After you polish off your second side of fries and the guilt sets in, you finally resolve to go the gym to work on your waist line.
If it’s been a while since you’ve hit the gym and you’re thinking about resorting to those old school moves of crunches and sit ups, stop now.
Instead, use the five easy moves below to work on your abs without your spine exploding into two.
1. Heel touch- Lie on the floor, bend your knees to 90 degrees and bring them towards your chest until they’re above your hips. Breathe out as hard as can while slowly lowering one heel to the floor. Alternate heels while keeping the low back in neutral during the entire exercise.
Do this for one to two minutes.
2. Leg lowering- Lie on the floor and raise both feet towards the ceiling while keeping the knees straight. Slowly lower left heel towards the floor, without ever touching it, while breathing all the air out of your lungs. Breathe in on the way back up and repeat this for six-eight reps on each side.
3. Dead bug– Lie on the floor, bend the knees to 90 degrees and bring them towards the chest until their above your hips. Then extend arms towards the ceiling. Take a deep breath in and lower the right arm behind you and extend the left leg in front of you while breathing out. Return to starting position and alternating sides. Do six-eight reps on both sides.
4. Rollbacks- Get into the end of a sit up position with heels and butt on the ground. With fingers behind the ears, take your chin to the chest and slowly lower yourself towards the ground, one vertebrae at a time. Once your low back touches the ground sit up again and repeat this sequence for one-two minutes.
5. Knee to elbow- Stand tall with arms by your side, elbows bent at 90 degrees and palms facing each other. Raise right knee towards ceiling and meet it with your left elbow, then left knee, right elbow. Keep alternating sides until you do 20 reps on both sides.
Wrapping up
You can do this as a circuit or insert one or more of these exercises into your current routine.
Keeping your core training simple and effective and not crunching like a mad man will help strengthen the muscles of the core and keep your low back a happy camper.
I love training the core and if you need help please send me an email at
shanemcleantraining@gmail.com
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