Improving Stomach and Core Muscles No 19 - Side Core Muscles

Stomach and core muscles are probably one of the most important muscles we have for supporting our martial art training:

1. They are an important part of our body-core maneuverability.

2. A main component as our core stabilizer.

3. Important for protecting our internal organs against body blows.

There are many ways to improve and train our stomach muscles, in the upcoming articles we will go over some of them.

Drill:

We put our legs on something which is a bit high like a bench, chair or, something else. We turn to the side and hold our body weight on one of our hand or elbow. We then allow our body to curve downwards and then straighten it out. We then let our body curve back down, and by that completing one "straight up".

Tips:

1. The amount of sets, their duration and the height level which our stomach is kept off the ground, should be decided upon according to our abilities and endurance level both (mentally and physically).

2. This exercise helps strengthen our side muscles. Which are normally not trained with a large amount of weight.

3. It is important not to allow our body to over bend towards the floor, so that we don’t over extend and cause injury.

4. Of course it is important to switch sides and train them both equally. We can train the muscles in a plyometric way (scroll down until you find the plyometric section), letting our body to curve down quickly and then straightening it out just as fast.

Enjoy the Sweat

The Warriors Project