There's no way in hell we're getting this video done man, she's ridiculous.
What's up guys, Jeff Cavaliere, Athleanx.com. Today I'm going to show you the eight worst
AB exercises ever, as in I don't want to do these anymore. But don't worry,
I'm not going to leave you hanging, I'm going to give you the alternatives I want you to do
instead. But because we're going to cover those mistakes--welcome, Jesse.
Oh, I got to do the dumb stuff again? Of course. And you haven't really concentrated
on either what I've said, or Jesse said to this point, because we've been staring here.
This is Daisy, my new Labrador retriever puppy. And guess what? Even she knows these AB exercises
suck. That being said, I want to make sure you don't make the same mistakes that Jessie is,
so let's start breaking down one by one. And we start right off with one of the most
popular ab exercises out there that I've been a very vocal supporter of and that's the basic
plank. And my reasoning is just that it's too damn basic. If you can hold the plank for more
than one minute, then you need to move on to something a lot more challenging because there's
no benefit to be had here, because it is too easy. There's a lot of things we can do that take this
position to the next level where it is capable of actually doing something beneficial for you.
Try an RKC Plank for example. What you do here is you involve more muscles in the plant to make it
more difficult and rewarding. You initiate with the glute and quad co-contraction tightening
your legs as hard as you possibly can, making the core become engaged to a level you've never felt
before. And to increase the difficulty even more, you keep those elbows out of your body to increase
the impact it has on your core. But you want to go even further than that and you want to involve
some weights, you've got some options here, too. And the first is something called the Three Point
Plank Row by placing just one arm on the bench and the other one in the air with a dumbbell,
you've decreased the overall base of support. You don't have four limbs on the ground anymore,
you've just got that three. Notice that my hips never change, they stay locked in position without
losing the stability that I'm looking for. Then finally we have the Twisting Barbell Plank,
which takes this to another dimension. In other words, not just challenging you
into anti-extension, but your ability to control and prevent rotation. Remember,
guys, it's not always about the motion that you create when you're challenging your abs,
it's about the motion that you could prevent when we take it to that next level.
Nothing says I'm stuck in the 80s more with my ab exercise routine,
then this exercise number two, and it's the Dumbbell Side Bend. It's just not a good option
if you're trying to train your obliques. And let's not even talk about the fact that people will do
these either with two dumbbells at one time, in which they turn themselves into a human seesaw
or they're actually doing them for spot reduction of their love handles. In neither case will that
actually happen. Because my problem here is you're asking for something that your
body doesn't want to give you, and that is an excessive amount of lateral trunk flexion.
Your lumbar spine is not meant or designed to do this, especially when you combine it with
the fact that you've got a heavy weight or at least a moderately heavy dumbbell in your hands.
The fact is there's a better alternative and it doesn't require any equipment at all. And it's
a simple Side Plank Lift. You can see that when I lift myself up the side that I'm actually training
is the underside, the bottom side there that's looking for that lateral pillar strength.
And when I lower myself back down, what does it look like I'm doing?
If you turn your head sideways, it actually looks like a side bend right down on the ground.
But because we're doing this in this way, guys, I have much more control of that frontal plane as it
was originally intended. The fact is, guys, it's not always the motion that's the problem it's how
you're performing it and more importantly, how you're performing it, that turns this
emotion into something that's not productive. For exercise number three, I'm not trying to pick
a fight with CrossFit, but they're the ones who have been credited with the invention of this
exercise. And they managed to take one of the best machines in the gym, the Glute Ham Raise and make,
one of the worst AB exercise you can ever do the GHD sit up. Now, if you look at this exercise
here, guys, you can see right off the bat this is a one-way trip to the chiropractor. Your back
is not going to like you if you do this exercise. You were never intended to do this hyperextension,
especially against the full weight of gravity, because this is a very heavily weighted exercise,
half of your body weight being lifted up on every single repetition.
And again, depending upon the pivot point and where you place yourself
on this, because a lot of people don't understand where to place themself on this,
you get a real shearing force placed on your lumbar spine, it's not something you want.
So how could you achieve the same degree of anti-extension challenge without having to
do this? Well, you can just stay on the floor and get the same benefit. And we have a simple
Roll-Up. And even if you have no weight in your hand at all by extending your arms up overhead,
you're increasing the moment arm on the Abs and you're making the exercise more difficult. And all
you're trying to do is simply allow yourself to come up, but more importantly, protect that spine
on the way down. You're not hyperextending, you're trying to flex it one segment at a time.
And if you have the ability to you add a dumbbell to the exercise to add additional weight. Again,
we can start to mimic some of that challenge of the weight of your upper torso of the GHD set
up by doing it with a dumbbell in our hands on the Roll-Up. And if you have even greater
desire to increase the challenge, hold that dumbbell on one side, which is now going to not
only challenge the anti-extension strength, but also the anti-rotational strength that you need
to develop as well. Any of these exercises are going to be way better than this one right here
and get back to using this for what it was meant for in the first place, a Glute Ham Raise.
Now exercise number four may come as a surprise to a lot of people that watch my channel,
but this one right here. Straight Leg Raises. Now look, I have a lot of variations of exercises that
utilize Straight Leg Raising because it gives me the opportunity to weight the exercise, the weight
of your legs is a good overload. That being said, if you can't handle the weight of your own legs,
then any variation of a leg race is going to become problematic for you
because of what it does to your low back. You see, lifting strictly with your hip flexors
and not being able to control the descent of the legs back down to the ground because you
don't have ab strength is going to pull your back into hyperextension
as those hip flexors yank on your lower vertebrae every time you lower them down to the ground.
If you have to use your hands to get yourself up there, you should be doing this exercise in the
first place because you don't have adequate ab strength to do it. Don't use your hands to push
into the ground, use them instead to check to make sure you're doing exercise right.
Place them to the side of you, right alongside your lower back, and try to drag them inward,
not pushing down. Because if at any point in time I arch my back and my hands are able to
actually move inward and slide towards each other, that I know that I disengage the abs
and I've introduced a stress to my spine that I don't want to have. So again, do any variation of
a leg raise as long as you have the strength to do it and if you don't skip it, at least for now.
Which brings us to exercise number five, and that is the--
May I interrupt this video with a public service announcement from Daisy.
For crying out loud guys, if you're looking to take your ab work to the next level, you want
to add some weight, please do me a favor and look to somewhere other than your pet for resistance.
And before you even say it, the pandemic and limited access to gym equipment are no excuse for
using man's best friend as man's worst dumbbell. And for those that insist on doing this because
the views are too good not to, let me ask you why I always reach for the little puppy or kitten when
you can create a real challenge and overload, but reaching for the big dog once in a while. Or would
that actually screw things up by feeling like too much of a workout. That's what I thought. So do me
a favor and stick with what you should be using in the first place, weights and let your pet admire
your six pack obsession from the sidelines. So, exercise number six is the first of two that
are actually on the list for the same reason. And that is it's not actually the exercise that's bad,
it's the fact that 95% of the time when people perform this exercise, they don't do it right,
which makes it a really bad exercise. This is called the Russian Twist. Well, actually, this
is it called the Russian Twist, because there's no twisting going on here. Look, simply tapping
your hands back and forth across your body, while it may give you the illusion that you're
doing something, is actually not doing anything. Instead, what you want to do is turn that Russian
Tap into a Russian Twist by actually twisting. So, the best way to do this is to focus on moving
the ball and your shoulders at the same time. If the ball goes to the right, the shoulders will,
too. If the ball goes to the left, the shoulders will too. Then and only then will you actually
be getting the benefits of a Russian Twist. And then and only then are you going to turn
this exercise that's performed all the time and to one that's actually worth doing.
Which brings us to exercise number seven. If the Russian Twist was the most commonly
performed exercise because of the lack of actually rotating, then this is the second
most commonly performed and this is the Bicycle Crunch. And again, it's not the exercise here,
but it's how you're doing it. Because if you look like this and a lot of people do, you're
not really getting much benefit from the exercise. You're actually just turning this into one single
isometric hold with a bunch of elbow flips back and forth. We're not trying to flip elbows, guys,
we're trying to rotate, and to rotate, you're going to have to actually turn your torso.
So once again, what I do here is now I try to fix my elbows in place and not move them
across the midline anymore. The only way to get them across my body is to actually rotate my
shoulders to do it. And if you lock your arms in place and twist, guys, twist back and forth here,
you turn this from an isometric into an actual exercise that's going to benefit you.
Which leads me to the last exercise, and this is a big one, guys, because it's
any ab exercise that you do where you're not actually concentrating and prioritizing
how you're doing the movement in terms of the quality of the contraction. Stop counting reps
and instead make the reps count. When it comes to abs guys, that's all that matters. So, if you
were to do, let's say, a Hanging Leg Raise like this and you look like this when you're doing it,
I can guarantee you're not getting anything out of it. Because you might be impressed by
racking up a higher rep total, but I'm not impressed by a single one of these reps.
Instead, slow it down and get something out of it, even if it means doing 15 less repetitions. So,
in this example here, you would actually focus on pulling the pelvis up and under. You want somebody
in front of you to be able to see your butt, not just the top of your kneecaps. But it doesn't stop
here because on the Ab Role Out we have the same problem. This is another one of those exercises
that people will claim higher rep counts as some sort of an achievement, but they're not doing them
right. Instead of going back and forth into hip flexion, sitting back on your heels and shooting
your body out with every single repetition, you want to focus this on the abs. So, go slow,
lock in your hips. Don't move them beyond the point that you start from.
And same thing even on this exercise here, guys, you're not trying to just sit back to your heels.
You're trying to use your abs to perform it. Remember, if you're looking to make
anything worthwhile, the old adage of something is better than nothing just isn't true.
Because if the something you're doing is the wrong thing, then you're going to get
nothing from your hard work. So, there you have it, guys,
the eight ab exercises I don't want to do anymore, but more importantly, the eight that I do.
If you found the video helpful, make sure you leave your comments and thumbs up below. Also,
if you're looking for step by step programs, guys, you can find them over at Athleanx.com. And if
you like the video guys, you want to see more, make sure you click, subscribe and turn on your
notifications so you're never missing a video when we put one out. All right guys, see you soon.
Can I have my dog back please Jesse? Do I have to?
You're hijacking her for crying out loud. Oh, coming on she's so cute.
I know she is. Ohh.
Leave her alone. Wait.