Archive for category Crunchless Core

Recently a friend of mine told me she was injured and was unable to do any crunches, but yet still wanted to be able to work out her abs. She was at a loss about how to keep her abs tight while she healed, and she asked me for some ideas. So I decided to give her some “crunchless” tips for her abs.

The core is so much more than just a “six pack”. The core is a complex arrangement of many “criss-crossed” muscles which include your internal and external obliques, your transverse abs, rectus abdmonis and even in the back you have the lumbar erectors.

Crunching typically only works your rectus abdominus, but it also highly activates your psoas muscle. Too much psoas activation during a crunch or any ab exercise can put great force on you the lumbar vertebrae which could lead to low back pain.

So learning my “crunchless” abs will 1) keep variety and interest in your workouts, 2) ensure you are working ALL parts of your core, 3) protect your psoas from over-activation due to crunches and 4) teach you stability and balance.

The first exercise I want to show you is called INCH WORMS:

Start by leaning over as shown below on the left in Position A. Slightly bend your knees and put hands on the floor. From there, keeping your feet in the same spot, walk your hands out until you are in a pushup position as seen in Position B below. Be sure you use small “hand steps”. It should take between 4-6 “hands steps” before you reach pushup position.(Position B)

 

 

From pushup position (postion B), keep your hands in the same spot and walk your feet up towards your hands until you’re back in Position A. Again, use 4-6 small feet steps to get up to Position A. Repeat 15 -20 times. You will need a long space for this, seeing as how you continually will be traveling forward.

Inch worms work your Core, Hamstrings, and Upper Body.

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