The obliques are the large, flat muscles on the sides of your abdomen, running diagonally from your lower ribs down toward your hips.

Basic location

  • The external obliques sit on the lateral and front parts of the abdomen, covering the sides of your waist over the rib cage.
  • The internal obliques lie just underneath the external obliques on the front‑side (anterolateral) abdominal wall.

How to “find” them on your body

  • Put your hands on your waist, just above your hip bones and below your ribs; that side area is where the obliques run.
  • When you twist your torso or do a side crunch, the tightening you feel along the side of your belly is the oblique muscles working.

What they do

  • Obliques help bend your trunk forward, bend to the side, and rotate your torso, making them key for core stability and everyday movements.
  • They also help increase abdominal pressure for actions like forceful exhalation, coughing, or bracing your core during lifting.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.