Ab strength or Ab stability.
Are you training them differently and should you be?
I am going to spell it all out for you, today.
[Music Intro]
What's up guys?
Jeff Cavaliere AthleanX.com.
You know we are going to look this week backwards to last week when I did that super-plank or
more so the progression of the planks.
How we move from a very basic, easier version of the plank to a more progressive and difficult
version.
Now one of the questions that came in a lot last week was "Is that an abstract exercise?"
It is a good point.
I like to think that there is 2 main focuses of your abs: there is Ab stability and there
is Ab strength.
Now is a plank an example of Ab stability?
Yes.
Is it an example of Ab strength?
Not really.
I know a lot of guys who train the h--ll out of their abs with planks, that can't do a
real strength test and succeed well when they come to do and train and test their abs.
That is because they are not doing enough of it.
What is the main difference?
Well, to me it is about the ability to overcome inertia.
Right?
Think about it in terms of bench press.
If I could come down here at a dead-stop position, and overcome a certain amount of strength
here-it is like a pause or frozen rep- right from here and I can push up 225 out of a pause.
That is a lot of strength because you don't have any momentum going into it.
You basically, like I said, have to overcome that inertia and overcome gravity to do that.
Well, if took a bicep curl and I held it right here, that is not necessarily a good test
of my strength.
My strength would be what can I do to get it outside or overcome that inertia without
having to lean back so much.
This I could probably hold for a long time.
That is not a good measure of what my strength is here for my chin-ups.
So for abs, your planks are more that, they are more how can you hold that mid-range position
before failing, not like this.
So a leg curl, a long-leg raise is going to test your strength because again I have to
overcome the inertia of my legs hanging down here, get them up and past the low sticking
p0int-which is right at the bottom, and overcome gravity all the way to the top.
So the ability to come up and overcome that and control it all the way down, and up -and
overcome that-is a lot more of an ab strength exercise than say, the plank.
So now my whole thing is do we want to just always work the strength, or do we want to
work our stability?
Work both.
Guys, at AThlean-X we always combine the 2 because one feeds off of the other; strength
feeds off of stability.
The more stable you are, the more you can push off of a stable base even if you are
doing bench pressing.
The more strength you have, the better your stability is going to be.
So again, they kind of feed off of each other.
You don't always have to do it off ab exercises.
You should be doing it with every single thing that you do.
So again at AThlean-X, I don't care if you are doing a Bent-Over Row, there's variations
and tweaks that we give you, to make sure that you are training both your stability
at the core, in every single exercise and also the strength.
Now let me show you one last thing, sort of a bonus time here.
Let's say you want to get back into the planks again.
Let's say that yOu don't want to try the Super-plank that we did last week.
So let me give you another variation.
Take this tubing, wrap it around something stable.
Come out here, walk it out.
OK?
Just the outsides of your legs.
Now I already have some resistance in here.
We can do plank walks out here-walk it out against that resistance.
OK?
Walk it back slow.
Walk out, all the way out.
Go 10 out and 10 back.
Next one, in through here, OK?
OUt, punch, OUt punch.
Obviously we are at a 3-point stance here.
Once I get this arm off the ground, there are only 3 points of contact-I have those
2 feet, the core, and my arm off the ground.
OK?
Out and out.
Work those.
Lastly take them out here in T-stance.
Take it out, open it out to the top, don't let it snap back here.
Keep it up, and down.
Punch it up, open it, come back down.
Out, open it, come back down.
Run through that, called a 3-exercise circuit
I feel like I just worked my strength a lot, but I will tell you it was
more stability.
Pair them up together, you have got a complete workout: strength and stability.
Guys if you haven't already, head to AthleanX.com.
I don't know what you are waiting for if you haven't joined already the Team Athlean, but
now is the time.
We are approaching summer-we want to look good.
Yes it is not summer in all parts of the world, but it is getting warmer.
Look good guys and be proud of the effort you put in-the hard work, doing stuff like
that for a reason.
Now here is one other thing that I am going to do.
I talked about new stuff, right?
We are going to try something new this week.
I want to see what your top comment is.
Whatever the top comment is, I will answer it next week.
Now think about this.
I know that sometimes the top comments can be-how can I say this-a little strange.
Use it or lose it guys.
Make it a good one, and I will answer it next week.
If it is a stupid one, I will give it a stupid answer.
if it is a good, one, I promise I will give you a good answer.
It should be fun.
What is the top comment going to be?
Vote it up all week and I promise, at the beginning of next week, I will answer that
as well as give you another great video.
Guys, I will see you back here in 7 days.
Get those thumbs up on whatever you want to ask me.