Are you training your abs enough?
Even if you told me you did them 7 days a week, my answer to you would be no.
Let me explain in today's video.
What's up guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM.
Ab training.
How much is too much?
Well, if you've seen any of my videos here on our channel, you know I'm going on record
to say that I believe 5, 6, or even 7 times a week ab training is great.
Why?
Because these resilient, postural muscles are built for that.
These guys are ready to take on the work, and the more frequent the work, the better.
Now, that goes contrary to pretty much everything else I believe when it comes to training.
We have a very specific dose that muscles can handle that beyond that, we wind up overtraining
and causing damage.
The abs, because of their ever-constant firing throughout the day, these muscles are different
and built for more volume.
That said, is that all you need to do, right, 5, 6, 7 days a week?
No.
Of course, you obviously need to have your nutrition in place because even the best ab
program with the shittiest diet leaves you with the shittiest abs.
Ok.
There's just no way around it.
But, there's more than that.
We talk about direct ab training, and then indirect ab training.
And for anybody that's familiar with ATHLEANX, you should know all about the core being at
the core of every single exercise that we do.
So, what I want today to do was to show you, what about abs?
Could we have a workout where we highly target the abs and work them on every single thing
we're doing, but we're not even directly training them?
So, let me go right down, muscle group by muscle group, an example exercise that's going
to highly integrate the abs without us feeling as if we are training the abs directly.
You add those two together, indirect and direct ab training, you've got a pretty powerful
combo.
Ok so let's start right off the top.
Chest.
Right.
We take a Single Arm Dumbbell Bench Press.
As you can see, when I demonstrate this exercise,
if I have a dumbbell in one single hand and I lower it down to that side, obviously, 60,
70, 80 pounds, that's all pulling in that one direction.
So there's a lot of demand on my core to pull myself back, keep my trunk from rotating in
the same direction that dumbbell is dropping.
If you want to make this extra challenging, you want to make it a little less of a chest
exercise, then lift the leg on the same side as the dumbbell.
And that's going to make it even harder for you to resist the rotation.
Next we look at back.
Alright the king of all back exercises, the Pull Ups.
But as you see with this one slight modification of the exercise that I'm doing here,
the knees come up, we get a tremendous amount of core activity.
Matter of fact, we stress the lower abs which is even better because these are even harder
for us guys to target.
Now, how do I know this?
Because, as you guys might remember, if you've been watching me for any length of time.
Having a hernia surgery, I went through and tried to do my recovery and speed it up as
fast as possible.
I was down on the ground doing crunches, literally three days later,
but for three weeks, I couldn't even suspend myself off of a pull up bar.
Why?
Because it is one of the most demanding core exercises.
As soon as you lift your feet off the ground while hanging from a bar, you already ignite
those abs.
So yet another way just by pulling your knees up, to really engage the abs, at the same
time, you're getting that old classic killer back exercise going.
The next one I demonstrate here is for the shoulders.
Our Seated Long Leg Press.
We all know, pressing overhead, tough activity.
Even harder when we're on the ground right, and on our butts.
Because when we get our legs out in front of us, we're really taking away any of the
leverage that we once had with our legs underneath us.
Now normally guys, I want you on your feet for every exercise that you do, because that's
being athletic; however, in this case, we're going after a different target here.
We're trying to work the shoulders, take away any momentum, force them to do a lot of work,
but at the same time,
because our trunk has to stay upright as you see me fighting here to keep myself upright,
that's what's going to make the core work overtime.
Moving on to the biceps.
Our Incline Variable Curls.
Now, look at me do here what looks like a regular Incline Dumbbell Curl.
But wait.
What's that?
As I come up, I actually am changing the angle of where peak contraction occurs, right?
In an Incline Curl, peak contraction occurs down here in the 45 degree range of motion.
However, as I sit up, not only am I shifting that focus to the end range a little bit more
to get a little bit more peak contraction.
But, as you can see, the abs are working as well.
So, a nice way to integrate abs, again, without even thinking about it into a standard, classic,
effective bicep exercise.
You guys know I love this one.
The Bodyweight Tricep Extensions.
This is a classic exercise that is basically our way to take the great nose breaker/skull
crusher type exercise and turn it into something we can do anywhere with just our body.
You can do it on the back of a couch.
But as you can see, this is sort of an elaborate plank exercise, right?
Besides what we're doing up at the arms, you can see that the plank is established through
the rest of the body.
You've got an established plank.
You've got a tough tricep exercise with of course a heavy dose of core.
Finally, we wrap it all up with our leg exercise.
Overhead Dumbbell Lunge.
Now, before you start thinking, I know the lunge.
Great exercise.
But how's it working my core.
Well, take those dumbbells away from your sides and put them up over your head.
Thoracic extension is demanded in order for you to do this exercise.
And along with that, heavy core stabilization.
As you can see, as I'm doing this exercise, I'm going to have to lighten the weight because
it's a completely different feeling,
and a completely different challenge for our bodies than what we're used to if we're used
to having those dumbbells held at our side.
But yet again, you can see at the core of everything we do, whether it be direct or
indirect work.
Well, there you go.
How much core training is too much?
Well, if you're just doing your direct ab work, guys, not enough, right?
As we see, core work needs to be done more.
Right?
We need to be able to integrate direct and indirect work.
And it doesn't even matter, even if you're following our 6 Pack Ab Aap, our 6 Pack Promise
Plus, you're not going to get enough of the combination of the two.
You need to start integrating it into everything you do.
This is exactly what ATHLEANX Training is all about.
If you haven't already, guys, head over to ATHLEANX.COM and grab our 90-day Training
Program.
Remember I said, even the best ab training workout, direct and indirect, is not going
to do anything for you if you have a whole bunch of fat overlaying that.
That's why we got you covered in the program as well with our ATHLEAN X-Factor Meal Plan.
It's geared to help you strip off the fat, but at the same time maximize the muscle that
you have.
Right?
This is not about creating skinny guys.
This is about creating lean, ripped, athletic guys.
Alright.
I'll see you guys over at ATHLEANX.COM.
In the meantime, if you found this helpful, which I hope you did, you'll see that there's
more to ab training than maybe you thought.
But there is a solution.
There's ways to do it.
So, I will be back here in just a few days.
Leave your thumb's up.
Leave your comment.
Remember, I'm getting a lot of ideas for my videos based off of the questions that you
guys leave below.
See you guys back here in just a few.