The
Abdominal Plank is one of the most
effective and simple abdominal exercises
you can do.
If
you're not familiar with the Plank,
your basically hold your body in
a stiff, horizontal position on
your forearms and toes (on the floor),
maintaining a straight body position
for as long as possible. It's
a great exercise you can do anywhere.
THIS
exercise is a version of the plan
where instead of holding your body
in the horizontal position, using
some small changes, you'll instead
be holding it an angle.
This
change in angle and body position
shifts the tension to the lower
abs and can be very effective for
tightening the lower abdominal area,
especially if you're looking for
that sexy "V" look down
through the obliques (once you get
your bodyfat low enough, of course).
This
exercise could also help get rid
of that "pooch belly"
bulge by tightening up the specific
muscles that control that area of
the abs...when these fibers don't
have "tone" (in this case
lack of tone means they relax too
much, not other "tone"
that just means training with light
weights and getting zero results
;)...
...so
as I said when these fibers don't
have tone, they just let the internal
organs push outward, causing that
bulge, even if your bodyfat is low.
This exercise can help correct that.
I've
got it set up in the rails of a
power rack, but you can very easily
do it between two benches if you
don't have a rack to work with (or
a bench for your forearms and something
else a few feet off the ground to
hook your feet over - you'll see
what I mean).
So
to do this one in the rack, set
your rails a few feet off the ground,
then stand facing one side. Set
your forearms (near the elbow) on
the rail then hook your feet on
the other rail. Now just hold your
body in that position, keeping your
body just a bit bent (not completely
straight like the floor version...because
your knees are lower, you need to
keep some bend in your hips to keep
pressure off the lower back) and
stable as you can.
Here's
the view from the other side.
It's
easier to see the bend in the hips
from this view. Keeping the hips
bent is really important...if you
straighten the body, you'll immediately
get a lot of stress onto the lower
back.
Once
again, though, nice exercise for
targeting the lower abdominal area
and you can do it on benches or
really anything else you can set
your forearms and feet on. Hold
the position for as long as you
can, staying short of complete failure
and strive to increase the hold
time in your next workout.
You
can do this exercise first in your
abdominal routine, which I usually
recommend doing after the rest of
your training is completed. I wouldn't
do it first in your workout, though,
as it will temporarily weaken the
area. Which means if you do this
exercise then a set of heavy squats,
your squats will suffer.
That
being said, if you're doing a cardio
training session, you can do it
before or after cardio, since that
doesn't require the same level of
stabilization in the core.
