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First off, if you are a bodybuilder trying to gain denser muscle, you know you have to do the heavy compound lifts as a base for your training. No one gets a huge back without deadlifts or pulldowns. Big legs come from big weight squats or sumo deads, and a large full chest there has to be a heavy press involved. But what if you’ve hit a plateau on strength? My first order of business is always finding the weakest link in the chain. You’re only as strong as your weakest link.
A lot of people think of core training as abdominal training, but it’s much more than that, you have to hit the deep stabilizer muscles of the body that support the spine. Having incredibly strong abs that over power hip extension can wreck havoc on your squat strength. Having equally as strong quadratus lumborum , spinal erectors, gluteus medius and transverse abdominal muscles will make your squat incredibly better.
You don’t have to spend the day on a stability ball or a balance beam. Here are two incredible exercises that you can use with kettlebells or dumbbells to really strengthen your core/torso that hit all planes of movement.
1. Kettlebell Windmill= You can start with light or no weight until this becomes habit. First, extend a kettelbell or dumbbell overhead in a locked out position. Your arm stays extended throughout the move. There are a few ways to do this but I like the lateral variation to start. If the bell is in your right arm, point your toes to the left a bit. Keeping your right hip under the bell, slide your left hand down your left leg to the floor while flexing laterally to the left at your hip. Maintain eye contact on the bell above as you keep it straight to the ceiling. Knees can be slightly bent, until you get more flexibility in hamstrings, adductors and glutes.
Slowly return to the starting position. Repeat 3-5 times on each arm.
This exercise gives your great hip strength in a range of motion you may not be familiar with, allowing the torso/core to get stronger on other planes other than foreward flexion and extension.
2. Renegade Row= Many of you may be familiar with this one. Start with a Kettlebell or dumbbell in each hand. Put them close together on the floor and sprawl out into a plank. Tighten your torso as if to expect a punch in the stomach, (do not suck in as this makes you weaker) and row one weight as you hold yourself up on the other arm. Alternate rows. There are many ways of making this tougher but I’ll leave that up to you. I like doing sets of 20 alternating rows. This is great for the shoulder and rotational core strength.
I usually throw the renegade row as a finishing exercise on my back day. I’ve worked up to using two 106 lb kettlebells with great form; my abs were killing me as well as rhomboids, pecs and shoulders.
The windmill exercise I use on recovery or stretching days with light weight, or on leg day at the beginning with heavy weight. I’ve worked up to a few reps holding a 79 lb Kettlebell overhead and two 61 lb kettles in the bottom hand for a total of 201 lb on the hips/core/ torso area. Very sore, very deep but it’s been making me very strong for the basic muscle building lifts for bodybuilding/ strength gaining.
Remember start out light and work your way up as you can get injured easily if you don’t have good form on these exercises. See? Core training doesn’t have to be a bore.
Until next time,
Joe Daniels
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