UK Nationals winner Rob Riches is back once again with another awesome video. In the previous episodes, he dealt with the lower and upper abdominals, as well as the obliques. Now it’s time for the opposing muscles in the lower back, which provides the foundation and structure for the abs.
Here are some key points you need to consider in the video:
- There are three exercises in the video. What they all have in common—besides focusing on your lower back—is that you need to do about 15 to 20 reps for each exercise. The reps should be slow and controlled, and you need to exhale after each rep. You also need to focus mentally, by forging some sort of mind to muscle connection.
- The first exercise involves doing some hyperextension by using a Swiss ball. This exercise really isolates that lower portion at the back. Take note of the starting position in the video. See where the ball is placed on the abs, and note how Rob anchors his feet. The ball is square on your stomach, and your feet should be up against something steady and stable. Keep your knees off the ground, and your hands should be up near your temple as if you are saluting with both hands. This position already provides some tension on your lower back. Inhale when you come down, and exhale while you squeeze your lower back. Pause for just a bit at that moment.
- The second exercise will require a mat. You just need to lie down on your stomach and do a Superman pose, and then you raise up your arms and your knees simultaneously while you squeeze your lower back. As you can see from the video, Rob doesn’t let his knees and arms touch the ground at any point during the exercise.
You may notice that both exercises do not really require much weight. But you do need to make sure that you control your movement, and that you don’t allow momentum to help you along.
- The third exercise incorporates the abs with the lower back. As the video shows, it’s a type of crunch using a bosu ball (it’s like a Swiss ball cut in half) on your back. Make sure you anchor your feet like Rob does in the video, and raise your arms in the “two hand salute” position. The bosu ball allows you to hyperextend just a little bit more to bring in your lower back. If a bosu ball isn’t available, you can use a Swiss ball instead. You can even use a bunched up towel under your back to give you that extra space you need to hyperextend.
- For the third exercise, there are a few variations you can try out. Instead of your hands at your temple, you can extend them up straight over your head (this is much more difficult), folded over your chest, or just down to your sides. You can start by doing it with your hands to the side and then moving up to the arms straight overhead for the last.
You can pick any of these exercises for your abs workout. You can start first with your lower abs, then your upper abs and obliques before finishing off with the lower back exercise.
[ajax_load_more post_type=”post” category=”back-workout”]
