How to Sculpt Your Abs with Finishers
How to Sculpt Your Abs with Finishers
One of my clients who has been with me for a long time actually showed me one of her programs that I wrote when we first started years ago.
Honestly, I was embarrassed. For one thing, everything seemed to be 15 reps. But worse, her ab exercises were crunches and stability ball crunches…. yep, you guessed it – 15 reps.
But that was before I learned what I now know. Fitness training has constantly evolved and I feel it is my duty as a trainer to stay on top of things so I can help my clients as much as possible. When I first started, I even prescribed more cardio. Oops.
But much like I learned as I evolved as a trainer, I also learned along the way as I lost 105 lbs. We make mistakes and we learn how to improve. Thankfully, I learned more effective ways to sculpt your abs including some of the newer methods like the Stability Ball Stir-the-Pot exercise, as well use intervals and or metabolic ab finishers instead of cardio.
One question that pops up in my inbox as well as on my blog is, “How do you come up with these metabolic finishers?”. The truth is, sometimes they come out of nowhere. I always keep a sheet of paper in my pocket or I use my Evernote app on my phone when an idea hits me. It drives my wife nuts and for some reason, I find that funny.
One thing I wanted to accomplish was to figure out how to work the abs with the most effective ab-sculpting exercises, but in a finisher method fashion. For example, the Stability Ball Stir-the-Pot exercise is quite demanding, but hey, it’s not like doing Jump Squats.
But if we combine calorie-expensive moves, along with proper ab-sculpting exercises, you can have what I call an “Ab Finisher”.
Let’s do one:
Do the following circuit one time
1) Spiderman Pullups (3 per side)
2) KB Snatch (10 per side)
3) Spiderman Pushup Plank (20 secs per side) – this is one of the new exercises that came out of nowhere by the way. You simply hold the bent leg out at the bottom of a Spiderman Pushup, embracing your abs, then switch sides and repeat
4) Bodweight Narrow Stance Squats (20)
5) Spiderman Climb (10 per side)
6) KB Swings (30)
Rest, followed by a self fist pump (no one is watching, I promise)
That’s chaotic and awesome, sure. But you also kept your heart rate up, burned more fat and sculpted your six-pack abs simultaneously. Now that’s efficient. Better yet, your body will burn more calories in hours and hours to come.
That was the whole idea behind using ab finishers with my clients, especially those that wanted to chisel their abs before a big event like a wedding, but didn’t have much time. I knew that finishers were the way to go, and I knew the best ab exercises to use without hurting their back and neck. I just needed a way to combine the two. That’s when the experimentation began.
The good news – metabolic Ab Finishers work awesomely (that’s a word – look it up) to blast fat in a really short time and will sculpt your abs
The bad news – they are not easy and are very demanding. They challenge you mentally and physically, much like workout B in Craig’s Metabolic Resistance Training program (that one gets me every time).
But if I were to give you a template on how to shed fat really fast and sculpt your abs before your next big event, it would be like this:
● Nutrition – Create a calorie deficit by consuming whole, natural foods (eliminate the junk and alcohol) and I’m a fan of intermittent fasting
● Workout Program – a structured Turbulence Training program and aim to beat 1-2 previous bests at each workout (for example, if you did 8 DB rows with a 60 lb DB last week, see if you can nail 8 with a 65 lb DB next time).
● Follow each workout with a Metabolic Ab Finisher
● Stay active on your off days by going for a walk, a light jog or even playing with your kids or dog. This has more to do with your mentality, but it won’t hurt to burn some more calories either.
● Most importantly – create a successful environment. In other words, if it’s in the house, you’re going to eat it. Throw it away.
The above will give you a lethal combination of finishing off belly fat for good. But don’t miss a step. It’s all about the combination (kinda’ like a metabolic finisher combined with the right ab exercises).
Ohhhh snap! What an epic way to wrap it up. Then again, I ruined it by typing this. So close… so very, very close.
Boom goes the ab-sculpting dynamite,
Mike Whitfield, CTT