Sunday, March 9, 2014

Daily RAW: Ab Workout Upgrade

Greetings Rats Alley Warriors,

Last week I revisited an old ab routine I did in my HS days, covering how it used to take me about 15 minutes to do.

Well, here is my suggested upgrade to the workout plan.

The original called for 7 exercises, done 3*15 for each and building up to 3*25 over the course of 12 weeks.

With the success I've seen from the 20/10 work/rest workouts, I feel it is worth looking at seriously as the format to follow with this old type of ab workout.

Here is a new look at an old program: kind of like taking a classic ride and hot rodding it up a bit.
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Ab Crushers 2.0

20 sec work, 10 sec rest x 2 rounds for each exercise

First 4 weeks:
Ab Crunches
Leg Raises
Mountain Climbers
Toe Touches
Cross Body Mountain Climbers
Total Body Extensions

2nd 4 weeks: add the following
T-Twists
Kneeling Superman's

3rd 4 Weeks: add the following
Side Planks Left
Side Planks Right

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Ab Crunches are the basic crunches where you lie down, crunching up and taking your shoulders off the floor.
Leg Raises are where you lie down, hands under your rear, taking your legs straight up to 90 degrees and back down.
Mountain Climbers are taken from a pushup stance, taking your knees up towards your chest, one at a time.
Toe Touches are where you lie down, legs straight up, and take your hands up towards your feet, trying to reach your toes if you can.
Cross Body MC's are Mountain Climbers where you take your knee towards your opposite elbow in the mountain climber motions.
Total Body Extensions are a full body squat to full extension at the top. Raise your arms up as you reach the top, drive your arms back as you squat back down. Don't jump on the extension, rather, extend up on the balls of your feet as your fully extend up after the squat.

In the 2nd month, add these two:
T-Twists: From a pushup stance, take one arm up towards the ceiling then back down again, alternating arms for the duration.
Kneeling Superman's: kneel down on all fours, taking your left arm up at the same time as your right leg. Alternate sides for the duration.

In the 3rd month, add these two:
Side Planks Left side: From a pushup stance, do a T-Twist to your left side (left arm up towards the ceiling) and hold it at the top.
Side Planks Right side: don't he right side to finish it out.

This routine goes from a 6 minute circuit to 8, then 10. 3-5 times a week would be plenty for most people to add a routine like this to their plans.

Get a Gymboss timer to whip through a 20/10 work/rest pattern, or even find the Gymboss timer app for your phone or tablet. The app is free and you can set timers for any work/rest pattern you desire.

If 20 seconds seems like too much, try 15 seconds work and 15 seconds rest for a good 1:1 work/rest ratio.

All in all, jot or print this out for a good little Ab and core workout if you are desiring to add one to your routine.

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Lift. Dominate. Repeat.
Rats Alley Barbell Club
Coach Rick Karboviak

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