Abs are made in the kitchen

The term “abs are made in the kitchen” is an absolute truth and the main reason that I very rarely (if ever) specifically trained my abs when I was bodybuilding.  I figured that if I got lean enough they would just be there – and they were.   Sure they may not have been particularly “useful” back then, but boy they looked good. 😉

These days, my goal is to be a stronger and more proficient human being so that I can hoist young children (my own of course) up to high bars so they can clamber across like monkeys.  As such, I train far more functional movements than I ever have previously.  I squat, I pick heavy things up off the floor and hoist them above my head, I crawl, I jump and at times I even run ..

As such I tend to do far more core work just as a by product of the way I train than I ever did when I specifically trained my midsection and although my abs are “slightly” more padded these days, my core strength far exceeds that of my previously pretty set.  I’ve also noticed that the increase in my core strength has a direct coloration to strength increases in other facets of training , in short if you get stronger in your core you’ll become stronger overall, which is handy as those kids who require hoisting up high aren’t getting any lighter!

These days, although I still avoid the “dreaded” crunches I have found that you can make training your core quite fun!  Just grab a couple of pieces of plastic and slip and slide your way to a stronger and probably more defined midsection if unlike me you can decrease your consumption of dessert. 😉

You don’t even need heavy sheets of plastic like the ones I’m using in the video, you could definitely find something around the house that would work in just the same way – a couple of paper plates, a couple of placemats (even the ones with cork backing would work, just flip the shiny side down and stand on the corked side) or you could just take off your shoes and slide in your socks, however I’ve found that although it’s relatively easy to slide forwards when wearing socks it’s quite hard to push back again and you end up doing baby steps instead.

The beauty of training like this is that you don’t need very much space AND it’s something that the kids would love to get involved in too – plank races anyone?

Till next time