Planks are an effective movement to incorporate into your core sessions, but you don't need planks to strengthen your abdominal muscles. There are plenty of other body weight exercises that are great for strengthening the abdominals and obliques.

This 10-minute abdominal and oblique workout was created by YouTube fitness trainer FitByMik. Instead, it's full of crunches, sit-ups, twists, and other exercises that target the core muscles. [The only equipment needed is a yoga mat to protect the floor and make movement on hard surfaces more comfortable.

The workout consists of 10 core exercises with minimal rest in the allotted 10 minutes; you do 50 seconds and rest 10 seconds, but you can add more rest if needed - when I tried this session, some movements were difficult to do for 50 seconds straight. [If possible, try to do them through for 50 seconds. Because that way you maximize the amount of time your torso muscles are tense. [Raise the torso off the floor to work the upper abdominal muscles, raise the legs to work the lower abdominal muscles, and then do the twisting exercises so that the oblique abdominal muscles are also well worked during the session.

Movements such as bicycle crunches, which lift the upper body and legs while twisting, are effective for working almost all major core muscles, and will involve two or three rounds of alternating bicycle crunches on each side during the workout.

This session is also a good way to work the deep trunk muscles that are central to functional strength and general posture. Adding these workouts to your regular routine will benefit your other strength sessions as well.

I have tried this and several other 10-minute core workouts over the last couple of months, and I rate this session as one of the hardest, partly due to the lack of planks. The result is that you stay on your back the whole time and quickly perform many movements that hit the same muscles, which is great for strengthening the muscles, but it's definitely pretty tough.

If you prefer standing for core strength, try this 12-minute standing abdominal workout. You'll need weights, but it's a great way to work your core without doing sit-ups or crunches.

Ten minutes of training is effective in getting your heart rate up and strengthening the muscles you are targeting in that session.

To get the most from such a short workout, you need to make sure you know what you are doing for 10 minutes and push hard during the session. When time is limited, it is important to stay focused and push to finish. [Because with the right moves, you can quickly exhaust the upper and lower abdominal muscles. If you try this session, you will finish without any doubt that you have developed core strength.