Hy it’s DC here…

I hope you are crushing an awesome week.

Now that my training has been bumped back up to full go, it’s time to talk more about some of the actual training and exercises I use at the facility to help make sure our athletes never plateau and turn into freaks.

I took this ab exercise from Barry Ross, because if it is the only one he uses with his sprinters and athletes, then I think it’s worth using in the facility.

Side Note: If you haven’t purchased his book “Underground Secrets to Faster Running” and you train athletes, then you are doing them a disservice!!

In a few interviews he talks about performing what iso static holds and rotations with your upper body off hanging off a bench and your feet tucked under a squat rack safety.  Well after tweaking it a tad to accomodate for comfort and shorter athletes, we moved that exercise straight to our GHR.

Needless to say, this exercise is an absolute killer… Especially when done correctly.  Your abs aren’t just getting worked, but it forces your entire core to remain engaged, stiff, strong and powerful.

You have 2 variations, the rotation where you remain out and rotate as SLOWLY and in a big of range of motion as possible, and the hold.  With the hold you just lay out and hold for a set period of time.

We typically go 2-3 sets of 30 seconds on the rotations, and then we go 2:00 on the hold.

We have yet to have anyone go 2 straight minutes on the hold, so the goal is 2 minutes total as fast as possible.  When you come up to take a break, the clock stops.  Start it again when you go back down.

Check Out Cushing’s Face… He Was Only 30 Seconds Into The Hold…

So what are some cues for performing and coaching this exercise?

1. Set up the GHR so the base of the butt is still touching the outside of the pad.  Any shorter than that you aren’t doing enough work, any more than that the lower back gets overworked.
2. Lay back until the upper body is slightly above parallel with the ground.
3. When rotating, rotate as slowly as possible and as big as possible making sure your shoulders turn.  If we go for 30 seconds, we average 25-30 total rotations.
4. When holding, remain in that parallel position until you have to take a break.

This is KEY: Make sure you and/or your athletes hips and legs aren’t flexed.  If they lock their legs or do nothing but flex their hips and quads during the movement, the abs and core aren’t getting the full amount of work needed.

Here is a short video shot a few days ago of me and one of my coaches performing the exercise.  The exercise is very boring to watch, so I only included 1 set of rotations and 1 60 second hold.  It appears that I also included one of my coaches thumbs who can’t operate a camera very well.

Check it out and please let me know what you think.

I’ll talk to you guys on Monday, as I’m flying out early tomorrow morning to Phoenix for some awesome business masterminding and won’t be back until late Sunday night.

Enjoy the weekend and feel free to direct all your cuss words when performing this exercise (especially the holds) at either myself or Barry.

DC