What's up, guys?
I'm trainer Amy Jo with ATHLEANXX for Women, and today I want to do a tutorial on those
washboard abs.
So I want to talk about – give you a little more tips and some knowledge behind how you
can increase the strength of your core through those exercises that we did in a previous
video.
But also explain to you how you can make that muscle-mind connection happen even more while
you're doing abdominal exercises.
So for the first exercise that we did was the pikes on the stability ball.
One of the main things with your abs is, you almost want to have a vacuum-like posture.
So it's pulling the abs in nice, and tight because you have layers of abs upon layers.
So it's making sure that everything is pulled in, and tucked in, nice and tight.
So you actually want to be almost in a plank position.
Before you ever begin any ab exercise.
So this one, here, was our pikes.
So we rolled out on the ball.
So right here, before I'm even starting that pushup, I'm definitely tucking my abs in,
and contracting them.
Even before I begin the exercise.
So now I begin my pushup, but I have my abs already vacuumed in tight.
Pulled toward my spine.
Then I'm pulling the knees in, I'm contracting them harder, kicking back out, then I'm popping
up into a pike, sucking them in even harder, and then back down.
I never lose that plank position.
So the plank position is when you're pulled in nice, and tight, your pelvis is rolled
so you're contracted.
Nothing is loose.
If someone was going to sock you in the stomach you have a nice, hard, concrete wall to absorb
it.
So that's the beginning of any ab exercise.
You have to have that before, really, you're going to start to feel an ab exercise to its
full capacity.
So moving onto the second one; it was our negatives.
This is important because these are a little bit slower.
These aren't just full on crunches.
So as you're coming back, once again, before you start the exercise you're finding yourself
in that tucked in plank position.
Negative, negative, negative, all the way down until you can't fight anymore.
Then we're coming back up.
So the negative is really the exercise on this.
You have to come back up to get to the negative again.
So it's pulling the abs in, though.
Nice and tight, once again.
Belly button toward the spine.
Negative, down, down, down, down, down.
Fight as hard as you can and then we're powering back up.
So the important piece in this one is not using your hip flexors.
So that's what happens even when you're doing crunches.
Our hip flexors kick in.
You're crunching, but you're using the hip flexors.
You're not actually using your abdominals.
So making sure that you round here is really important.
Okay, the next exercise that we had was this guy here.
On your back, you had the ball in one hand, and were up and contracting.
What's really important on this one is keeping your low back pushed into the pad.
So you almost want to be concave, not convex, which is back up.
Push your back down.
So it's up, pressing through, and exhaling.
We're on one side, so we're focused more on that left when we're pressing.
Then when we switch over to the right you're squeezing more of that right side as you contract
up.
Once again, you're already in that plank position.
That perfect hold in plank position before you even start the ab exercise.
Then the very last one was this guy here.
The twist.
So we're not twisting too much at the spine.
You're twisting more in the core, opening up here.
So let your shoulder go with it.
Tap, grab, throw, tap, grab.
If you need to, you start down here.
Feeling it nice and tight in the core.
Pulled in.
Tap, grab.
So it's pulling in concaved, trying to relax those hip flexors as much as you can because,
of course, they're going to get worked a little bit to keep your legs up.
So even when you're driving, a few other tips, even when you're driving think about how you're
driving.
How is your posture?
Are you contracting your abs?
When you're walking around, if you're at work, if you're in the mall, if you're doing groceries;
how are you standing?
How are you walking?
Our core is always working.
So if you're focused on that, thinking "I'm going to stand up taller", automatically your
core is working to keep your posture upright.
So making sure that the abdominals are working even throughout the day is another great way
to make sure that you're always strengthening your core.
People that sit slumped down, here, your core is completely relaxed.
It's like mush.
So focus on shoulders back helps you to stay – the only way this can happen is if your
core is nice, and strong, and tight.
So involving that throughout the day is another great way to just build upon the core.
The other one that is great for anytime is just the vacuum suck.
So essentially, if you're in the car you can be on all four knees and you're sucking in
– it's like that cat position – and then release.
So it's pulling in the belly button as tight as you can.
Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it, and then release.
So that gets the deeper, most intricate layers of the abdominal muscles and that can help
you build upon to be able to do all of the more challenging core exercises that we show
here on ATHLEANXX for Women.
So leave us a thumbs up below.
I hope that this tutorial gave you some more tips, some more helpful knowledge.
to understand a little bit more about how the abdominals work, how your core works,
and how to train it in a more effective, smarter way.
Comment below.
I'm Amy Jo.
We'll see you next time.