Exercises that Are NOT Your "Normal" Ab Exercises

The 3 Best Abdominal Exercises that Are NOT Your "Normal" Ab Exercises 

A unique ab workout that doesn't contain your typical boring stomach exercises - no crunches or situps here!

I have reproduced with permission from mike, this great article which includes some great exercises I have used over the years.

Two of these,The Renegade Row and the Mountain climbers, I had not even heard of before and the truth about abs program has so many more of these great tips and tricks.

Enjoy.....


by Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-seller:  The Truth about Six Pack Abs

Instead of the typical ab routines that we see so often with crunches, situps, leg lifts, etc... I like to give my readers better options for metabolism-boosting high intensity workouts that work their entire body while also working their abs... thus building rock hard abs & core, but also creating a much better fat-burning workout than a typical ab workout.

I'm going to show you an example today of one of my favorite "ab workouts" that doesn't include any direct "ab exercises" at all. This is actually a full body workout that works your abs pretty hard indirectly, and stimulates a good metabolism boost!  It's in a tri-set format (similar to a super-set but alternating between 3 exercises instead of 2).
Here goes:

1a. Renegade Dumbbell Rows
1b. Front Squats with Barbell
1c. Mountain Climbers on Floor

A good rep scheme to use with this could be 3-4 sets of 8 reps for each exercise, or more sets for less reps, such as 5 sets of 5 reps of each exercise. Mountain climbers can be done for a time interval (such as 30 seconds) instead of "reps".

Exercise Pics & Descriptions:

Renegade dumbbell rows are done starting in a pushup position with the hands on 2 dumbbells. You then row one dumbbell up while stabilizing your body with the other arm. Bring the dumbbell back to the ground and alternate the rowing arm while stabilizing with the opposite arm. This stabilizing effect during the rows creates incredible work for your entire midsection core area. Trust me... you'll feel it in the abs!

 

Renegade Rows shown above

Front squats are done similar to back squats, however with the barbell in front of your body on the front of your shoulders instead of resting on the upper back as in back squats. You stabilize the barbell on your shoulders by crossing your arms and pushing your fists into the bar against your shoulders while keeping your elbows out in front of the body.
This takes a little practice at first, so you will want to seek a professional trainer at your gym to help you with the form. Front squats require extreme stabilization strength from the abs due to the barbell weight being shifted to the front of the body instead of the back. Even though this is mostly a leg exercise, you'll feel this one in the abs big time!  Any time I do front squats after not having done them for a while, I get a really deep soreness in my abs the next day.

 

Front squats shown above

Mountain climbers are done by starting in a pushup position and then shuffling your feet in and out so that your knees are moving in under your chest and then back out to starting position. It sort of resembles climbing a mountain but flat on the floor. If you want an advanced version, you can also shuffle your hands 8-10 inches forward and backward in addition to the leg movements. This really makes it a full body exercise and MUCH more difficult than standard mountain climbers.



Mountain Climbers shown above

After finishing each exercise, try to move to the next exercise with very minimal rest (no more than 15-20 seconds).  Rest about 1-2 minutes after completing each "tri-set" before repeating the sequence.
This will give you one of the best ab workouts you've ever had without even doing any direct ab exercises.... and with a LOT more fat-burning metabolic effect compared to standard ab exercises...  You'll see what I mean after you try it!  This can be used as a stand-alone workout (as it can be very intense if you use challenging weights), or you can incorporate it as a portion of your full body workout.

http://www.getabsatlast.com/

Good luck in your training goals

3 Important Tips to Build Muscle Faster - Get Lean and Ripped

Let's face it... building muscle is not the easiest thing to accomplish even despite regular hard workout schedules and trying every type of workout and supplement.

I struggled for years to gain any significant muscle mass, but over the years in my personal training business and with my own experimentation have found some important things that have helped make significant muscle gains possible even for hardgainers.

So, I'm going to give 3 important tips here so you can start building lean muscle mass faster and easier.

1. Make sure that 95% of the exercises you perform regularly in the gym are big multi-joint compound exercises. It doesn't matter if your goal is fat loss or building muscle... big multi-joint exercises should comprise 95% of the exercises you do in your workouts if you want to get lean, ripped, and powerful.

It's easiest to think of it in terms of the major movement patterns such as these (focus 95% of your workouts on these):


•upper body horizontal press (bench press, pushups, dips),
•upper body horizontal rows (1-arm dumbbell rows, seated cable rows, bent over barbell rows),
•upper body vertical pull (lat pulldowns, pullups, chinups),
•upper body vertical press (overhead dumbbell and barbell presses, barbell or kettlebell clean & presses)
•lower body squatting movements (front squats, back squats, overhead squats, bodyweight squats, etc)
•lower body deadlifting movements (regular deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts)
•lower body single leg movements (lunges, step-ups, jump lunges, etc)
•abdominal and core exercises (these are important, but still are 2nd priority after all of the major upper body and lower body multi-joint movements... your abs and core will be worked from most major multi-joint exercises anyway)

The other 5% of your exercises can focus on single joint exercises (isolation exercises) such as bicep curls, tricep presses, calf presses, shoulder shrugs, shoulder lateral raises, pec flyes, etc, etc. However, these exercises are only accessory exercises to do after the main focus has been the multi-joint drills.

2. Train hard and intensely 3-4 days/week for 45-60 minutes per weight training workout. Keep your workouts to no longer than 60 minutes as training too much beyond this point can trigger excess catabolism. You want to stay anabolic, but you still need to train your body hard and intensely enough to trigger muscle growth.

Try a super-set style of workout program to maximize the intensity that you can train. My favorite combinations are opposing upper and lower body movement patterns that don't interfere with each other, such as squats coupled with pullups as a superset, or bench press coupled with deadlifts as a superset.

Don't underestimate the effectiveness of these types of upper/lower body supersets done with heavy weights and a high intensity. The first time in my life that I experienced significant muscle mass gains were when I started doing these types of workout combos regularly (although still mixing up my training variables).

These are mainstays of almost any effective workout program -- caloric intake can simply be adjusted whether your goal is fat burning or gaining muscle mass.

3. Eat clean with quality whole foods... REAL foods instead of highly processed over-hyped supplement powders and bars.

The quality of protein (and additional nutrition from vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants) are best assimilated by the body from real whole food such as eggs, meats, dairy (preferably raw), fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, etc. instead of from processed protein powders, chemical-laden bars, and meal replacements.

Forget about the hyped up workouts in the muscle mags that only work for pro bodybuilders or people on steroids. Forget about the over-hyped supplement "stacks" that pay the bills for almost every muscle mag... Instead, make these tips in this article part of your lifestyle, and you'll see muscle gains and a leaner, ripped body like you've never seen before!

If you want to get a lean chiseled body, check out these tips to Get Ripped Abs the right way.

Enjoy, and good luck!

Mike Geary
Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author - The Truth about Six Pack Abs