After months and months of endless situps i have been informed i have built up average strenth im my abbs however i have been told to increase my ‘core Power’ with medicine ball trainning and increase my lower back strength and power to any suggestions on exercises, reps sets, tempos??
Is Bill Phillips training you?
In my opinion, the best lower back exercise to increase strength is the Good Morning. Four or five sets of six reps after a warmup. Extensions are also good.
I believe Paul Chek has something useful to say about abs in his article “Back to the Future of Ab Training” in the printed mag. I do not think that article is available online like a lot of stuff in the printed mag. Basically, he says that usual crunches are not very useful for developing core strength and power because there is not a lot of transfer to the real world. He suggests doing Single Arm Cable Pulls, Single Arm Cable Pushes, and Wood Chops for developing functional abdominal strength. I have yet to try them.
One simple way to increase “core strength” is to strive to do every exercise STANDING UP. “But what about benching?” I hear people crying. So what - I’m assuming you’re training specifically for a sport of rehab/posture correction, in either case benching is rarely necessary. Do military presses and french curls for pushing strength, cable ab exercises for abs, good mornings and DLs for lower back strength, standing rows and shrugs for back, etc… If you absolutely positively just have to lie down on the job, do so on a swiss ball, which will force your abs and shoulder stabilizers to shoulder some of the load. Read Shugart’s “Caveman Training” article in the archives. Stand and deliver.
I have searched for “Caveman Training” but could not find it. Could you please give the exact URL or the issue #?
{NOTE FROM MOD- TRY “LOST ART OF THE FINISHER”}
Try developing your inner unit first. I believe this is what Paul Check was trying to get across in his articles. Train your TVA and obliques, forget about your six pack for now. To increase inner core strength, you need to to train your abs 3-dimensionally.
Spinal rotator exercises such as medicine ball throws to each side either standing up or in a sit up postion with bent knees.
Stand perpendicular to a pulldown machine and focus on driving the spine to one side and down. (like choppind wood). This could also be done on a low pulley machine.
Ab pulldowns
- stand and face the machine (the pulley should be 2m infront of you), contract abs while squatting down OR
- stand and face away from the machine (the pulley should be just behind your head), contract abs and look down to the floor.
There are plenty of others such as one-leg,one hand (opposite to leg) dumbell deadlifts (focus on obliques), and hanging leg raises. If you cannot perform 10 strict hanging leg raises, then you have poor ab strength.
Tempos should be controlled, e.g 1-2/ 0/ X/ 0 or 1.
1-2 sec eccentric, suck in air
0 sec pause
X explode concentrically, force air out of lungs
0 sec pause or hold isometrically for 1-2 sec.