The Best Ab Exercise You're Not Doing

“Summer” has long been synonymous with “beach body,” and rightly so. It’s the one season in which we can show off, without showing off, all the hard work we’ve put in over the winter months perfecting our physiques. The one body part that defines whether a body is beach-ready or not is the abs.

In the quest for abs of steel, the exercises that are regarded as absolute must-dos are generally crunches, sit-ups, leg raises, and all their respective variations. But what if I told you there was one exercise that trumps them all? One exercise that recruits the abs and obliques, and requires a great deal of core and upper body strength just to perform the exercise in the first place? Well, there is.

Your One-Stop Shop for an Impressive Midsection

“Windshield wipers” are a combination of a hanging leg raise and a Russian twist. This exercise thoroughly works all of the muscles that define a well-developed core. To perform this exercise, you’re going to need a chin-up bar, or anything strong enough to support your weight, and then some, as the momentum generated during the exercise will magnify the amount of resistance felt on the supporting structure.

Before getting started, you must possess, at the very minimum, enough strength to hang from a bar and bring your feet up to the bar while holding your torso parallel with the floor. As far as grip positioning is concerned, overhand, underhand, palms facing, or anything in between will suffice; find what works best for you (what works best is the grip that allows you to maintain stability of your upper body so that your lower body can perform the movement).

With your feet pointing towards the ceiling and your upper body parallel to the floor, initiate the movement by rotating your legs to the right side and forming what would appear to look like the letter “L” to anyone standing directly behind you. Reverse the movement by using the strength of your core as well as your upper body to bring your legs back across the starting position and follow through to rotate your legs to the opposite side. (Note: You don’t have to rotate to the right first; it’s just easier to explain it that way through written text when comparing body alignment in the end range to the letter “L.”)

Use the muscles of the core to decelerate the legs when rotating from side to side, and to reverse the movement in the opposite direction.

Progressions

Because this exercises requires a great deal of grip strength, upper body strength, and core strength, it’s nearly impossible for most people to do on the first try. Therefore, efforts spent improving grip strength and endurance (specifically, the ability to hang from a bar for a sustained period of time) and upper body strength and endurance (specifically, the ability to pull yourself up multiple times) are of paramount importance. If you can’t hang from a bar or pull yourself up, then your focus should be on that before ever expecting to raise your legs up to the bar and swing them back and forth.

Once you can hang and pull yourself up, begin to work on performing full-range leg raises, going from a full hang to holding your upper body parallel to the floor with your toes pointing towards the ceiling. Once this is mastered, you can begin to add the rotational element to the movement with the knees tucked (to shorten the lever length). As you become more comfortable performing the movement and your strength and endurance improves, you can begin to lengthen the lever by extending your legs and performing the absolute best core exercise there is—“windshield wipers.”

Ben Halsall, Strength Coach
PARAMOUNT TRAINING
416.669.5549
www.paramounttraining.ca