Learning to Squat With
The Core Muscles
Home -> BetterU News Archive -> Issue #30 - Squat With Core

The following information is a supplement to the article entitled "Secret Training Tip #321 - Squatting With Your Core - This Never-Before-Seen Technique Can Make You Stronger in the Squat Instantly!" found in BetterU News, Issue #30. This page demonstrates how to do the exercises that will teach you how to use your core to squat.

 

The Cable Gripping Trunk Twist

This is the exercise you will use to pre-exhaust your core area in preparation for the Low Pulley Deadlift.

This exercise is a variation of an exercise you may already be familiar with. The exercise this variation is based on is commonly known as a "Cable Torso Rotation." This variation takes this basic concept and adds a unique twist that literally doubles the effectiveness of the exercise.

This movement is done on a cable machine. If you have access to a machine that has an adjustable height pulley, this is the best option. If not, it will also work on either a high or low pulley. The movement itself is exactly the same regardless of where you pull from.

Set the pulley to about belly-button height (or use either the high or low pulley) and attach a single cable handle to it. Use a fairly light weight to start so you get an idea of how the movement is performed and what resistance you'll need.

Stand perpendicular to the pulley with your left side towards the pulley. Grasp the handle with your right hand and take a step to the right. Plant your feet a little wider than shoulder width apart and get ready to rotate. The movement itself is very similar to a baseball swing, making it a very effective sports-training movement not only for baseball but from any sport that requires a powerful transfer of force from lower body to upper body.

At the start of the movement, your right arm will be held across your chest with your left arm at your side. Initiate the movement by rotating your torso to the right. Be sure to keep your elbow slightly bent and locked into position. If you allow the elbow to bend, you will turn the movement into a side row, lessening the effect on the obliques. Keep that arm stiff and fairly straight!

When you start this rotation, begin bringing the cable around in front of your body by pulling on the cable handle with your right arm. Your right arm will come away from your body as you rotate, placing more torque on the obliques.

Here comes the trick that doubles the workload on the abs...

As you start to approach the midpoint of the rotation, grasp the CABLE about 6 inches from the cable clip with your left hand. Do not grasp the handle itself with the left hand - it's important that you wrap your left hand around the actual cable for this to work. Read on...

In a normal cable rotation exercise, after you go past the halfway point of the rotation, the tension on the abs will start decreasing. The peak tension is at the halfway point. We're going to fix that!

Once you've passed the halfway point of the rotation, continue pulling the handle with your right hand but now start PUSHING forward and away from your body on the cable itself with your left hand. As a visual, think of the string games that kids play such as the Cat's Cradle.

What you're essentially doing is creating a new fulcrum for the tension of the cable to go through. Instead of losing some tension around the arc as you normally would, you now have direct tension on the abs again and in a different way than in the regular rotation exercise. This not only works the obliques on the pulling side with the pulling motion, it also works the obliques on the pushing side with a strong pushing motion.

The effect on the abs with this double movement is tremendous! The next day you should have a very strong feeling of tightness (and possibly soreness) in the upper/side ab area.

How To Do It:

This exercise is amazing for building up the strength and power of the core area and creating eye-popping oblique development. Start with only your right hand on the handle. As you come part way around, place your left hand on the CABLE and start pushing with that as well. It's critical that you keep the right arm slightly bent, stiff and straight out in front of you. If you let it bend, you will turn the exercise into a sideways row, which will reduce it's effectiveness. As you come around past the halfway point, you will be primarily pushing with the left hand on the cable, dramatically increasing the torque on the abs in this exercise.

This pictures demonstrates the position of the left hand on the cable at the end of the movement. The cable is bent about 90 degrees at the end. The right arm is only stabilizing the movement now and the left arm is pushing against the resistance.

The Low Pulley Deadlift

This exercise is very simple to do. Attach a bar to a low pulley, get into the bottom deadlift position, then take a big step back. The step back is necessary to force the core muscles to push during the movement. Now lift the weight up, pushing with the core and focusing on moving primarily at the hips rather than the legs. Using this exercise after the Cable Gripping Truck Twist will FORCE your core muscles to push and teach you how to use them to increase your squat.

---

Want more unique and innovative training information just like this?

Then you need "Powerful Training Secrets"...

"Powerful Training Secrets" is our extraordinary new membership site that is PACKED with new and effective information information, just like this. If you want to maximize your muscle, build strength and drop fat and the "normal" training just isn't doing the job, you NEED the cutting-edge techniques and exercises you'll find in "Powerful Training Secrets."

The best part? Almost EVERY SINGLE TECHNIQUE AND EXERCISE has video demonstrations so you know EXACTLY what you're doing every step of the way!

Click here for more information and to sign up now!