The AB Workout Ben Lucas Swears By

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Ben Lucas
, is the owner of Flow Athletic, a NY style boutique gym based in the heart of Sydney.

Ben has been in the fitness industry for over 11 years and prior to being a gym owner, he player NRL for the Sharks.

This is a great core workout that requires no equipment. You may want a mat to keep your back comfortable however.

How it works, is that you do each exercise for a minute, then you take a 20 second break.

The exercises should be done in a slow and controlled manner. You want to keep your core engaged the entire time so doing these exercises quickly generally won’t be as effective for what we are trying to achieve.

Do 4 sets of each pair of exercises before moving onto the next one.

Crunch with a hold
Dead Bug
X 4 sets

Russian Twists
V Snaps
X 4 sets

Slow Bicycle Crunch
Slow Mountain Climber
X 4 sets

Side Plank with Hip Tap
Rocking Plank
X 4 Sets

Finish with 1 minute of half burpees

Crunch with Hold

  • Lie on your back with your feet flat on the floor
  • Hold your arms up in the air with your thumbs locked. When you go up into the crunch stretch up as if your fingertips are trying to touch the ceiling
  • Such your stomach in and crunch up, getting your shoulder blades off the floor and reaching your fingers towards the roof
  • Hold for 2-3 seconds and return to repeat

Dead Bug

  • Lie on your back with your feet bent in the air at 90 degrees. Put your hands up toward the roof
  • Not lower the right foot to the floor and move the left arm overhead toward the back of the room
  • Raise them back to starting position and do the same movement on the other side
  • If you want to make this tougher, you can straighten your leg when you lower it to the ground and just hover it above the floor, don’t let it rest

Russian Twist

  • Sit on the mat with your legs bent in front of you. If you have access to a medicine ball, kettle bell or a dumbbell hold it in front of your chest with both hands
  • Now lean back slightly until you feel your abs engage
  • Twist your torso to the right with your weight of choice (or just your hands), tap it to the ground next to your hip, then twist back to starting position
  • Do the same on the other side
  • To make this harder, lift your feet on the ground. It will force you to suck in your core for balance

V Snap

  • Lie on your back with your arms stretched out above your head and your legs stretched out in front of you
  • Slowly start to roll up from the mid spine, holding your arms strong above your head
  • As you start to come up, when you feel balanced, raise your feet up in the air with straight legs, meet your hands and feet in the middle
  • Hold for a second or two then slowly lower back down
  • If you struggle to do this with straight legs, you can also do this exercise with bent legs

Slow Bicycle Crunch

  • Lie on your back
  • Raise both feet from floor, with one knee in towards your chest and one leg outstretched
  • Place fingertips on temples
  • Raise upper torso from ground and bring opposite elbow to opposite knee
  • Keep upper torso elevated and rotate to other elbow + knee
  • Repeat by alternatin

Slow Mountain Climbers

  • Get into plank position with your hands on the floor directly under your shoulders, your stomach sucked in and your glutes squeezed tight. You should also be up on your toes
  • Tuck one leg into your chest, hold it for a second or two, then return it to plank and swap legs
  • Your weight should be placed on the balls of your feet

Side Plank with Hip Raise

  • Move into side plank position. Your forearm should be on the ground, with the elbow stacked beneath your shoulder. Your feet should be together balanced on top of each other. Suck your stomach in and push the side of your hip towards the roof to keep your hips up
  • If this is too challenging, you an put a knee down for balance
  • Lower the bottom hip to the floor, tap it and push it back up
  • You can either do 30 seconds on each side OR stick with one side for a minute and in the next set, switch to the other side

Rocking Plank

  • Start on your knees with your forearms on the ground and ensure that your elbows are stacked under your shoulder, this will help with your stability
  • Now straighten your legs so your body is being help up by your arms and your feet
  • Engage your core, squeeze your glutes
  • No rock your body forward an inch, hold it, and rock it back an inch, hold it

Half Burpees

I love to finish a workout with a little cardio HIIT. You only need to do this exercise for 1 minute, but if you want to do a few more rounds be my guest.

  • Start in plank position
  • Jump both feet in towards your hands, land on flat feet if you can
  • Kick them back out into plank
  • That is one rep

 

www.flowathletic.com.au

https://www.instagram.com/ben_lucas1/

https://www.instagram.com/flowathletic/

 

 

 

About the author

Carrie is the Founder of Daily Addict. She's an uncanny ability to uncover social experiences and must-have things that interest and inspire. Consider her your go-to-lady (you have on speed dial) to reveal the lesser-known gems compelling you to get more out of life.

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