Heel Taps (aka Heel Touches) Torch Your Obliques and Require Zero Equipment

When you think of ab exercises, chances are crunches—whether traditional or bicycle crunches—come to mind. However, it’s important to work all parts of your core not only for strength but also stability, so consider this a friendly reminder that your obliques need some attention, too. One move worth adding to your core workout lineup: oblique heel taps (aka heel touches), which works its namesake muscles and beyond.

Keep reading to discover the ins and outs of heel touches—including how to do them properly and integrate them into your workout routine, according to Peloton instructor Rad Lopez.

What Are Heel Touches?

Heel touches are a bodyweight exercise that help strengthen and stabilize your core. This move involves laying on your back with your knees bent, then tapping your alternate heels by swaying in a side-to-side motion.

Are Heel Touches and Oblique Taps the Same Thing?

This ab exercise goes by a few names—among them heel touches, alternate heel touches, oblique taps, and oblique heel taps. In the Peloton App, instructors refer to this move as oblique heel taps.

Note: Not to confuse you any further, but oblique heel taps and heel taps (aka heel raises or heel lifts) aren’t one and the same. The latter is a classic Pilates move that entails laying on your back, bringing your legs into tabletop position, and slowly lowering one heel to the mat at a time.

The Benefits of Doing Heel Touches

Above all, heel touches are a core exercise. When you strengthen your core, you can anticipate a wide range of benefits. Per a 2023 review in the journal Behavioral Sciences, benefits of core training include:

“A stronger core is going to lead to safer, more efficient, more controlled movements,” Rad explains. Strengthening your core can also improve your posture whether standing or seated, which is a welcome perk to avoid pain (and help reverse the all-too-common modern condition of tech neck).

Moreover, the side-to-side movements of heel touches can help improve spinal flexibility and strength.

Since they primarily work on your obliques (among other abdominal muscles), they also offer an opportunity to make your core workout more well-rounded. Your external oblique muscles are responsible for the likes of:

Last but not least, since heel touches are a bodyweight exercise, they don’t require any equipment and are thus highly accessible. All you need is a flat surface (ideally a mat) and commitment.

What Muscles Do Heel Touches Work?

“Heel touches are helpful in targeting the obliques,” says Rad, but they’re not the only muscles that get activated with this move. “They are an excellent way to strengthen the sides of our abdomen, [including] those hard-to-reach intercostal muscles,” which consist of three sets of superimposed muscles located between the ribs.

Aside from being one of the more effective ways to target our obliques, heel touches will also engage your rectus abdominis (top layer of your ab muscles) and the transverse abdominis (aka deep core).

How to Correctly Do Heel Touches

Rad cues oblique heel taps as follows:

Heel Touches: Variations and Modifications

No matter if you need to pare things back or dial up the intensity, you can always modify heel touches as you see fit.

“If you’re feeling pain in the neck, try lowering your shoulders down to the ground,” Rad advises. (Personally, when my neck feels a bit worse for wear, I’ll cradle the back of my head with one hand and switch off as I alternate sides.) Of course, you can always stick to a lower rep and set count and gradually work your way up.

For those who prefer to level up their oblique heel taps, modify them by:

P.S. Should you want to *tap* out of oblique heel taps entirely but still target its namesake muscle group, alternatives include:

Mistakes to Avoid When Doing Heel Touches

There are a few key mistakes you’ll want to avoid when doing oblique heel taps, not only to maximize your workout but also prevent injury. These include:

How to Add Heel Touches to Your Core Routine

Heel touches are worth adding to your core routine to give some love, attention, and a burn to your oft-forgotten obliques. For a well-rounded core workout, “Pairing this move with [others] that will target the upper and lower abdominals would be great. I love adding these alongside toe touches (upper abs) and leg raises (lower abs) for a full-frontal core workout,” says Rad.

“Also, don’t forget that the core is built up of a lot more muscles than the abs,” he adds. “Building a routine with an array of exercises that fully work the entirety of our core is key,” Rad continues. “Planks and Super Humans are great to add in to make sure we hit the posterior chain of our core.” Going beyond our “show” abs alone will help prevent lower back pain, he concludes, all the while enhancing the integrity of your workout, the health of your spine, and then some.