Noah Lyles’ Abs Workout for a Rock-Solid Core

Whether you’re looking for the fastest mile ever, itching to grill your friends on the pickup or pickleball court, or cooking up a sprint workout on the track like an Olympian, you need a strong abs.

“If you have a straight stick and you throw the end of it on the ground, it will bounce back. but if there’s a bend in the stick, it can bounce in any direction,” says Team USA’s Noah Lyles, favorite to win 100-meter gold at the Paris Olympics. “It’s the same thing when you run. If you don’t have a tight midline—a solid, well-structured core—when you make contact with the ground, you’re not using all the power you’re producing.”

Few athletes know more about building strength and speed than Lyles. To build the explosive stride that has taken him to eight track and field world championships and Olympic medals — including double gold in the 100 and 200 meters at the 2023 world champs — the 27-year-old sprinter spends four days a week in the weight room. , doing workouts that focus on building strength: Exercises like cleans, hex bar deadlifts, front squats, back squats, and power throws.

To make sure he converts his power into speed with every stride, Lyles also sweats through a core workout almost every session, building that energy-saving elastic stiffness in his lower back that allows him to unleash the power he builds through of his bar work and attending sessions.

As part of his collaboration with KELSIUS energy drinks, Lyles spoke up Men’s magazine to share one of the key routines he uses to help build gold medal abs. There are also some easier alternatives to each exercise for non-Olympians who need to cut back.

Try this workout at the end of your next strength workout or as a stand-alone workout. For each movement in this six-exercise routine, rest 1 to 2 minutes between sets.

1. GHD Machine Hollow Hold

Because it is effective

You may have done hollow grips on the floor before, but Lyles’ version adds an extra challenge: Instead of the ground, this move is performed on the glute developer bench. A staple in CrossFit gyms, this machine can be used to develop glutes and legs, as the name suggests, but it’s also popular for intense full-range lunges and other core movements.

How to do it

1. Step into the GHD with your feet in the foot pad area, your legs straight and your bottom supported by the large GHD pad to get started.
2. Sit up straight so that your body forms a 90-degree angle. Extend your arms straight up (you can also gently hold the back of your head).
3. Keeping a flat back, slowly lean back to open your hip angle. Lean back as far as you can—as close to horizontal as possible—keep your body stable, supporting your core.
4. Once you find the depth you can hold, hold the hollow position for 30 seconds.
5. Perform 4 x 30 second pauses.

Easiest variation: Hollow Body Hold

The closer your torso is to vertical, the easier the movement will be. And if you don’t have access to a GHD machine, you can do hollow holds on the floor.

How to do it

1. Lie on your back with your arms and legs fully extended, holding everything tight, to start.
2. Press your lower back into the ground and lift your legs and back slightly off the floor.
3. If you are a beginner, keep this position. If you’re more advanced, rock back and forth—keeping the shape of a banana.

2. Toes to Bar

Because it is effective

Toes to bar does more than build a six pack: Studies have shown this type of movement is one of the most effective for strengthening the obliques, even when done without twisting. Lyles does a full toe variation.

How to do it

1. Hang from a bar with straight arms slightly wider than shoulder width. Pull your shoulder blades back and down to start.
2. Keeping your feet together and your legs straight, engage your core to engage your hips, lifting your legs until your toes touch the bar.
3. Control your descent back to the starting position. It’s 1 rep.
4. Perform 4 x 7-10 repetitions.

Easier Variation: Hanging Knee Raises

1. Hang from a bar with straight arms slightly wider than shoulder width. Pull your shoulder blades back and down to start.
2. Bend your knees and bring your thighs until they are parallel to the floor.
3. As you go forward, move into a straight leg raise, where your legs extend straight out from the hips.

3. V-Up

Because it is effective

For someone as strong as Lyles, this advanced sit-up might look easy. To keep it provocative, he says, he’s uncompromising on form: “It has to have that V shape in the middle, and you have to touch your toes,” he says, to get the full benefit.

How to do it

1. Lie on your back with your legs straight and your arms up.
2. Without bending your elbows or knees, contract your abdominal muscles, fold your body by lifting your feet off the floor, and stretch your arms toward your toes. Keep your back straight. As you rise, your body will form a ‘V’ shape and then close like a Venus flytrap.
3. Pause and then return to the starting position. Do four sets of 20 repetitions.

Easiest Variation: Deconstructed V-Up

If you’re jumping and throwing your torso up and down, split the movement into two: Perform the upper body V-up, doing situps with a straight back. Then do the lower body, lifting your legs off the ground while your upper body is flat on the ground.

4. Star Plank

Because it is effective

This move, Lyles says, is probably the most important in his core routine because it engages the core and glutes at the same time. Running requires front and back muscles to work together in balance, and this trains just that.

To help fire up your glutes in this move, try getting into side plank a different way: Instead of lifting your hips off the floor laterally, do it from a position where your knees are slightly bent and your feet it’s a little closer. in your waist than it will be in full side plank position. As you lift your body up, squeeze your butt to push your hips forward and take the bend out of your knees. As you do this, your feet will slide a bit on the ground in place.

How to do it

1. Get into a classic side plank position: Lie on your left side with your forearm on the floor just below your left shoulder, legs and feet together. Make a slight bend in your knees.
2. Support yourself on your elbow and squeeze your glutes to straighten your legs as you get into a side forearm plank position so that your body forms a straight line from your ear to your ankles. To make this more difficult, perform the movement with your left arm straight out from under you, balancing on your hand instead of your forearm.
3. Straighten your upper arm so that your torso forms a “T” shape.
4. Without letting this rigid body line relax and without bending your knee, lift your top (right) leg up away from your bottom leg. Your arms and legs will form an “X” or star shape.
5. Hold this position for 15 seconds, then repeat on the other side. Perform 4 x 15 second pauses.

Easiest Variation: Side Plank

Too hard? Skip the star shape. Stop at step 3 and perform the four 15 second holds on each side.

5. Forearm plank

Because it is effective

Don’t just hang out on a board, says Lyles. Stretch your core by pulling your belly button toward your spine. Feel your lats in your back firing. Squeeze your buttocks. And grip the floor with your fingers. This, he says, will turn this “easy” move into a challenge.

How to do it

1. Get into a classic pushup position, but on your forearms: Support yourself so that your elbows are directly under your shoulders, palms down. Form a straight line from head to heels.
2. Stretch your core, glutes, legs and lats and hold that rigid body line for a minute. Repeat for four total holds of one minute each.

Easier variation: Plank from the knees

You can also perform planks on your knees. Instead of a rigid line from head to heels, maintain a rigid body line from head to knees.

6. Glute Kickback Machine

Note: This picture shows the cable butt kick, which is an alternative if you don’t have access to a butt kicking machine.

Because it is effective

“A lot of people think this machine is all about how far you can drop the weight using your hamstrings, but they’re missing the point,” says Lyles. “Your core should be more engaged than your hamstrings.”

Lyles says to focus on doing this movement with purpose. “Go at a slower pace and push the weight up and down with the same intention and speed. You should feel every muscle working,” he says.

How to do it

1. Stand on the machine with your forearms resting on the pad, your hands on the handles and one foot behind you resting on the plate. You should bend forward at the hips. This is the starting position.
2. Brace your core and feel it engage as you push the weight back using your glutes, not your hamstrings. Push back slowly.
3. Return to the start, maintaining the same pace. Do four rounds of 6 reps on each side.