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If ever you’ve done a Pilates or barre class, you may well be familiar with exercise sliders (also known as ‘gliders’ or core sliders). If not, you’ve probably been wondering what on earth those small discs everyone seems to be using are.

Well, as the name suggests, the aim of exercise sliders is to remove any kind of friction to, basically, make you slide. This means, unless you want to go head over heels, your muscles are forced to get to work to stabilise you, so they’re essentially a sure-fire way to help you get strong. Hence why every man and his dog is on the slider train. So, here’s everything you need to know about them, including our edit of the best slider exercises, demo’d in real time.

Head of Fitness at Lanserhof at The Arts Club Jason Reynolds tells WH UK: ‘Sliders are versatile circular discs that will provide a non-friction movement on regular surfaces. They can be used for at-home workouts on surfaces such as your carpet, or on a wooden floor in a gym.’

Top tip: folded up towels or tea towels can also double up as exercise sliders on smooth surfaces like a kitchen floor, if you’d rather try the idea out before investing in some.

Where do we begin? The main pro, according to Reynolds, is that ‘due to the lack of friction, there’s constant tension in your muscles throughout the movement, whether you’re in the concentric of eccentric (up or down) part’, which is ‘key to building muscle mass’. That’s certainly not all, though.

Reynolds advises that slider exercises can be done by anyone, although those with any ‘potential contradictions’, such as pregnancy, or an existing or recurring injury, should seek individual advice from a professional.

Naturally, form tips for slider exercises will depend very much on each individual move, but there are a few general words of advice from Reynolds. Take note.

Considering the versatility of exercise sliders, Reynolds wagers that slider exercises could, if they’re what floats your boat, make up the base of every workout you do. ‘They can target the majority of muscle groups, and can also be used for rehabilitation,’ he explains. ‘So slider workouts could be all you do.’

That said, there are other forms of exercise that offer some benefits that slider workouts may not. For example, weightlifting puts your bones under more stress than bodyweight strength training may do, which in turn means you’ll produce more osteoblasts (the stuff that makes your bones stronger and more dense).

Make your own slider workout by choosing six of the following exercises (Reynolds recommends three leg slider exercises and three ab slider exercises). Perform each exercise for 30 secs, rest for 20 secs, then move on to the next exercise. Repeat the whole thing three times through.