Christopher - The Ultimate Guide to Bodyweight Ab Exercises

The Ultimate Guide to Bodyweight Ab Exercises
By Logan Christopher

DISCLAIMER

The exercises and advice contained within this book may be too strenuous or dangerous for some people, and the reader should consult with a physician before engaging in them.

The author and publisher of this book are not responsible in any manner whatsoever for any injury, which may occur through the use or misuse of the information presented here.

"All images, unless otherwise noted, are from my private collection. They are reproduced here under the professional practice of fair use for the purposes of historical discussion and scholarly interpretation. All characters and images remain the property of their respective copyright holders

The Ultimate Guide to Bodyweight Ab Exercises

All Rights Reserved.

Copyright 2013 by Logan Christopher

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Published by:

Logan Christopher

Santa Cruz, California

www.legendarystrength.com

Why the Abs?

How the Abs Work

How this Book is Different than the Others

Section 1 - The Ab Wheel

No Tools Training Routine

Training for the Full Rollout

Other Power Wheel Exercises

Section 2 - Hanging Knee and Leg Raises

Hanging Knee and Leg Raise Training

Other Bodyweight Ab Exercises

Abs are both loved and hated. The ultimate goal of so many people engaged in training is to have six pack abs. Many people work really hard to attain that goal. Others achieve it without much effort. Since everyone has the muscles of the abdominal wall its more a matter of not carrying excess stomach fat as to whether or not you'll be able to see that six pack.

Of course, proper training of the abs will also help towards this goal. And notice that I said proper training. Doing endless crunches, which is still the mainstay of abdominal training in most commercial gyms, is not likely to help you to see your abs and certainly won't make them much stronger.

Although this book is titled regarding the abs that's not the only muscle that will be working. Far from it. In the past years the word "core" has come into vogue and also largely been discarded. That's because of some of the unfortunate methods used for "core work" like standing on bosu balls and lifting tiny weights in order to engage your core.

Truthfully, the word core is a pretty good one. Because its not just your abs. The obliques are involved and the back as well. This could equally be called torso training, although with that many people would likely think in terms of the pecs and lats. These muscles will also be engaged in the exercises shown in this book although the focus is more on the core itself. Furthermore each of these exercises is pretty much full body. Even the legs are involved although they're not prime movers.

Now let's talk about strength. If you want to be strong you must have strong abs. And not just the abs but the whole core or torso. This is the middle of your body and where you generate power from. Any power being applied from the lower body has to go through the torso to be applied to the upper body and vice versa.

Have you ever missed a heavy back squat not because of a lack of leg strength but because your torso collapsed? That means you need a stronger core.

Have you ever tried to press up into a handstand and your body folded over? You must have strength all over to do that and be able to connect your body all as one unit.

The core works to keep everything connected. Whether you're lifting heavy weights, or doing crazy leverage feats with bodyweight you'll need this connector to be as strong as possible.

Because core work tends to be a bit tougher in some ways than other exercises, and not as glorious, too many people only do it as an after thought. Ive been there myself with this. But when you understand just how important your core is to being strong you may want to put it at the forefront of your training.

How the Abs Work

If you think of the crunch or situp you may think the main role of the abs is to flex our upper body towards our lower body. But it's not. In the situp most of the work is being done by the hip flexors, not the abs.

The main role of the abdominals in the body is to stabilize the body. If you hold the top of a pushup your core is firing to keep you in that straight body position. Depending on how strong you are you may not even notice it, but it is happening. But if you lever your hands out, where the need for stability becomes harder, you definitely will feel it.

In any exercise where power transmits from the ground up, or vice versa, if the abs aren't stable that power will not all get through. Think about a punch. The power is generated mostly with the hips. But if you have weak abs, that power will leak before it gets to the arm and fist.

For this reason this book doesn't cover the situp or crunch at all. The crunch is basically useless. The situp is an okay exercise but not as progressive as the others described in this book. Even the Janda situp, which stops the hip flexors from being the prime movers, has its drawbacks as few people can do it properly.

All the exercises shown here require stabilization of different leverages to decrease and increase the demands on the body. That doesn't mean there isn't movement though. By moving the legs and/or arms this leverage will be created.

In the other bodyweight training books in this series there was one progression of skills from simple towards a main goal like full range handstand pushups, pistols and one arm pullups. There were many variations and options discussed but it is a mostly singular path.

But this book is different. Why? For a couple of reasons. Part of it is because I can't pick on just one exercise that is the best. For me it's a toss up between hanging leg raises and the ab wheel rollouts. In one you raise the legs and in the other the upper body is moving. Also in one you are supported by your hands and the other its your legs that are grounded. So they give you slightly different effects.

That doesn't mean you need to pursue both at the same time. In fact, I encourage you to stick with one option for a period of time, at least as your primary path with some secondary work in the other.

There is carry over from one exercise to another, though you will need some specific work on them in order to move onto the next. But by working on these two exercises you ll gain strong enough abs up to just about any bodyweight ab challenge. At the end of this book a few other exercises are discussed. Just by using the two main progressions in this book youll be able to master all of these additional exercises.

Like the previous books you'll learn all the different progressive steps you need (and more than one option to find what works best for you). This will allow you to go from starting wherever you're at and going all the way to the end and beyond it.

The ab wheel and variations of it have been around for quite some time. It's a classic for ab training for one reason. Because it works!

For this book I'm going to be primarily using one of the best versions available, known as the Power Wheel. This tool was invented by Jon Hinds and is produced by Lifeline. You can pick it up here: