A Full Body Slider Workout for Your Abs, Glutes, & More!

If you've ever used sliding discs, you know they add an entirely new dimension to working out. But what you may not know is that they can be used for a full-body workout that targets your abs, glutes, and more!

The beauty of the slider workout is that it can be done anywhere, at any time, and you don't even need sliders to do a slider workout. More on that in a minute.

In this article, you'll find a full slider workout with 6 amazing exercises to engage your entire body and add some variety to your workouts. But first, let's cover some of the basics of slider exercises.

Slider Workout 101

If this is your first time hearing about slider workouts, don't worry, they're not as complicated as they sound.

Slider workouts are done by placing your hands or feet on a small surface that reduces friction with the ground and then using it to glide across the ground. Because there’s little friction between the slider and the floor, you can move your body in several ways that you couldn't before.

Sliders are perfect for at-home workouts because they don't require any equipment other than a small surface to place your hands or feet on. And if you don't have sliders, no problem! You can use paper plates.

This resistance makes the exercise more challenging and can help you target different muscle groups.

What Muscles Do Sliders Work?

Using sliders will engage the abs more than a regular bodyweight crunch, making them ideal for core workouts. Slider exercises engage your upper and lower rectus abdominis, as well as your obliques, giving you a total ab workout.

But slider exercises can work far more than your abdominal muscles, they can also work your:

Quadriceps
Hamstrings
Glutes
Obliques
Upper back
Shoulders
Arms

In other words, with the right plan in place, slider exercises can engage your entire body! And that's exactly what you'll find in this article's workout plan.

Why Are Slider Workouts Effective?

Slider workouts are effective because they improve multiple areas of physical fitness at once. This includes muscular endurance, aerobic capacity, anaerobic power, and coordination. Slider exercises are also effective because of their versatility, allowing you to target different areas of the body.

You can use them to focus on specific muscle groups and work on your power, endurance, or stability, depending on the exercise; similar to how CrossFit or HIIT workouts can improve both your endurance and strength.

What Do You Need to Do Slider Exercises?

To perform slider exercises you only need two things, a floor with a smooth surface and something to slide on. Workout sliders, also called gliding discs, are specifically designed for this style of exercise and are commonly used. They are small, round discs that have a smooth bottom to slide easily.

If you're using sliders, make sure the bottom of the slider is clean and dry so it doesn't damage your floor.

While sliders are commonly used and sold for slider workouts, you can use any item that reduces friction, including many household items.

What Can You Use Instead of Sliders for Exercise?

If you don't have sliders, don't worry, there are plenty of household items you can use instead. Here are some common gliding disc alternatives:

Dish Rags
Furniture Sliders
Paper Plates
Towels
Socks
Paper Towels

Ideally, you'll do these movements on a hardwood floor, so any sort of flat object with a soft bottom to it, like felt, paper, or cloth will work. Just be aware that different surfaces will offer different levels of friction, which will affect the difficulty of the exercise.

One of the best things about sliders for exercise is you can do them at home without any fancy equipment. Just grab some paper towels and clear some space on your hardwood floors.

6 Slider Exercises Built For A Full Body Workout

This workout consists of 3 supersets, 2 circuits per superset with a total of 4 rounds. Breaking that down just a bit - a superset means you'll do 2 exercises back-to-back.

The goal is to move quickly through the exercises with little or no rest between each exercise.

Start with a quick warm-up to get your heart rate up and muscles loose. Then, complete the following exercises in order.

Now let’s get those muscles burning!

Superset 1: Slider Split Squats and Plank Pike Ups

Slider Split Squats: 10 Reps Per Leg

From a standing position, take a long step forwards as if performing a lunge. The heel of your back foot should be raised with your slider of choice placed directly underneath.
Keeping your torso straight, lower slowly until your back knee almost touches the floor, then pause for a few seconds.
Push back up.
Complete all your reps on one leg, then switch to the other. Keep your knees in line with your toes, especially on the front leg, and don't let the front knee stray past your foot as you lower.

Muscles Worked: Quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, calves, core

Beginner Variation: Hold onto a table or support with the hand opposite the leg that is moving (this would be to one of your sides) or put a table or object in front of you and use both hands to help with your balance.

Benefits: Slider split squats are a great way to increase your hip power, while also strengthening the glutes and hamstrings. Although similar to a reverse lunge, they aren't as focused on the quadriceps - this helps you develop stronger legs without sacrificing anything else!

Plank Pike Ups: 10 Reps

Start in a high plank position with your hands directly under your shoulders and sliders under the balls of your feet.
Do not allow your lower back to arch. Keep your feet, pelvis, and shoulders in one long line.
Exhale and pull your abs into your spine. Use your abs to fold your body in half, pulling the sliders forward toward your hands as your pelvis moves up in the air.
Lower yourself back into a high plank position.
Repeat.

Muscles Worked: Chest, shoulders, glutes, hamstrings

Beginner Variation: Instead of doing the entire plank push-up, focus on mastering the plank first, then the push-up afterward. Once you have both down, move onto the full plank pike up.

Benefits: If you want to build shoulder strength and improve core stability this one's for you.

Superset 2: Lateral Lunges and Rag Drag Plank Walks

Lateral Lunges: 10 Reps Per Leg

Start by standing with your right foot on the slider, shoulder-width apart.
Engage your glutes and push your hips back as you slide your right foot to the right while bending your left leg slightly. Don’t allow your left knee to go past your toes.
Extend your right leg as far as you can, balancing most of your weight on your left leg (bent).
Pull your right foot back toward you as you straighten your left leg to return to a standing starting position.
Repeat on the opposite side.

Muscles Worked: Quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, inner thighs

Beginner Variation: Notice the position of your hands in front of your body. If you want to make this more beginner-friendly, put a chair or any sort of steady object in front of you that you can grab onto with your hands. Try your best to keep your weight centered if you do this, leaning too much on the chair or object can cause your sliding foot to kick out, and potentially fall easier.

Benefits: This exercise, recommended by the American Council on Exercise, works your lower body. This is going to help improve your balance and agility, making you more flexible at the same time. If you're dealing with lower back pain, this is easier on your back than something like the slider split squats.

Rag Drag Plank Walks: 20 Seconds

Start in a high plank position with both feet on sliders. The high plank position is when your hands are directly under your shoulders and your body forms a straight line from your heels to the crown of your head - and the only parts of your body touching the floor are your hands and feet.
"Walk" forward using only your hands, one in front of the other, and drag your feet on the sliders behind you.
After several paces, reverse the walk, moving backward to return to starting position.
Repeat.

Muscles Worked: Core, chest, glutes, quadriceps

Beginner Variation: You can modify this exercise by putting your sliders/paper towels underneath your knees. Because the high plank position can be challenging on its own, if you find this exercise too difficult with the sliders under your knees, you may want to remove the sliders.

Instead, focus on building your strength before you try the sliders. Here are two ways you can do that:

Stand upright, then bend over at the waist while keeping your knees slightly bent
Place both of your palms just in front of your feet, trying to keep your palms about shoulder-width apart.
Advance your hands forward in an alternating pattern (e.g. left hand then right hand) until you're fully extended in a high plank position.
Walk it back to a standing position.
Repeat.

For an even more beginner-friendly approach to this variation, you can start on your knees instead of standing, still moving to a high plank position or a modified plank when you’re fully extended, where your knees engage the floor instead of your feet.

Benefits: You'll feel this in your core and lower body immediately, but this is also a great exercise for stretching out the muscles in your leg.

Superset 3: Leg Circles and Slider Push-Ups

Leg Circles: 5 Reps Per Side

Start in a half squat with your feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent, and hips slightly hinged, as if you were just starting to lower into a squat.
You should already feel your glutes and hamstrings engaged.
With your right toes on a slider, slide your right foot forward Keeping your left knee bent, send your right leg into a wide arc out to the right side and then back, bringing it full circle to meet the left foot.
Now push the right foot back and send it into a reverse arc, bringing the right foot back to meet the left foot.

Repeat, then switch the slider and repeat on the other side.

Muscles Worked: Core, lower back, glutes, hamstrings, inner thighs

Beginner Variation: Grab a chair or any object that will help you stabilize on one foot to make this more beginner-friendly.

Benefits: This exercise will improve your balance and coordination.

Slider Push-Ups: 5 Reps Per Side

Start in a push-up position with a slider under one hand.
Slide your hands apart from one another, aiming for a distance a little wider than shoulder width.
Perform a push-up.
Return to the start position by sliding your hands back together.

Muscles Worked: Chest, biceps, triceps, core, shoulders

Beginner Variation: To make slider push-ups a bit easier, perform this exercise with your knees on the floor - like the gif above.

Benefits: With the addition of sliders, the biggest difference compared to a standard push-up is that you're engaging your core and lower body, which means this exercise is a full-body exercise.

Did you complete four rounds of each superset? Fantastic and congratulations! It's time for one of the most important parts of exercise, cooling down.

Stretch and Cool Down

It's time to lower your heart rate and blood pressure after that intense slider workout. Don't skip this part of the workout, it can reduce the amount of lactate in your blood and make you feel less tired, says a study published in the Journal of Sport Rehabilitation.

We've covered the individual benefits of each exercise, but there are five general benefits of all sliders that you'll find encouraging, which should motivate you to stick with this program.

5 Benefits of Exercise Sliders

1. Engage Your Whole Body

With a comprehensive workout plan, you can engage every muscle in your body with sliders. By working your abs, arms, and legs all in the same workout, you'll strengthen all of your major muscle groups. Slider workouts also get your heart rate up and burn calories. In other words, slider workouts offer an excellent way to improve your fitness levels. So if you're looking for a workout that will help you tone your body and improve your fitness, slider workouts are definitely worth considering.

2. Increased Flexibility

Here's another benefit of using exercise sliders in your workout routine: they can improve your flexibility. That's because sliding forces you to move through a greater range of motion than traditional exercises, which lengthens and stretches your muscles and joints over time.

As a result, you'll not only improve your range of motion, you'll reduce your risk of injuries in the future.

3. Improved Balance

If you're looking for an effective way to improve your balance and coordination, you should consider sliders or simple alternatives like paper towels.

With sliders, you need to engage your entire core to maintain balance. The core engagement will strengthen the muscles that are responsible for your balance and coordination.

Additionally, the reduced friction of the sliders will challenge your balance, forcing you to control your movement. Over time, this will lead to increased muscle strength and improved coordination.

4. Variety to Working Out

When it comes to working out, variety is key. You don't want to do the same exercises day in and day out, or you'll quickly become bored and unmotivated. In fact, a study published in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology found that people who felt that their workouts were varied had more motivation.

Slider exercises add some variety to your workout routine. With so many different exercises to choose from, you can target different muscle groups and keep your workouts interesting.

Plus, you can mix and match different exercises to create a custom workout that's perfect for your fitness level and goals, or access any number of variations for each exercise to make it easier or more challenging.

5. Can Be Done Anywhere; No Equipment Needed

The best thing about slider workouts is that they can be done anywhere, without equipment (other than your slider). All you need is a flat surface to slide on and you're good to go.

Whether you're at home, at the gym, or traveling, you can easily fit in a quick slider workout. Convenience is one of the benefits of sliders that can’t be overlooked.

Slider Workouts, Toning Your Entire Body From Anywhere

Sliders provide a new and challenging way to work out your entire body. They improve flexibility, balance, and coordination, all while providing an intense workout. Be prepared to break a sweat – slider workouts are no joke! Have you tried them yourself? What was your experience like?