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When it comes to core training, we often zoom straight in on the abs without thinking about how the rest of the body fits into the picture. But your core isn’t just your abs — it’s a pressure system that connects your ribs, pelvis, and deep stabilisers. How well it functions depends on the muscles around it working together.

That’s where this series starts.

This first phase of the System Strong Series focuses on strengthening and reconnecting your adductors and obliques — two muscle groups that are often overlooked but play a huge role in core coordination and pelvic stability. Together, they form a cross body sling that links your inner thighs to the opposite side of your core and lats, creating a foundation for full body strength and movement control.

When this system works well, you can stabilise efficiently through movement, generate force through your core, and transfer that strength into everything from lifting and running to simple daily movement.

This workout is designed to rebuild that connection — helping your adductors, obliques, and ribs work together to stabilise the body as one integrated unit. You’ll move through breath based activation, mobility and integration work, and foundational strength.

Why the Adductor–Oblique Connection Matters

Your adductors (inner thighs) play a key role in pelvic stability and pressure management through their connection to the pelvic floor and deep core. When they’re working well, they help ground the pelvis, balance tension side to side, and create a stable base for both movement and breath.

Your obliques connect the ribs to the pelvis — helping you rotate, exhale, and manage pressure through the trunk. They’re also what keep your ribs aligned over your pelvis, a position that allows your diaphragm and pelvic floor to work together effectively.

Together, these muscles form a cross body sling — a diagonal line of support that links one inner thigh to the opposite side of your core and lat.

This sling helps you:

• Stabilise efficiently as you walk, run, twist, or lift
• Transfer force from your lower to upper body
• Maintain a stacked, balanced rib–pelvis position during movement

When this system is weak or uncoordinated, you’ll often feel it through compensation elsewhere.
That might look like:

• Rib flare or anterior pelvic tilt
• Hip or lower-back tightness
• Difficulty maintaining trunk alignment under load
• A sense of “core work” without true stability or connection

Rebuilding this sling isn’t about just isolating the adductors or oblique exercises — it’s about teaching your system to share load and manage pressure again. When the adductors and obliques work in sync, your entire kinetic chain becomes more efficient.

The Workout

This session is built around three progressive phases — activation + breath, mobility + integration, and strength. Guiding you from awareness and coordination into load and control. Each phase reinforces the next so you can stabilise dynamically. The goal is to create connection first, then build strength through movement.

Activation + Breath

Introduction:
This phase reconnects your inner thighs, obliques, and lats, teaching them to share load through breath and gentle tension. The goal is to establish system tension rather than local muscle activation.

90/90 Trunk Rotation with Iso Adductors

Why we’re using it:
This exercise integrates the inner thighs and obliques through rotation. By pressing gently into a block between your knees, your adductors stabilise the pelvis while your ribs rotate around it — creating the foundation for controlled movement and balanced pressure.

Benefits:

• Improves rib-pelvis alignment and rotational control
• Activates adductors and obliques in coordination
• Reinforces diaphragmatic breathing with pelvic stability

90/90 Hamstring Bridge with Band Diagonal Pullover

Why we’re using it:
This move connects the adductors, obliques, and lats across the midline. The diagonal pullover loads the sling system — one inner thigh linking to the opposite side of your trunk — while the bridge position stabilises your pelvis through hamstrings and core.

Benefits:

• Builds cross body connection and tension transfer
• Strengthens the adductor–oblique–lat sling
• Reinforces breath driven stability with load

Mobility + Integration

Introduction:
This block turns activation into motion. You’ll move through the frontal and rotational planes, building hip mobility, rib control, and adductor strength that carries into upright movement.

Side Lying Adductor Glides

Why we’re using it:
This exercise trains active mobility — lengthening and contracting the adductors through controlled movement. It improves hip mobility while maintaining trunk and pelvic stability, helping your inner thighs support motion instead of restrict it.

Benefits:

• Improves adductor length and control
• Enhances pelvic stability through dynamic range
• Prepares the hips for frontal plane strength work

Tall Kneeling Halo

Why we’re using it:
With your pelvis anchored with a gentle isometric adduction, the halo trains your obliques and ribs to control rotation. It challenges your core to stabilise as the arms move around the head. It’s a great way to link shoulder mobility, rib positioning, and trunk control.

Benefits:

• Builds rotational stability through the ribs and trunk
• Integrates breath and postural control
• Strengthens obliques in a functional, upright position while maintaining a gentle isometric adductor contraction.

Lateral Lunge with Band Adduction

Why we’re using it:
This integrates mobility and strength. The adductors lengthen as you slide out laterally, then contract to pull you back to centre against band resistance. It connects the lower body to the core, adding load at the front or one side also helps reinforce the adductor–oblique line through a full range of motion.

Benefits:

• Builds adductor strength through both lengthening and shortening
• Trains frontal-plane control and balance
• Reinforces pelvic stability and cross body coordination

Strength

Introduction:
Now you’re applying that connection under load. This phase builds system strength, teaching your adductors, obliques, and lats to stabilise through full body movement. The focus is on control, not maximal weight — every lift is an opportunity to reinforce cross body tension and pressure management.

90/90 Alternating Chest Press with Iso Adductors

Why we’re using it:
This exercise challenges your ability to stabilise rotation through the core as one arm presses and the other returns. The iso adductor squeeze anchors the pelvis, while the alternating press engages the obliques and lats to control rib movement.

Benefits:

• Builds cross body stability under load
• Trains the adductor–oblique–lat sling dynamically
• Reinforces rib and pelvic alignment under tension

Pallof Press with Adductor Squeeze

Why we’re using it:
This upright movement strengthens the adductors and obliques in the frontal plane — teaching your body to resist rotation while maintaining alignment. It’s a key system exercise for stabilising through movement and improving overall trunk control.

Benefits:

• Builds frontal-plane strength and rotational control
• Reinforces adductor engagement in an upright position
• Trains efficient pressure management during load

Half Kneeling Cable Lift

Why we’re using it:
The lift pattern trains the cross body sling system under load. The front leg’s adductors stabilise the pelvis while the opposite oblique and lat generate upward, diagonal force and creates strength through integration vs isolation.

Benefits:

• Develops diagonal sling strength (adductors, obliques, lats)
• Builds rotational stability and control
• Improves coordination between lower and upper body

Adductor Side Plank off Block

Why we’re using it:
This exercise finishes the session by strengthening the entire lateral chain — adductors, obliques, and shoulder stabilisers. It reinforces pelvic control and rib alignment through isometric tension, closing the loop on the sling system you’ve built throughout the session. This variation is also accessible to all levels and a great entry point to the full copenhagen side plank.

Benefits:

• Strengthens adductors and obliques in an integrated line
• Improves lateral stability and endurance
• Reinforces system tension without compensatory bracing

Why This Matters

Training this is about teaching your body to move as one connected unit. When your adductors and obliques work together, you create the foundation for how your entire system manages pressure and transfers force. This connection supports every other movement pattern — from your glutes firing efficiently in a squat, to your ribs staying stacked during a press, to the smooth rhythm of running and rotation.

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