here and sit up as tall as you can.
5. Hug your belly button toward your spine and exhale to rotate your body to the left.
6. Place the back of your right hand on your left thigh, and reach your left hand behind you (like you’re trying to touch the back of your right hip).
7. Turn your head to look over your right shoulder.
8. As you hold here and breathe, think about inhaling into your center to lengthen your spine and softening as you exhale to move into a deeper twist. (Lift and soften into the twist.)
9. Hold here for 5 or more breaths.
10. To unwind, reverse sequence. Bring your head to neutral, followed by your spine.
11. Reach your legs in front of you. Give them a wobble if you need to.
12. Repeat steps 1-11 to do the other side.

4. Saw

The Saw Pilates exercise is a little bit tricky. It involves some choreography, coordination, and self-awareness. Even though that sounds a little more demanding and high-maintenance than our other exercises so far, this Pilates classic doesn’t disappoint. It’s one of my very favorite ways to get the external obliques working and rotate my spine.

1. Begin seated with your legs as wide as your mat. Take a moment to make sure you can feel your SITs bones pressing into the mat beneath you. (Your SITs bones are those bones that press into the ground when you sit on your bottom.)
2. Press the backs of your heels into the mat.
3. Sit up nice and tall. Feel yourself lift through the top of your head.
4. Gently engage your abdominals like the muscles are hugging your internal organs.
5. With broad collarbones, reach your arms out. Feel your fingertips reaching away from each other. You should be able to see your arms in your peripheral vision.
6. Inhale through your nose and rotate toward your right leg. Feel yourself lifting up and away from your hips.
7. Exhale through pursed lips and roll down one vertebra at a time so that your torso is parallel to your thigh. As you do this, your pinkie finger of your left hand reaches for the pinkie toe of the right foot, and the right arm reaches behind you with the thumb down.
8. Inhale and reverse sequence to stack it back up. Stay facing your right leg.
9. Exhale and rotate back to center.
10. Repeat steps 6-9 for the left side.
11. Do 5 on each side as long as your hips don’t shift from side to side when you rotate. If you start to lose your form, even out your sides and stop for today.

5. Marichyasana C (The Marichi Twist)

Yes, it’s got a long name that can already make you feel intimidated before you even begin, but this yoga pose is a gentle exercise.

1. Inhale and exhale through your nose throughout the exercise.
2. Begin sitting on the floor with your legs together and straight in front of you.
3. Bend your right knee so the sole of your right foot is on the mat.
4. Inhale and reach your left arm toward the ceiling. Really reach like you’re trying to touch the ceiling.
5. Lightly hug your abdominals toward the center of your body.
6. Exhale and rotate toward your right knee. Bend your left elbow and anchor the back of your left elbow against the outside of your right knee.
7. Let your right arm reach slightly behind you to help encourage your spinal rotation. Make sure you are up on your fingertips to help you stay lifted through the exercise.
8. Hold here for 5-8 breaths.
9. To unwind, release the connection between your elbow and knee to rotate back to center. Slide your leg back to your starting position.
10. Complete steps 3-9 for the other side.

The 5 Best Side Flexion Exercises for Your External Oblique Muscles

Bending to the side can be a little tricky. On the one hand, it keeps your spine healthy and strengthens your external oblique muscles. On the other hand, if you’re not paying attention or if you try to bend too far to the side, you can hurt your back even more.

That’s why you have to pay close attention to what your body is doing when you practice these five side flexion exercises.

1. Mermaid prep

Mermaid prep is the perfect side bending exercise for anyone. Do it from the ground. Do it from a chair. You could even do it standing and balancing on one leg like a flamingo—it doesn’t matter. Whatever you do, you’re guaranteed a nice, gentle stretch.

1. Take a seat. Press your bottom into the floor and feel yourself lift out of your hips.
2. Inhale through your nose, and exhale through pursed lips.
3. Hug your belly button to your spine.
4. Inhale through your nose as you raise your right arm. Make sure to keep your shoulder down away from your ear.
5. As you exhale through pursed lips, press your bottom into the ground and feel yourself lift. Make a “C” as you lift up and over while you bend to the left side.
6. Inhale to come up to center.
7. Exhale to lower your arm.
8. Inhale and lift the left arm, so you can go to the other side.
9. Exhale and find that up-and-over feeling as you bend to the right.
10. Inhale to come up to center.
11. Exhale to lower your arm.
12. Complete 3-5 reps. (Make sure you do both sides the same number of times.)

Pro Tip: Always make sure you have that feeling of lifting up and over something. You’re cruisin’ for a bruisin’ if you let yourself crumple and melt toward the floor during this exercise.

2. Side angle pose

The trick with side bending poses is you want to feel like you’re lifting away. I know, that sounds like the exact opposite of what you’re supposed to do. But, when you resist that urge to melt, you are less likely to hurt yourself. Plus, you’re strengthening and stretching your body where it needs it the most.

1. Inhale and exhale through your nose throughout this pose.
2. Stand at the front of your mat, and step your right foot back about 4 feet. Align your right heel or arch with your left heel. Bend your left knee, and make sure it tracks over your second and third toes. Stack your rib cage directly above your pelvis. Reach your arms to the side and gaze over your left fingers. You should be in Warrior 2 pose (if that’s familiar for you).
3. Lift your rib cage away from your hips.
4. Hinge your torso to the left. As you move, keep your chest open and don’t allow it to rotate forward. Allow your fingertips to touch down either in front of or behind your ankle on the floor or a block. If this side stretch is too intense right now, bring your left forearm high on your left thigh. Make sure you do not rest here. Actively reach your ribs away from your hips.
5. Make sure your head is correctly aligned with your spine. Sometimes the head can fall forward.
6. With broad collarbones, bring your straight right arm by your head. Your right ear should be beside the inside of your right arm. Make sure your palm is facing down.
7. Press into the outside edge of your right foot and feel the line of energy from your right foot through your right fingertips.
8. Hold for 5-8 breaths.
9. To come out, let the right arm come by your side to help lift the torso to an upright position.
10. Switch sides.

3. Triangle pose

Oh, Triangle pose… In the picture, it looks like my goal is to touch my fingertips down to the ground while bending at my waist. Truthfully, though, my goal is to bend straight to the side without letting my upper body collapse and round forward.

When you do Triangle pose, make sure to let your external obliques drive the bus. They should be completely in charge of how far you bend to the side.

How to Do Triangle Pose

1. Inhale and exhale through your nose throughout this pose.
2. Stand at the front of your mat, and step your right foot back about 4 feet. Align your right heel or arch with your left heel. Stack your rib cage directly above your pelvis. Reach your arms to the side and gaze over your left fingers. You should be in a straight-legged version of Warrior 2 pose (if that’s familiar for you).
3. Lift your rib cage away from your hips.
4. Scissor your inner thighs so it feels like the muscles are trying to pull towards and past each other.
5. Stick your right hip out to the wall behind you as you reach your left arm forward to the wall in front of you. Feel your arms reach away from each other as your left hand moves toward the ground.
6. As you move, keep your chest open and don’t allow it to rotate forward. Allow your fingertips to touch down either on the floor or a block in front of or behind your calf. If this side stretch is too intense, you can press the back of your left hand into your leg. Make sure you do not rest here. Actively reach the ribs away from your leg.
7. Make sure your head is correctly aligned with your spine. Sometimes the head can fall forward.
8. Look forward or up at your right hand.
9. Make sure both legs are straight.
10. Press the outside edge of the right foot into the mat.
11. Reach your arms apart.
12. Hold for 5-8 breaths.
13. To come out, let the right arm come by your side to help lift the torso to an upright position.
14. Switch sides.

4. Reverse warrior pose

Reverse warrior pose is a great way to stretch your external oblique muscles one side at a time. Plus, you get a bonus stretch down the outside of your rib cage (through a muscle called your serratus anterior) as you reach your arm overhead.

1. Inhale and exhale through your nose throughout this pose.
2. Stand at the front of your mat, and step your right foot back about 4 feet. Align your right heel or arch with your left heel. Bend your left knee, and make sure it tracks over your second and third toes. Stack your rib cage directly above your pelvis. Reach your arms to the side and gaze over your left fingers. You should be in Warrior 2 pose (if that’s familiar for you).
3. Lift your rib cage away from your hips.
4. Let your right hand lower to your right thigh.
5. Reach through your left hand as the arm raises, helping you reach up and over to the right side.
6. Look at the inside of your arm or the palm of your hand.
7. Hold and breathe for 5-8 breaths. Resist the temptation to let this pose crumple. Remember to keep lifting! As you breathe and soften, keep the distance between your rib cage and pelvis. This will help prevent injury.
8. To switch sides, bring your arms back to Warrior 2. Straighten your legs, rotate your left foot forward, and rotate your right foot out. Make sure you have correct alignment for your Warrior 2 on the right side before you complete steps 3-7 for the right side.
9. To finish, lower your arms to Warrior 2 and transition to your next pose.

5. Side bend prep

Personally, I think Side bend prep is a ton of fun. However, if you have shoulder pain or difficulty getting up off the floor, you may want to table this exercise and save it for another day.

1. Inhale through your nose, and exhale through pursed lips throughout this exercise
2. Have a seat on your bottom.
3. Bend your right leg, and place your right foot on the floor. Tuck your left leg under you so your left heel comes close to your bottom. Your left knee and your right foot should be in about the same line.
4. Make sure you can still feel both SITs bones on the ground.
5. Place your left hand on the ground in line with your left knee. Roll your left shoulder blade onto your back. Push the floor away.
6. Lengthen your spine and engage your abdominals.
7. Reach your right arm out, palm up. Let it briefly rest on the top of your right knee.
8. Inhale to lift your arm and hips. Press into your left hand, left knee, and right foot to help you lift. Reach your arm straight by your ear.
9. Exhale and really try to create a curve at your waist.
10. Inhale and reach your arm toward the ceiling.
11. Exhale and lower yourself back to your starting position.
12. Do 3-5 reps.
13. Switch sides.

Bonus Exercises to Strengthen Your External Obliques

When both external obliques fire, your chest comes toward your pelvis. Because of this, a case can be made that Roll up, Ab prep, The Hundred, Spine stretch forward, Navasana, and other flexion exercises also strengthen your external obliques. In these scenarios, the external obliques would be secondary movers, though.

And remember that in order to have happy, healthy muscles; you need to stretch a muscle after you strengthen it. This means if you do any of these bonus exercises, you also need to do some stretching. My favorite ways to stretch both sides of the external obliques at the same time is with Cobra prep pose or Sphinx pose.

Want to Learn More?

If you’re searching for even more external oblique exercises, check out this post on my sister site, Spinal Rejuvenation. This post will also help you figure out whether tight external obliques are really the cause of your back pain.

Then, if you’re searching for even more exercises, check out this post on the internal obliques. The internal obliques work similarly to the external oblique muscles.

The Concise Book of Muscles by Chris Jarmey is a really great, easy-to-understand book about the major muscles in your body. However, for more precise medical information, I recommend checking out Flash Anatomy Muscles Flash Cards. (I earn a small commission if you order through these links.)

Also, Kenhub.com is a great resource to learn anatomy. Here is the link to their information about the anterior abdominal muscles (such as the external oblique muscles).

You don’t have to wonder what you need to do to get rid of our pain. Download your free copy of The Secret to Immediate + Lasting Pain Relief and learn this simple pain-relieving activity.

What are your favorite exercises for your external oblique muscles? Let us know in the comments below.