For Julianne Hough, having a strong core and lower body is key. The actor, singer, and Dancing With the Stars alum loves exercises that target these muscle groups, so she makes sure to incorporate them regularly into her workouts.
“I’m a big believer that everything stems from your core,” Hough tells SELF.
A strong lower body (including leg muscles like your hamstrings and quads, and your glute muscles) is also important, since those muscles are the foundation for so many movements in everyday life—and in dance. Strong legs, Hough says, allow her to dance with speed and power.
When it comes to building this strength, Hough relies on a lot of bodyweight exercises. She recently shared three of her favorites with SELF: plank to downward dog toe tap, kneeling obliques crunch, and fire hydrant.
The first exercise is a variation on the plank—one of the most classic, effective core moves—that combines core strengthening, mobility, and a little bit of cardio, too, thanks to its dynamic movement. As with any plank variation, you’ll also be working on your shoulder stability, which is something many people tend to neglect in their workouts but is important for injury prevention and safer lifting, as SELF reported previously.
The second exercise, which involves hip external rotation, engages your glutes and core. Thanks to this movement pattern—different from how you move in more traditional butt exercises like the squat or glute bridge—you’ll be working your smaller glute muscles, too, as SELF reported previously.
The third especially targets your obliques (the muscles on the sides of your abdomen), as well as your glutes, in a crunch-style move. Because it’s a single-leg move, you’ll also be working on building more balanced strength.
The best part, though? You can do all of these moves with just your bodyweight.
Hough typically does these exercises within a KINRGY Carve workout, a specific form of KINRGY (Hough’s dance-inspired fitness method) that focuses on strengthening through bodyweight yoga and Pilates moves, and also incorporates doses of cardio too. She recently partnered with FitOn, the free fitness app, to release workout videos that you can do at home.
Want to try these three exercises for yourself? We’ll tell you how in just a sec. First though, a reminder that form—not intensity—is what’s important. “It’s not about how hard it is,” says Hough, “it’s about how well you’re doing the move.”
Incorporate these moves into your strength and cardio routine like Hough, or try them out on their own for some targeted lower-body and core work. (Want some workout inspiration? Underneath each move, you’ll also find a full routine that incorporates that exercise.)