What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
So I’ve got a quiz here for you today.
I want you to tell me which of these two guys – this one right here, or this one here
– have stronger abs.
now, you have to pick one.
I’m going to give you a second.
Now, if you’ve been watching this channel for any length of time you’ve probably said
“Jeff, I don’t know who’s got the stronger abs because we wouldn’t’ know unless we
actually tested them.”
It’s not the guy, necessarily, that has the six pack.
Even though we at the channel train guys to be lean, we also predominantly want to be
athletic and strong first, and foremost because we train athletes here.
I can guarantee you, I’ve seen a lot of guys walk in the gym with a great six pack
and be weak as hell.
So what I want to help you do today is get stronger.
Get your core to be as strong as possible, regardless of whether you have a six pack.
Your nutrition is going to dictate what it looks like, ultimately.
But you have to make sure you set the foundation first.
So here’s what I want you to do.
I want to establish some benchmarks.
I know not all of us have six packs that are watching the video, but we all ultimately
want to have a stronger core because of the benefits that come along with it.
So can you do what I’m going to ask you to do here?
Remember, the abs are an anti-muscle group.
They want to control motion in all three planes.
If we start right here, we can control extension.
We don’t want to allow our body to overextend.
So the abs play a key role in doing that.
By doing this banded barbell rollout, we use this as a benchmark with our athletes to say
“How strong are you?
Can you actually get out there, hold it for a split second, roll it back in, and actually
start to produce reps here?”
I want you to be able to do that.
If you can’t do this right now, it’s a good indicator that you need to work more
on your ab strength.
Even if your six pack is showing at the moment.
Again, I realize that everyone watching this right now doesn’t’ necessarily have the
strongest abs in the world, but you have to have a benchmark as well.
At least to get to that point.
What I want you to do is drop down to your knees and try the same thing.
can you do this?
Even without the band on it.
Can you do a rollout from your knees, and establish that end position without allowing
that low back to sag, and break into an overextension?
Right now, that’s just one plane.
We have others.
The next one is that all-important rotational plane.
I want to know: can you control rotation?
Can you prevent over rotation?
And we have here, this overhead grapevine.
What we’re doing here is we’re going to take our bodyweight, and we’re going to
determine how much weight we’re going to hold overhead.
For the more advanced guys, I want you holding it at least a little bit over half your bodyweight.
You could do it either with dumbbells, or you could do it with a barbell, which is going
to be more difficult.
Why?
Because the barbell is going to get more momentum.
Any bit of rotation you get going in one direction, you’re going to now have to slow the momentum
of the barbell as well.
You want to walk in a nice, tight grapevine without over rotating.
Of course, you’re going to walk both down leading with your right leg, and back leading
with your left leg.
For those beginners: a little bit less than a quarter of your bodyweight is a good place
to start.
I’m talking about combined weight.
So if your bodyweight is 160lbs, it’s 40lbs, or less total in your hands.
So, obviously, 20lb dumbbells in each hand.
That’s the idea.
Maybe just a single barbell if you’re going to use it for a 45lb weight.
Now we need to go to antiliteral.
Antiliteral control can be done with the single band in a squat rack setup.
What we’re going to do here is, try to do a leg raise, with the band pulling us to one
side.
Now, you’re going to want to test both sides.
But again, I want our athletes to be able to do reps here with our legs going as straightforward
as possible, resisting the pull.
Both to the side, and a little bit back.
We’ve got to even it on the way back.
Getting a little bit of that flexion from the abs themselves.
Can you do that?
Again, beginners; maybe you just have to start with the ability to do a non-swinging hanging
leg raise.
I actually made a whole video about how to get more control over the hanging leg raise,
and the hanging knee raise, and prevent the swing.
I’ll actually link that for you guys at the end of this vide.
So the idea is, these are the benchmarks.
Again, ultimately, you want to be able to get to the point where you can hold these
for time, and you can rep these out.
If you’re not there yet it should just be an indicator to you that, maybe even though
my abs may look good, they’re not as strong as they need to be.
If you don’t believe that there’s going to be any carryover benefit, just go see what
happens when you go try to squat, or form a deadlift and you don’t tighten your core
first.
you’re lift will be significantly impaired by not having stability.
I’m telling you right now, if you can get better at these lifts I promise you, the next
time you get under the bar in a squat, or get over the bar in a deadlift you’re going
to do better at that lift.
Period.
The stability will equal strength.
Guys, on this channel it’s about training athletes.
I want you guys to train like an athlete as well.
More importantly, I want you to function, and feel like one.
If you’re looking for a step by step program that does that for you, head over to ATHLEANX.com.
As a physical therapist I take all this into consideration because it all matters.
All of our programs laid out for you in a step by step fashion.
In the meantime, if you’ve found the video helpful leave your comments and thumbs up
below.
Let me know what else you want me to cover, and I’ll do my best to do that for you in
the days, and weeks ahead.
All right, guys.
See you soon.