late

From performanceU..

Get the big SuperSliders at Lowes, roughly 9x5.

Put a pillow or towel on a non-carpeted surface and kneel on it.

Put your elbows on the sliders and just go back and forth.

You might want to try it with one arm, but I'd advise against doing it with one leg.
That strengthens the psoas and ipsoas, and that might give you back trouble later.

rmr1923

would that be kinda similar to this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyIBwbX6yiA

my sister bought one of these years ago, convinced that doing that alone would give her a 6 pack. i think i saw it in a closet at my parents' house not too long ago, i might give it a try.

late

Yeah, but I don't look that good doing it.

I have an ab wheel, but I weigh too much and it's more an arm/shoulder exercise than a core exercise for me.

So I found this, and it's a solid core exercise.

I warm up on a kitchen counter to
give the upper body a chance to get used to it.

koffee brown

That's kind of the easy way of training core. To step it up a notch, if you want to do it the cheap way:



Find a surface where you have a hardwood floor. Get two paper plates and place them under the balls of your feet. Come to a full push up position, keeping your hands flat on the floor with your fingers fully splayed, shoulders flat (don't let your shoulders wing), and abs zipped. Then, while keeping your hands exactly where they are, slide your feet towards your hands as you hike your butt up towards the ceiling (I call it a "pike" or an "inverse V with the body"). Then, slowly slide yourself back to a push up position. Do not let your midsection sag or your stomach pop out at any time.



How about if you do that for say.... 5 minutes.



Then, immediately take it to mountain climbers. While still in the same push up position, alternate sliding the feet forwards one at a time, pulling the knee into the chest as you drive the leg forwards. At the same time, the other leg will extend back as far as possible. Again, keep the midsection from sagging, the shoulders from winging, and the abs drawn in and zipped up.



How about if you do that for another three minutes.



Finally, come to a standing position. Keeping the legs as straight as possible, bend forwards and get your hands to the floor (bend the knees if you don't have the flexibility in the hamstrongs, but only as much as possible to get your hands to the floor). While keeping your feet exactly where they are, walk the hands forward until you're back in a full push up position. Do 1 push up, and then flip to a side plank on the right. Take it back to a push up position, and flip to a side plank on the left. Take it back to a push up and give yourself 1 more push up, then walk your hands back until you are in a standing position, bent over. As much as possible, straighten your legs and roll your torso up to an upright, standing position.
This should be done as fast as possible. Let's say you'll do this 20 times.

Do this routine 3 times a week- you will see an awesome adaptation of your core muscles.

This is a unique and fun way to work the core muscles- I don't like to put my clients through the same old crunches and stuff.


koffee

tadawdy

Agreed. Don't remember if I ever used crunches. Maybe a little when I first started, because some people like and expect them. Aside from being really uninteresting, there are lots of better and safer movements than repetitive flexion of the spine. These anti-extension, stability, and anti-rotation movements are generally where it's at.

koffee brown

I like the Bender method and stuff like that- we do really train our clients for flexion, but we do very little to train for extension- the spine becomes extremely kyphotic or just immobile and stuff. So I try to train more against gravity. I just got my TRX bands, and my clients already really love them. Between that, pilates training, and body weight exercises, like planks, my clients are pretty set for core training.

koffee