There’s a lot of nonsense written around abdominal training. You can tell that just by looking around any gym, or doing a quick google search of ‘abdominal training’. Unfortunately lots of personal trainers are no better, spouting the same nonsense without any real understanding.
The abdominals, or more importantly the core, are responsible for strength, stability, force generation, balance and rotation.
What this means is that if you perform exercises that challenge these abilities, you’ll be training the core without realising it. There’s a couple of benefits to this…
It makes your workout more efficient - the whole thing is done more quickly because you reduce the number of exercises you’ll be performing
You’ll provide a new challenge to your abdominals - they’ll lack the movement efficiency because they wouldn’t have trained these movements much, so it’ll be a real challenge
In this article I’m going to share a few of my favourite exercises that unconventionally train the abdominals. There won’t be a crunch in sight. They won’t be easy, but they’ll be effective - I can promise you that much!
Single limb exercises…
These are fantastic because they include multiple stabilising elements to them. Your core is forced to engage in order to keep your spine in a strong position. This engagement also helps to prevent your torso from rotating. Finally, there’s a balance element. Single limb training means you’ve got to balance your body on a smaller base of support, which forces the core to deeply engage.
Here’s a couple of single limb exercises that I like to use in my training. They have the added advantage of training the core too.
Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat
Standing Landmine Press
Overhead exercises
These are exercises when the weight is pushed or pulled overhead. This has the effect of making the abdominals switch on to keep the spine strong and stable as it supports a weight at height. The spine will have a tendency to flick into lordosis (arched lower back, with hips pushed forward) when heavy weights go overhead. A strong core helps to prevent this.
Switching the abs on with overhead exercises doesn’t just help the technique, it reduces the chance of injury, making these exercises significantly safer.
American Kettlebell Swing
Push Press
Squatting patterns
A lot of people don’t realise that squatting actually engages the abdominal muscles. What happens when you squat (especially front squat) is that your body has to generate spinal stiffness using the core muscles in order to maintain great technique.
When you pick up a heavy load, your body has to maintain its balance in three ways - front to back, side to side and up and down. All of this needs core engagement, making squatting patterns a great way of exercising your core without you realising it.
Front Squats
Pistol Squats
Unconventional Abdominal Training
All of these exercises are ways to challenge your core. They may not even be obvious at first - for example in the pistol squat, a lot of people fail because they lack the core strength to support their body weight.
If you’re squatting well over bodyweight with a barbell, but failing on a pistol it’s almost certainly because of a core issue. That may be your core isn’t strong enough to balance you through the movement, or it’s not keeping your spine in correct alignment.
By adding these exercises into your training regime you’ll be giving your core new challenges to deal with. This will improve both your athleticism and your overall fitness, busting you out of stagnant movement patterns you’ve grown too used to over time.
If you need any help building that bullet proof core, get in touch with the best personal training team in east London, based at AdMac Fitness…
The AdMac Fitness personal training studio is in Bow, E3. We have personal trainers with a range of specialities, so we can offer the ideal personal trainer to help you achieve your goals. For more information on who we are, what we do and how we can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, contact us on… 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!