The Right Way To Train Your Core
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There’s a lot of misinformation out there on how to best train your abs. Take a look at any late-night infomercials for a prime example; you’ll see no shortage of ab machines that guarantee ripped, 12-pack results — and most often with nonfunctional movements demonstrated by models who have clearly been doing more than crunching or twisting on a machine.
Related: The 10 Moves You Need to Get a Rock-Solid Core
The smartest way to get a balanced, strong, stable core is simple: you need to train the muscles to resist forces when you’re extending your arms or twisting, work the muscles in their full range of motion, and rely on functional, compound exercises.
Related: Add These Four Moves to Your Routine, Look Good Naked
Incorporate these four tips into your training, and you’ve got it.
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Strengthen with Arms Overhead
If your abdominals are strong and functioning properly, you should be able to resist a force against them when your arms are raised overhead — say, during an exercise like an ab-wheel rollout — and maintain a straight spine.
Practice the rollout to gain better core stability: Begin kneeling, your hands on either side of the wheel, and start with a slightly rounded spine (think of using “bad” posture here). Push hips toward the floor as arms begin to roll forward with the wheel. If you feel it a lot of tension in the low back as you roll out, shorten your range of motion and stop shy of full extension.
Related: 30 Workouts that Take 10 Minutes (or Less)
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Strengthen While You Rotate
Doing a move that requires your core muscles to resist a force as you rotate your spine will help you get stronger, faster. What that gives you: abs and obliques that can help yield a more powerful golf swing, slap shot, or tennis serve.
Related: 10 Myths About Six-Pack Abs
Do Split Stance Cable Lifts to hone your “anti-rotation” strength. Use a low-pulley bar attachment, and kneel, keeping the outside leg forward. Hold either end of the bar and pull it across your body, then using the bottom hand, push the bar directly forward. You’ll feel this in the lower abs and obliques when done correctly, and it does require much weight to be effective. Watch it here.
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Use Full Range of Motion
One problem with a sit-up is that, when you’re lying down, your hips and pelvis are fixed into position; do sit-ups often enough, and you create a pattern of dysfunction — you start using your hip flexors more than your abs, and you put unwanted stress on your spine.
A better solution that encourages more range of motion? The Hanging Leg Raise. Hang from a pull-up bar and slowly lift your knees toward your chest. (Going too fast will make you engage your hip flexors, and defeats the purpose). Don’t cut your range halfway, either. Round the spine — it’s ok to do here — and try to get the bottom of your sneakers to face the wall in front of you, with your knees touching your chest.
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Do Old-School Movements
One of the most effective ways to work your core — if not the most effective — is with traditional, multi-muscle group exercises. We’re talking squats, deadlifts, overhead presses and pull ups. Maintaining a rigid spine as you bend to lift a bar, squat under its load, push it over your head, or pull yourself over it takes an enormous amount of core strength. Train these movements often with perfect form (gradually adding weight to keep your muscles challenged), and you’ll have powerful, functional abs that look good too.
By Lee Boyce
