How many abs exercises should you do to get an enviable midline? Not that many! Well, here are the only 3 six-pack core exercises you need.
Training the abs should be everyone’s goal. Not only do people find it attractive to have a flat stomach, but a strong core will also prevent back injuries and reduce the risk of heart disease by improving your overall conditioning.
Some compound exercises target the abs as well, but if you are serious about getting a six-pack you should do specific movements that focus entirely on your midline.
Luckily, you don’t need to do dozens of exercises to target your abs. According to Trevor Hash, there are only 3 six-pack core exercises you need to get impressive results.
Trevor Hash is a movement coach who co-founded Strength Side. He spent years in fitness from personal training to corrective exercise, to hand balancing. Strength Side’s YouTube Channel has over 1 million subscribers where videos are posted about different movement patterns to improve your athleticism, abs exercises and life-changing habits.
Check out the only 3 six-pack core exercises you need below.
3 Six-Pack Core Exercises You Need
The first type of exercise is known as compression, in which you compress your ab muscles against each other, which is what most people think of when doing ab exercises. The second category is known as carrying exercises, and the last one is crawling.
1. L-Sit or Hanging Leg Raise
The L-sit is a callisthenics exercise, a bodyweight exercise in fancier wording, that will challenge your stability, strength and flexibility.
You can do the exercise with parallel bars, a dip station, on the floor or even with rings.
Hanging leg raises improves trunk stability, your posture and is incredibly challenging. But like the L-sit, there are progressions you can do that are beginner friendly.
Related: Why Sit-Ups Are A Waste Of Time
2. Carrying
Carrying exercises are actually the opposite of compression exercises in which you are resisting that spinal flexion of compression by staying upright or erect.
“Carrying is the best way to train the overall strength of your core,” Hash explains.
Hash doesn’t exemplify one single movement that is the best for this category, however, he does mention farmer’s carry, barbell squat or Olympic lifts. “Anything where you have to pick up something heavy and hold it.”
3. Crawling
This category includes planks, mountain climbers, push-up variations, and basically anything that gets your hands and feet on the ground at the same time. “Crawling gives you the ability to work on all the other functions of your core,” such as rotation, resisting rotation, side bending, scapular function and more.
We recommend doing the bear walk or the bear-to-crab movement.
And those are Trevor Hash’s 3 six-pack core exercises you need to look better. To understand his philosophy of why these are the only movements you need to get an amazing six-pack, click on the video below.
VIDEO – 3 Six-Pack Core Exercises You Need
Now that you know the 3 six-pack core exercises you need, how about developing further you knowledge by click below for more content from BOXROX?
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Image Sources
- Snadbag carry Individual event 5: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.
- Abs exercises: Szabolcs Toth / Unsplash