In this one, we’re going to take two of the best abdominal stability exercises you can do and make them even MORE demanding (and throw in some forearm training for a bonus).
The first is the plank – where you basically hold your body stiff (there are a number of positions you can set your arms and body for this).
The second is a walkout – that where you’re kneeling down and you walk your hands forward out in front of you then back.
These are challenging enough even without adding in more challenge, but then that wouldn’t be challenging enough, would it!
You’re going to take two 5 lb weight and hold them on end then both those exercises. Because your hands are 6 inches off the ground on top of the weight plates, you’ll be VERY unstable. You’ll get good ab work and good forearm work at the same time!
We’ll start with the Plank. Here’s the position – just hold it for as long as you can! The goal here is to keep your body straight from feet to shoulders. The challenge here is doing it with your hands on top of those weight plates.
Use 5 lb plates because they’ll allow you to get your fingers inside the center holes for better grip (you’ll need all the help you can get).
That’s the exercise!
Next we go to the walkouts.
Kneel down and set your hands on top of the plates. Now walk your right hand an inch or two forward. Because the plates are round and do slide, you want to take very short “steps.”
When you start getting near full extension, you can actually just push forward a bit and slide on the plates until you get to full extension (if you’re on a rubber floor that doesn’t slide, you’ll need to keep walking).
Now come back up!
Repeat this walkout a few times. That’s generally about all you’ll need 🙂
These are two excellent abdominal variations of two excellent abdominal exercises. They’re going to seriously challenge your ab strength and stability and give you some good forearm training at the same time!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdxipD8t0Gk
Nick Nilsson is known in the fitness industry as the “Mad Scientist of Muscle,” and for good reason! For more than 28 years, Nick has been creating unique, new exercises and training techniques and putting together some of the most innovative muscle-building and fat-loss programs available anywhere.
