(image from purplemotes.net)
Its widely accepted now that doing a hundred ab-crunches is not the most effective way to obtain a flat belly.Over the next few weeks I will post some alternative methods for working your abdominal area more effectively using functional (full-body) movements that will strength your core and stabilise your spine.
This week we will look at Mountain Climbers - of which there are a number of variations to suit all levels.
Basic Mountain Climber
Mountain Climber using TRX of course you need TRX suspension rings to do this, and its one of the products on my list to buy. You can check out the product here.
Valslide Mountain Climber again this is another product I must buy, portable and inexpensive, great for on-the-road workouts. This would be a great exercise to do as Tabata or 30:30 splits.
Stability Ball Mountain Climber this comes from a great video from Craig Ballantyne at Turbulence Training. 6 minutes ab workout without a single crunch in site. This exercise doesn't look as challenging as it feels - try to cheat on this exercise and you will just fall off the ball.
Cross Body Mountain Climber I use this exercise loads in my workouts - I normally time myself to see how many reps I can do in 1 or 2 minutes.
Let me know if any of this work for you. Or do you have any other favourite Mountain Climber exercises?
Great post Amanda! I agree crunches aren't effective for proper core training but also can make back problems even worse (upper cross syndrome).
ReplyDeleteAll these exercises are awesome. You can also put many of these on a BOSU to add an element of instability and difficulty.
Down with crunches!
Jane www.urbanfitt.com