Whether your goals are to strengthen your abs to be “ripped”, or not, having “abs of steel” will benefit any athlete or any person. Having strong abdominal muscles along with a strong posterior chain will improve performance. Performance could mean in sport or just general physical well-being. Most of our abdominal work at BPS is performed with a slower tempo (232 or 323) since we want our abs under a lot of constant tension to stimulate growth and strength.
Below are 3 trunk & spine exercises that are a must for abs of steel.
- Stability – Side Hip Bridge (or Side Plank)
- We can really target the lateral abdominal muscle to help further sculpt your abs and stabilize your trunk and spine.
- First, assume the side hip bridge position. Either with knees bent and on the ground (for beginners) or legs straight and on the lateral edges of your feet.
- Place the elbow directly under your shoulder with your palm firmly face down on the floor.
- Maintain a “big” chest and keep your head and toes pointing forward
- Simply isometrically pause for a progressive amount of time
- HINT: close your eyes and visualize your abs contracting.
- Strength – Reverse Crunch
- This is an advanced exercise that will ensure “abs of steel”, if you can safely reach this level. We recommend increasing volume with the previously mentioned exercises before exploring the reverse crunch. However, this exercise may be progressed as well.
- Lay in a supine position with the top of your head about 4 inches from a sturdy fixed object like a support beam or heavy bench. You will use the bench or pole to grasp with your hands for support during the exercise.
- Next, bend your legs at the hips so the bottoms of your feet are facing the sky.
- Now, push the small of your back into the ground so your abs contract and move the bottoms of your feet directly straight up towards the sky without letting your legs drift toward your head.
- Again, this motion should be slow with a pause at the top and move slowly back down to the starting position.
- Progress this movement from going straight up to slightly away from the head and up. The farther you push your feet away from your head the more intense the contraction will be. Once you can push your feet almost directly away from your head so your feet are only 10-12 inches above the ground you may progress further. Now you may be ready to start by pushing your feet straight towards the sky then without returning to the start position lower your legs and feet until they are 10-12 inches from the ground and return to the position where your legs are reaching for the sky.
- Integrated Strength – Lateral Landmine Rotation
- With this exercise you will be able to train your abs to contract through the entire range of motion while the trunk and spine undergoes rotation.
- Here’s how: Place a standard Olympic bar into a “Landmine” or a crease so the bar doesn’t slide on the ground, yet the top end of the bar can move. Place the bar in your hands so it is in front of your hips (the barbell be coming from your left side in this position). Keep your left palm facing up and your right palm facing down as your grabbing the bar. From here, keep your arms straight as you rotate the bar up and your left. Once you slowly reach your end range of motion slowly return to the starting position.
- HINT: never release your abdominal contraction during the rotation, not even at the bottom starting position.
- Progress repetitions, sets, and resistance
**For full video demonstrations of these abdominal exercises plus many more, sign up for our BPSU online university. There you can listen to and watch coaching cues videos as well as have access to our entire database to build programs and get the best out of any athlete.
HERES THE LINK: http://www.bommaritoperformance.com/workshops/bps-university/