Combine both high plank and side planks for a real core burner!
Military planks are a core body exercise that targets not only all of your core muscles but strengthen and challenge your upper body as well.
Dead Bugs are a great exercise for learning to engage your lower and deeper core muscles. Slow and steady wins this race as if you move too quickly – you will likely lose that engagement if you are not proficient at using your core.
This challenging core exercise really requires some focus and stability!
A feet on wall push up is an interesting variation on your standard push up as it provides a different direction or stimulus to your working muscles in a standard push up.
Too often are we having to sit in certain positions where our focus and posture start to get a bit.. lazy.
This posture correction guide is a great way to reset your sitting position and practice it. By being in this position, you will be less prone to hip tightness, back pain and shoulder/trap tightness.
We can’t really escape sitting at computers, in cars or just work that requires certain movements – we can however ensure we counter act it and make an effort to combat it!
This is a great exercise that targets abdominal muscles, especially lower abdominals, and also adductors.
This exercise can be done anywhere, which makes it a no excuse exercise if you will.
Want an effective way to get that core working? Well this is it! The great thing about bosu leg lifts is that it is a very targeted exercise to get that abs working with minimal effort. The other awesome thing about the exercise is that it teaches you to do that posterior tilt or tilting your hips up to the sky which helps you better engage all of your core.
An evolution from the Bent Hollow Hold, this exercise is a more challenging position to hold your abdominals tight in. As you get more proficient and stronger with the movement, you can extend your legs and arms further.
This is a great exercise to help with your overall core strength. This even helps with how to do a handstand!
Body weight exercises are the best way for PTs to illustrate that you can indeed to exercise nearly ANYWHERE at ANYTIME. I say nearly because a funeral or during a fire drill are 2 such examples of times and places that they are not appropriate. Where was I? Oh yes – Bicycles. Great core exercise that really allows you get those pesky obliques!
Dead Lifts are often considered to be the biggest and most beneficial lift in the gym. It makes sense as to why too. The number of muscles recruited and the amount of weight the body can lift are both impressive and very effective in changing your body.
The Dead Lift is also one of the more technical lifts in the gym but if you learn correctly first time around, they can be seen as a simple lift! Afterall – it is simply lifting a dead weight from the floor đŸ™‚
When people think of using a swiss (or sometimes known as a Fit) ball, this is often the exercise that comes to mind. It is a very common exercise to do in order to target your ab muscles.
To increase the difficulty, you can hold a weight across your chest or a theraband behind you where it is affixed to a post or secured location.
No weights? No problem! You can always do a workout with your body weight or in this case, your leg weight! The trick to this one is pelvis and lower back control. You must maintain control of them in order to get the most out of the exercise. If you arch your back too much, your lower back tries to take over which can hurt. If you can’t get your straightened legs down to the ground without arching – don’t go so low OR bend your knees.
You can make this exercise more challenging by holding a medicine ball or something weighted between your ankles!
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!
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! đŸ˜‰
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.
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!