Anti Rotational Exercises

Strong abs means a healthy low back.  But you always want to train safely.  Read this to learn how you should train your body.



Why should you try anti rotational exercises?

First of all, what are anti-rotational exercises?   

They are exercises where your side of your abs have to work as a stabilizer to maintain the neutral spine position.   Examples would be pallof press, plank with some movement.

Those exercises are the best choice to train the side of the abs which are obliques.  Why ? Oblique’s functions are spine rotation and spine lateral flexion.   These are not favorable for spine health. However, by doing anti rotational exercises, you will maintain the spine neutral and train oblique muscles.

Neutral spine position



Single arm Chest press

If you want to try something different from bench press / double arm chest press, try single arm chest press. Try with feet on the bench.  That way, your obliques have to work hard to maintain the position.



Don’t hold the bench

sa_chest_Press_personal_training

You are doing this to train your pec, triceps and “the ab muscles”.  Let the muscles work.  Holding the bench makes this exercise easy but kills the purpose of doing a single arm. 



Keep the knees at the center

sa_chset_press2_personal_training
knees not center
sa_chset_press3_personal_training
knees aligned with whole body

This also makes the exercise easy but you will know your ab muscles will work less. Again let ab muscles work.  If you can’t maintain the knee straight to the ceiling, the weight you are lifting is too heavy.  Drop some weight to start with.



Learn some other exercies here