On the quest to get a six-pack, most people turn to traditional abs workouts like planks and crunches. But to really carve your core—and hit your obliques—you need to work it from all angles and prioritize weighted ab exercises.

Take wood chops, for example. The dynamic compound exercise throughly works the core, requiring loads of stability.

“A wood chop is a core rotational exercise meant to focus on your obliques and train core rotational strength, power, and mobility,” says Andrew Coates, C.P.T., host of the Lift Free and Diet Hard podcast. 

Despite primarily cooking your core (mainly via frontal and transverse planes of motion), it also recruits the delts, rotator cuffs, spinal erectors, quads, and glutes.

Related: Best Resistance Band Workouts: 30 Moves That Prove You Don’t Need a Full Gym

“It’s usually executed from a standing position with external resistance from a dumbbell, kettlebell, or cable machine, moving from either the upward diagonal hip-to-opposite shoulder trajectory or its countermovement, the downward diagonal shoulder-to-opposite hip trajectory,” adds Brian Kent, Nike trainer and owner of BKSTRENGTH.

One of the best parts about this powerhouse core move is its versatility. Aside from utilizing whatever equipment you have on-hand, you can perform it half-kneeling, tall kneeling, or standing.

“Some wood chops are taught with a static foot position and rotation only at your waist,” Coates adds. “Other variations feature pivoting feet, rotating hips and torso, and even a rotational crunching motion. Real lumberjacks swing an axe in both planes but are more likely to get full-body rotational power behind a swing. If you want to ‘isolate’ your obliques to grow them, focus on hip rotation and work up to heavy enough weight that you can get close to failure.”

Resistance Band Woodchopper

How to Do It

1. Attach a rope to a cable tower, and move the cable to the highest pulley position. Note: You can also do this with a resistance band (shown above).
2. Grab both handles of the rope, then kneel down onto one knee, your shoulders perpendicular to the stack.
3. With arms extended over the opposite shoulder, look straight ahead and pull the rope across your body finishing the movement at waist level.
4. Slowly bring the weight back to the start position and repeat movement.
5. Be sure to keep your core and abs tight at all times.
6. Try 3-4 sets of 8-10 controlled reps followed immediately by a single, lighter set of 20-25.

Medicine Ball Woodchopper

How to Do It

1. Hold a medicine ball with both hands and stand with feet staggered, left foot in front. 
2. Extend your arms to the outside of your left knee. 
3. Explosively swing your arms diagonally over your right shoulder as if you were reversing the path of a woodchop with an ax. 
4. Complete your reps on that side and then switch sides.

Low-to-High Cable Woodchopper

How to Do It

1. Stand with pulley on right, and hold the D-handle with both hands at right hip. 
2. Extend arms out and rotate torso left, driving arms up until the handle is at head level, then slowly lower for 1 rep. 
3. Complete reps on right side, then switch to left.

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