Dynamic Training for Abs & Obliques

So, the exercises presented here focus on helping you maximize the strength of your abdominals and obliques, and they also help you improve your rotational strength and power. Category 1 – Spinal Flexion Exercises Although some coaches claim that spinal flexion exercises are inherently dangerous, research has shown that those exercises can not only help promote nutrient delivery to the intervertebral discs, but may also provide superior muscle and performance gains versus isomeric ab exercises (4). However, some exercises may be contraindicated for people who have pain when performing them. In other words, spinal flexion exercises are no different than any other resistance training exercise. All exercises can induce stress, which causes tissue adaptation, but there’s a tipping point where you exceed your capacity. That’s the individual nature of training, and exactly what’s meant by training smart! That said, my top two spinal flexion exercises are stability-ball plate crunches and stability-ball reverse crunches, which is a more advanced version of a reverse crunch from the floor. Make sure you’ve got good control on regular reverse crunches before programming them. Stability Ball Plate Crunch Keep your knees bent at roughly a 90-degree angle throughout and flex and extend your spine with control over the ball. Hold the plate straight above your shoulders and reach your arms straight up toward the sky. Focus on making your knees drive the motion (bending and extending), not your abs. Stability Ball Reverse Crunch Most people use momentum and jerk their body up and down by kicking their legs to create the movement. Eliminating that momentum forces the abs to perform the action. Once you get your legs up over your body, slowly reverse this motion, lowering your spine back down toward the bench, one vertebra at a time. Don’t allow your legs to extend or your head to lift off the ball at any point. These spinal flexion exercises are my go-to movements because they allow for greater abdominal muscle stretch than floor crunches. This is important because full-range resistance training regimens, which train the muscles at long (stretched) lengths and include an eccentric component, can improve flexibility as well as, if not better than, typical static stretching. In other words, strength training at longer (stretched) muscle lengths (that includes an eccentric component) not only causes muscles to be stronger at long lengths, but also promotes flexibility by causing muscle fibers to produce new sarcomeres in series within a muscle, which allows the muscle to lengthen more (6, 7). Cable Side Bend A great example of a common exercise that doesn’t make biomechanical sense is side bends performed while holding a dumbbell on each side. Of course, the weight of the dumbbell offsets the weight on the other side, making this exercise ineffective at sufficiently loading the lateral flexors of the torso. Even performing side bends while holding a single dumbbell on one side of the body isn’t very effective at targeting the lateral core because of the angle of force involved. There’s just not much resistance. The dumbbell is very close to your body, giving you a mechanical advantage over the weight. You’d have to hold a very heavy weight, which may exceed your grip strength, to have a reasonable training effect. So instead of using dumbbells, use a single cable that’s at roughly a 45-degree angle to your body. It’s much more effective than holding a single dumbbell (or two). Stability Ball Side Crunch This exercise creates a great stretch on the lateral trunk flexors. If you’ve never done this one before, it can feel a bit awkward until you find the right foot placement against the wall and the right body position over the ball. Place your top leg about a foot-length behind your bottom leg and keep your back heel slightly off the wall while your front foot is flat against the wall. Also, position your torso over the ball such that you can create a stretch while bending over the ball without feeling like you’re going to fall over it. Lastly, make sure you move over the ball, instead of the ball moving under you. Medicine Ball or Weight Plate Side Lean Yes, this is like doing the “I’m a little teapot” dance you did as a kid. With your feet roughly hip-width apart, hold the weight plate or medicine ball directly above your head with your elbows slightly bent. While keeping the weight plate or ball directly above your head, lean your body laterally to one side and shift your hips to the opposite side until you feel a mild stretch. Reverse the motion and repeat, leaning your torso and hips to the opposite direction without pausing in the middle between reps. Category 2 – Rotational Exercises Rotary exercises are by nature cross-body exercises, which makes them a valuable aspect of strength training since rotation is such a big part of human functioning and athletics. Tight Cable Torso Rotation with Hip
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