Are obliques exercises necessary?
 

If one does tons of crunches, squats, deadlifts, etc. then is it necessary to do oblique exercises? Or will they form naturally from all the compound movements?

I would say it's good to mix it up and throw those exercises in there. It seems to me that oblique exercises also hit some of the lower back muscles that I find hard to target.



Doing crunches might get the obliques working, depending on your form, but I don't see deadlifts or squats having much of an impact. Maybe you could modify your crunches to something more effective that gets the obliques working also, like side-to-side with a medicine ball with feet & back elevated.