Issue 096

December 2012

Build battle-armor abdominals

Simon Boulter is a strength and conditioning trainer and author

One of the biggest problems in so many workout routines has to be a lack of genuine core training. So many combat athletes just don’t know how to do it right. High-repetition crunches and sit-ups aren’t going to get you anywhere. A fighter must build a suit of armor made out of muscle around his midsection. And the only way to do that is by working with exercises that are challenging enough to keep you in the 1–10 repetition range.  

Here are my top core strength exercises that require no fancy equipment, only a pull-up bar, that produce real results because they require real work. Some of these are very tough, but that’s the point. No pain, no gain when it comes to building your fight-finishing abdominals.

FO’S HANGING CORE BLASTER

HANGING KNEE RAISE

Be sure to keep momentum to a minimum with this one and focus on using your abdominals to do all the work, not the hips and legs. Focus solely on getting a good contraction using the abs, slowly raising and lowering while staying in control of the movement. You are going for quality over quantity.

Starting from a dead hang, use your abdominals to raise your knees to at least chest height. Hold for a couple of seconds, squeezing and contracting your upper abs and then lower your legs back down to a dead hang position, slowly, under control while maintaining tension in your abdominals. If you can’t raise to your chest, start by bringing them up to hip level. 

Pro tip:

As with all knee and leg raise variations, keep your arms straight; bending the elbows makes the movement easier and is strongly discouraged. Try to keep the upper body in a dead hang throughout.

HANGING KNEE BICYCLES

If knee raises are too difficult at first, another variation that can help you build the strength needed are knee bicycles. One knee at a time, lower one as you raise the other as if you were riding a bike. 

HANGING LEG RAISE

This is where things start to become really challenging. Keeping your knees as straight as possible, slowly raise your legs up until they are parallel with the floor, creating an ‘L’ shape with your body. Again, keep the movement slow and under control, the upward portion lasting for at least two seconds while keeping your abdominals tight and making sure they are doing all the work. Lower your legs slowly and under control also – it takes serious core strength.

Pro tip:

Don’t forget to breathe in as you lower your legs, then out as you raise them up. You should be able to do 10 hanging knee raises with solid technique before attempting leg raises.

HANGING ‘V’ RAISE

If you can perform more than 10 strict repetitions of the standard leg raises, then you’ve built the type of core strength any athlete would be proud of. Congratulations. But, if you want more, try the ‘V’ raise.

With a ‘V’ raise the legs are elevated much higher than a leg raise. It’ll be very tough to keep your knees completely straight when performing the feet-to-bar variation. Keep your legs as straight as possible and perform the movement slowly and under control. This is a truly advanced core strength exercise, so proceed with caution when trying this one for the first time.

HANGING RAISE DROP SET

Perform hanging ‘V’ raises to failure, then go straight into a set of ‘L’ raises. When you can’t do any more reps go straight into a final set of hanging knee raises to failure. This can be really challenging both physically and mentally and gets the abs working hard.

HANGING ‘L’ SIT

‘L’ sits work every muscle in your body as well as effectively strengthening every part of the core, improving flexibility, stability and joint health while preventing lower back injury by significantly strengthening it.

You may do these while in a dead hang position, or with your hands on the floor.

Keep your whole body tight and contract the abdominals as hard as possible to get the most out of an ‘L’ sit. If you are contracting hard enough, you shouldn’t be able to hold this position for more than 10 seconds.

WINDSHIELD WIPERS

One of the most challenging core exercises any athlete can perform because it targets the abdominals and the obliques.

Raise your legs, so your feet touch the bar as in a ‘V’ raise, and then slowly, while keeping your arms and legs as straight as possible, make a semi-circle movement by rotating your hips from left to right. Think of it as painting a rainbow shape with your feet.

HANGING ‘V’ RAISE, 1.5 REPS

Starting from a dead hang, perform the upward portion of a ‘V’ raise, bring your feet up to the bar whilst keeping your legs straight then slowly lower your legs back down half way until they are hip level, then raise them back up to the bar, before lowering slowly all the way back down. Perform as many as you can manage.

ONE-ARM HANGING LEG RAISE 

The one-arm hanging leg raise is incredibly tough as it has you performing a one-arm dead hang whilst also doing a leg raise or ‘V’ raise.

Get yourself into a dead hang position and then simply release one arm, you’ll have to keep your whole body tight just to keep from twisting around. From there, slowly raise both legs up to the bar, or if this is too difficult, up to hip height. Keep your legs as straight as possible. This blasts the core and challenges your grip strength.