This is what you can do in the gym, Part III, Core and more

We’re back you guys! If you’re just getting hooked onto this series, welcome! This month is all about building up an arsenal of ideas for you to use at the gym so you don’t ever have to feel like you “Don’t know what to do” ever again!

This series, “This is what you can do in the gym” takes place over the next month and in each part I will share with you different exercise pairings that you can use to create your own program design. I want you to walk into a gym and actually feel like you know what you are doing!

In Part I of this series, I showed you two Push pull combos. If you missed them, go here to get caught up!

In Part II, I shared two Upper lower body splits. If you missed those also, go here to get caught up!

Today the majority of our exercises have a primary core focus. In one of the videos I talk about what parts of your body your “core” actually includes. (hint: it’s not just your abs) While some exercises involve core work as the primary focus, know that pretty much every exercise you do involves core engagement if you’re doing them properly.

Direct core work is going to focus on one of two things; anti-extension or anti-rotation. In today’s segment we’ll train for both. By performing direct core work, you can build up better overall strength, awareness and stabilization. That way, when you’re doing other exercises, you can keep those same two principles intact while moving through various movements, in various planes of motion, and with a variety of challenging loads.

And if you just want a strong, lean mid section, these can help with that too, provided your DIET is also aligned with your goals.

If you’re also looking to get your diet in check for 2018, I recommend you check out my video series, 7 Tips for Successful Weight Loss. These 7 videos are only 5 – 10 minutes each and they contain all the information you need to lose fat, build muscle, and build the body you want. Go here to watch them.

In our first two segments we also touched on the important topics of Reps and Sets (what are those, anyway?) and Recovery between Sets (depending on your goals, the rest time you take will vary). To learn more about those topics go here and here.

Core and more

Today’s first pair of exercises includes Ab wheel roll outs and Barbell glute bridges. You can alternate these. The ab wheel roll outs train anti extension and they are very challenging. They also elicit a lot of soreness for most people so don’t do a lot of reps your first time. If you’ve never done ab wheel roll outs before, I strongly recommend that you read my article Perform ab wheel roll outs the RIGHT way and watch the video I include with the article. Go here.

Barbell glute bridge primarily works the glutes so it makes a great pairing with the roll outs. Plus, they’re both done on the floor so you can just lay there while you rest between sets. So there’s that…

Enough said. Let’s watch the video, shall we?

Our second video shows another great core exercise, Anti rotation hold with Overhead press and another bridge variation that works the hamstrings. The Anti rotation hold/overhead press trains both anti rotation and anti extension. The bridge variation trains your core as well but really hits the hamstrings.

These also make a great pair and you can alternate them with rest breaks between each one. The Glute bridge with eccentric hamstring slides is another exercise that can bring on a LOT of muscle soreness so I recommend the less is more approach for reps the first time you do them.

Here’s the videos: (my camera shut off on the first take so watch part II for the finish)