When
most people think of abdominal exercises, they think of
slow, deliberate movements with squeezing and tightening,
which is fine.
But
other than keeping your guts in, stabilizing your core area,
and looking good, what ELSE are your abs designed for?
How
about explosive power! It's THE most neglected aspect of
abdominal conditioning that can have the greatest effect
on your athletic performance.
Most
abdominal exercises do not use anything even close to a
powerful stroke. Normally, when you see ab exercises done,
they're done (like I mentioned above) in a very deliberate
manner.
And
for the most part, it's actually better that way. If you
try and use momentum and explosiveness with a crunch, you
don't get any muscle tension and get almost nothing out
of it. If you use explosiveness in a weighted exercise,
you put dangerous torque on the body.
That's
where bands come in.
With
bands, you get the resistance AND you get the built-in deceleration
of the band as it stretches out. Bottom line, you can explode
into a band HARD and not have to worry about hurting yourself
because the band will stop the momentum very effectively!
With
this exercise, you're going to use two bands - one high
and one low. You're going to wrap one around your knee and
grab the other with your hand. Then you're going to explode
up with your knee while simultaneously yanking down with
your hand.
The
abs bear the brunt of this and will really get burning fast!
This
is a GREAT exercise if you're interested in developing sprint
speed. It's also an excellent one for martial artists as
it helps developing kneeing and kicking power.
The
reason this exercise is so good for developing sprint speed
lies in the hip flexors. One of the biggest factors in running
speed is the ability to get your leg back in front of you
as quickly and explosively as possible.
When
you get to a certain level and overall leg and body power
is maximized, hip flexor explosiveness is HUGE. This exercise,
in addition to training the abs, hits the hip flexors with
explosive training. VERY effective for improving leg speed.
I
always recommend IronWoody Training bands for all band work.
Great prices and great quality. Get
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How To Do It:
So to
perform this exercise, you'll need two bands. I like to
use reasonably thick bands (the green ones, if you're using
the IronWoody bands I mentioned above) to get a really powerful
movement.
Attach
one band to something low and behind you while attaching
the other band to something higher up and in front of you.
I use
a cable cross-over machine (not attaching to the cables
but using the frame of the machine). I attach the low band
to one upright and the high band to the cross-beam on the
other end.
Step
inside the band with your right leg then pull the band up
so that it's just above your left knee.
Now
reach forward and grab the other band that's hanging down
in front of you with your OPPOSING hand - e.g. if the band
is on your left leg, grab it with your right hand). The
bands should be hitched around these objects (demo at the
bottom of the page on how to hitch bands if you need it).
That's
your start position.
Now,
with an explosive movement, drive your knee up as high as
you can while bringing your arm down as hard as you can.
Step
down and pause briefly at the bottom then repeat until you
feel you can't put a lot of explosiveness into the movement
- you'll know this by feel. Generally, with a powerful movement,
it's about 4 to 6 reps.
Next,
what I like to do is when I can't do more reps holding with
the one hand, I'll grab the band with BOTH hands and continue.
Generally,
it's the upper body that fatigues first, so switching to
both arms allows you to keep going and burning out the abs
and hip flexors.
Do several
reps of this fast and explosively. With this variation,
I like to omit the pause at the bottom and just barely touch
my foot to the ground before exploding right back up.
Because
you're gripping the band with both hands, your balance is
better and you should be able to pop right back up pretty
well.
When
you're toasted on the one side, let go of the band then
step back and let it drop off your knee.
Change
legs and pull the band up above your OTHER knee.
Repeat
the same procedure as above, grabbing the band with your
left hand and bringing the two together. Again, finish with
both arms on the band.
To really
get an idea of the explosiveness of this exercise, be sure
to watch the video. Still pictures don't give you the real
impression of how powerfully this exercise should be done.
So if
you want to improve abdominal power and explosiveness and
increase your leg speed when sprinting, give this one a
try!
