

You’ll create an eccentric challenge as you lower your torso down on the ground, which creates control at every segment of your back.

You’ll be working to stretch the lower back, which can get tight after compensating for other weak spots in the body. Cavaliere suggests using a combined weight that equals about a quarter of your body weight, but you’d be better off starting out with whatever weight you can handle, then working your way up. The goal is to force your abs to bring stability to the position to keep the weights steady while you walk. “Any time we elongate our body, we’re creating an instability of our entire body,” he says.

“You should think about trying to contract each row of the abs.”Ĭavaliere’s choice for a total body move is the dumbbell overhead carry. “When we come out of this, every single contraction should be purposeful,” says Cavaliere. With this move, when you lay in an elongated manner over the physio ball, you’ll get an exaggerated stretch on your abs that you then have to come through. Most ab exercises are done on the floor, meaning you never go past a neutral position. Hypertrophyįor hypertrophy, the best dumbbell move is the slow, weighted levitation crunch. “There’s coordination and synchronisation of the lower and top half, and more importantly, there’s the overcoming of an external load with speed,” says Cavaliere. The timed movement of both the upper and lower body means that the abs are placed on a rotational stretch in every rep. The move which Cavaliere recommends for power is the dumbbell twisting toe tap. Anchor yourself to something fixed while lying on your back, place the dumbbell between your feet, and try to lift the pelvis up and extend your legs out. Doing this without the assistance of your legs makes your ab muscles do all of the work.Ĭonversely, you can try a dragon thrust, which works the same muscle group, but from the opposite direction. “The only challenge is to get up into a high sitting position, and then lower yourself down in controllably,” says the trainer. The one arm Otis-up is a no-momentum move that’s great for building strength, according to Caveliere.
