Get Your Strongest Core Ever by Adding These Ab-Strengthening Exercises Into Your Routine
I hate to break it to you, but you probably haven't been strengthening your abdominal muscles to the best of your ability. Exercises like planks and mountain climbers are great, but guess what? They're only working your anterior abdominal muscles, aka the muscles on the front of your body. An example of an anterior abdominal muscle is your rectus abdominis, commonly referred to as the six-pack, which is worked with exercises like crunches.
It's OK to strengthen those muscles, but every great workout and training program needs to be balanced. So how do you balance out the abdominal exercises you do? By strengthening every part of your core.
To do that, you need to improve your lateral stability with exercises that prevent you from falling over, like a farmer's carry. You'll also need to work on your anterior stability with exercises that prevent you from arching your spine, like elbow planks and seated knee tucks. Focusing on rotational stability by doing exercises like chops, Russian twists, and rotational ball slams is also important. Finally, you'll need to work on your posterior stability by doing exercises that prevent you from rounding your back, like deadlifts and the bird dog.
Nope, we don't expect you to memorize all of these exercises and how they strengthen your core, but you should remember to include a variety of ab exercises into your workouts in order to strengthen every part of your core. Instead of overwhelming you with every core-stabilizing exercise possible, we've rounded up some of the best exercises that will strengthen your posterior core and your posterior chain (remember, these are the muscles on the back side of your body).
Whatever you do, don't do all these moves together as one workout. Instead, begin to incorporate one to three moves into your strength programs. Don't forget to balance them out with the other core-stability exercises mentioned above. Check out the posterior core exercises ahead and start strengthening your abs with this four-week program.
Image Source: Getty / skynesher
