Hi there,
does anyone have a solid core stability workout that helps carry over to strongman? My core stability is WEAK as fuck. I don’t think i’ve trained core for almost a year now… neglected.
thanks in advance
are front and side planks difficult for you?
I really like ab wheel rollouts. There are lots of variations such as from the knees, lifting one leg, or from the feet with a limited range of motion. If you can do them from your feet all out, you don’t have a weak core.
Hi
here are a few ideas, they’re all variations on a theme but vary greatly in their difficulty.
Easiest first:
Dumbbell squat press - curl 2 db’s up to your shoulders, keep them there, squat down deeply, squat back up with the db’s still at your shoulder. When you are about 3/4 way back up, Arnold press the db’s above your head.
It takes a bit of practise to find the rhythm, use light weights to start.
Overhead squat, dumbbell or barbell, or better still use a kettlebell - grab a light kettlebell, I use 12k, press above your head. Squat down with the KB still pressed above your head, squat back up, again with KB still locked overhead.
Sot press - grab a kb, even lighter than the 12k above, squat down and then press from the full squat position. Stay squatting, keep pressing. You could also try this with a couple of dumbbells, this is seriously difficult. You’re looking at using 8k db’s max. Stay in the squat position and press both dumbbells. Enjoy.
Start training without a belt. Skip putting it on while deadlifting and squatting. If you wear a belt during your event day go 4 weeks without it. You might have to use less weight at first, but your abs will get much stronger in the long run.
Yesterday I squatted hard and I did some RDL’s, ended my session with farmer walking 130lbs in each hand 10x 30 yards and then couple sets of sit ups with weight. I think you don’t need anything else. Farmer walking is great and you get lots of grip training there also. If you have back problems like I do, lordosis, ab wheel is something you should never do. Planks, farmers walks, sit ups with weight and all kinds of overhead pressing are good and you should do those, even you think you don’t need them.
farmers are great, so are yoke walks, lifting atlas stones, super heavy front squat holds, unilateral overhead pressing, unilateral farmers, loaded carries, blast strap fallouts, pallof press, etc.
the two exercises that have helped me the most throughout my lifting (as far as ab work goes) are weighted planks and band anti-rotations. give em a shot and see how you like them
since your in the strongman forum, im going to tell you whats helped me tremendously…stop wearing a belt for all compound movements, and i mean never except for competitions, learn how to keep your body tight without a belt, ever since i have stopped wearing a belt for past 6 weeks i am much more stable without belt than i ever was with, the one kicker is keeping up with how fatigued and recovered your deep thoracic lumbar and abdominal muscles are is very difficult to judge…
but mentally its helped me alot not relying on belt with heavy weights, as well as fine tuning my ability to focus on keeping my core tight as well as just overall strengthening, now what it does to you aesthetics may not be very good, but AGAIN your in the strongman thread so i can only assume
all this planking and crunches really has no carryover to any type of event in strongman that i know of.
since your in the strongman forum, im going to tell you whats helped me tremendously…stop wearing a belt for all compound movements, and i mean never except for competitions, learn how to keep your body tight without a belt, ever since i have stopped wearing a belt for past 6 weeks i am much more stable without belt than i ever was with, the one kicker is keeping up with how fatigued and recovered your deep thoracic lumbar and abdominal muscles are is very difficult to judge…
but mentally its helped me alot not relying on belt with heavy weights, as well as fine tuning my ability to focus on keeping my core tight as well as just overall strengthening, now what it does to you aesthetics may not be very good, but AGAIN your in the strongman thread so i can only assume
all this planking and crunches really has no carryover to any type of event in strongman that i know of.
This is great advice, I’ve also been fooling around with the heavy front squats, and front squat holds, never tried suitcase deads, but might have merit in your case. Goodluck OP, and goodluck to all the guys doing ab wheel, and band antirotations, haha
Thanks for replys guys.
I’m not a fan of planking, ab rolls etc…
Yeah, i couldn’t care less about aesthetics, i’m training just for strength, but i want a real strong stable core.
I’ve noticed when i do log presses, when i jerk-press i wobble @ the top of the lift, probably due to core weakness.
I’ll trial & error a lot of things and see what works best.
I’m not saying that you have to do ab-rollouts, but I suspect that anybody who puts planks and ab rollouts in the same category has never actually done ab-rollouts. They don’t just hit the anterior core but also the entire back and much harder than a standard plank. The main problem with most core isolation is that it’s just not heavy enough to have an affect on performance in really heavy strongman events. I’ve found carryover from ab-rollouts and toes-to-bar to my deadlift and my overhead. Lots of very strong people have as well. Weighted situps also get a lot of love.
If your core work is not helping with your main lifts then by all means change it or drop it. If your sets of core work are more than 20 or so reps or are taking much more than 30-45 seconds, you should figure out how to make it more difficult. It’s also possible that you’re limited by something besides core strength so you don’t need to work on core, but if that’s the case then this thread isn’t for you.
How you guys do these “super heavy front squat holds”? I mean how much you load weight in the bar and how long time would be good hold the bar?
[quote]StrongBack wrote:
How you guys do these “super heavy front squat holds”? I mean how much you load weight in the bar and how long time would be good hold the bar?[/quote]
i’d do them with up to 125-150% of my front squat max and hold for 15-30 seconds.
Ok thanks for answering, have to try these.
[quote]mattypyuu wrote:
I’m not a fan of planking, ab rolls etc…
[/quote]
why not? because you suck at them?
often the exercises we don’t like… are the ones we need to be doing.
i’ve been trying to work up to an L sit. then eventually do slow and controlled leg raises (all the way up) on the chin-up bar.
ab rolls are good… wish i could do 'em from my feet 
No one’s mentioned Zercher’s. You can get a harness if you have trouble holding them, or feed to bar through a length of PVC pipe to distribute the weight on your arms better.
Ab roller’s aren’t for aesthetics. You just must have been doing them too light. Just get a bar with a couple of 45# plates on it for your wheel…work your way up from their until your feel you get enough of a workout. 
Anyone know if derek poundstone will return?
edit ops wrong thread