Working your abs and obliques doesn’t have to mean you must lay on the ground. This exercise allows you to stand up and really focus on maintaining your posture. You just need a theraband and something to hang it off. A post will be best!
A great safe abdominal exercise to work obliques, transverse abdominus & rectus! Resisting trunk extension and posterior pelvic tilt!
Kettlebell swings are a fantastic exercise to get those glutes firing. Surprisingly you don’t need to do a great deal with this exercise though lots of people make it harder than what it needs to be. The secret to this exercise is to only use your hips. Your arms are like rope and your hands are like hooks. There is no effort from your shoulders. The momentum you build comes from you thrusting your hips forward as quick as you can!
Managing the first modified plank where your knees are bent? Awesome? Let’s kick it up a notch with the level 2 of this exercise! With all planks, getting that posterior tilt or ‘hip tuck’ is vital for correct execution of this exercise.. because let’s be honest… if you’re going to endure a plank – you might as well make it worth the suffering! 😉
This exercise is deceptively challenging! You don’t need a lot of weight at all to complete it. Even a can of food in each hand will be enough for most people! If you have a theraband, you can loop it around a post and do the motion with it also.
If your traps really start to engage with this exercise, stop the exercise as the muscles we want to use have been fatigued and other muscles are taking over.
This is a great balance and isolater of the hamstrings. Some people feel this exercise in their calves. If that happens, try and get your hips off the ground more.
I love how many people LOVE to hate this exercise.. even though they know how effective it is for hip stabilisation! It’s important that you keep your back nice and straight and that you don’t fish for the ground by compromising your neutral spine in order to reach for the ground. If you do this side on to a mirror, ensure that your working leg is closest to the mirror. That way, if you see your non working glute in the mirror, it means you have lost form. Hide that glute and keep your hips square!
This exercise is a variation of a TRX Pistol Squat or a TRX Sprinter Squat. No TRX? No problem! Simply find something you can loop a towel around and BAM – you have a great set up to work your glutes and hamstrings!
This is a great balance exercise for targeting your abs and more importantly – your obliques. You can mix this exercise up with a number of different variations from sitting on a bosu ball or bringing your opposite knee up as you twist.
Such a simple exercise in movement and also just being able to do it. A 1kg dumbbell is often all that is needed. You can can even do this exercise with a can of beans if you wanted!
The key to this one is to make sure your movements are slow and smooth, otherwise other muscles will try and jump in and do the work!
This is a very basic and effective stretch for the Latissumis Dorsi muscles or.. commonly shortened to Lats. Not much to say other than it’s awesome and you can vary up your grip by holding the post/frame/structure with either pinky finger on top!
A Glute/Piriformis release can often relieve sciatic nerve pain and it helps loosen up the hip. This is a great release exercise to help with hip flexibility and it can also contribute to a reduction in lower back pain! Can’t say no to that!
A body weight row often gets overlooked by many as it doesn’t look as cool or as challenging as other weighted rows. Dismissing this move is a big mistake. You can vary up the angle in which you row and make it very challenging indeed!
This exercise can be done from a standing up point right down to you being parallel to the floor!
The plank is the exercise we all love to hate. But the longer we can hold, the stronger our abs, back and shoulders will get!
Ahh TRX pistol squats… so much hate for an exercise so so good. Well hate is a strong word but not many of my clients get excited when I advise it’s next on the program but they definitely don’t deny that they do the trick for glute and hamstrings!
Tips for this exercise are pretty simple.
1. Try and make it so that your weight is not simply being lowered to the ground, direct your weight on a diagonal behind you and down. This will put emphasis on your hamstring and glutes
2. Don’t forget to tuck your hips and squeeze your glutes.
3. Don’t use your arms. You hands are like hooks and arms are like ropes. They are simply allowing you to lean back for the movement.
A staple movement of the gym when it comes to abs! This one is pretty straight forward but still effective in getting those abs working.
Just make sure you aren’t pulling your head forward as you crunch up!
A cool little variation to your standard plank, the side plank targets those obliques!
If this one annoys your shoulder, you can alter it so that you are on your hand as opposed to your elbow and forearm.
This ab exercise looks daunting at first but once you get into it – it’s not that hard actually.
At least that’s what I tell people in order to convince them to get themselves all stirrupped up. A ruse? Maybe! Either way this exercise is great for the abs!
To make this one more challenging and more about your obliques, when you tuck your knees up, have one knee in between your elbows and the other one on the other side of the elbow. As you extend out and then tuck back again, alternate with the knee position.
Dying Cockroaches.. Drunk Irishmen.. this exercise has had many a name.. but the purpose and benefits!