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Happy Monday OTA.

Hope you guys had a great weekend.

Mine has been full of travel. Saturday morning I woke up at 4 a.m. to catch a flight bright and early with E and Danny.

We traveled to L.A. for a meeting with a consultant that’s going to help us along our journey to expanding Strength Camp Gyms around the world.

Things are getting pretty serious around here.

Only great things to come.

Anyways in today’s email I wanted to discuss my approach to core training for athletes. This was a perfect topic to transition into right after OTA’s launch of Athletic Strength Formula.

ASF is my latest strength training routine that has been helping my athletes develop brute strength faster than ever before.

Using a program like that, coupled with an understanding of how to train your core, can really benefit your athleticism.

You see most core training you find on the internet isn’t focused on improving an athlete’s performance. 99% of the time it’s to develop that 6-pack look. And we all know what that looks like.

Countless crunches with lengthy plank holds.

But you see, they’re missing part of the puzzle. They’re only working half of what the core actually needs.

When designing your own core training routine concentrate on these types of movements.

Flexion

Extension

Rotation

I don’t care whether you hit these movements multiple times a week. All that matters is hitting them a minimum of once a week.

Now, don’t go overboard and do them every day.

You’ll still want to make sure you properly recover from each workout.

Your abdominals are just like any other muscle on your body. Recovery is key if you want to improve without hitting a wall.

Update: I have a free Advanced Strength Series. Learn how to start increasing your speed

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So an example workout would like something like this:

MondayFlexion

1a. Lying or Hanging Leg Raise – 2-3×10-20

1b. Cable Crunches – 2-3×25

WednesdayExtension

1a. Superman Holds – 2-3x 30-60 seconds

1b. Reverse Hypers or Back extensions – 2-3×10-20

FridayRotation

1a. MB Side Toss – 2-3×10 (each side)

1b. Wood Choppers – 2-3×10-15 (each side)

Remember you can substitute any exercise in replace of the ones above. I recommend changing the exercises every 4-6 weeks.

Now, let’s say I had a couple of months of training with an athlete before their season or event started. This would typically be an offseason of some sort. If this was the case, or if you’re new to training, I would structure the core training a bit differently.

There’s a certain progression that I like to use when training athletes for a longer duration or if they’re new.

The progression being; stabilization into integration.

What does this mean exactly?

Basically, you’ll want to use 4-6 week blocks to concentrate on specific exercises that still use flexion, extension, and rotational movements, but also has a stability component to it.

And as progression occurs you’ll movement into integration.

So what does this look like?

Month 1 – Stability

Day 1: Flexion

1a. Lying/Hanging Leg Raise – 2-3×10-15

1b. L-sits – 2-3×20-60 seconds

Day 2: Extension

1a. Band Good Mornings –  2-3×10-20

1b. Superman Holds – 2-3×30-60 seconds

Day 3: Rotation

1a. Pallof Press – 2-3×10-20

1b. Landmine Rotation – 2-3×10

Month 2 – Integration

Day 1: Flexion

1. V-ups (w/ light medicine ball) – 2-3×8-10

Day 2: Extension

1. Good morning (into a squat) – 2-3×8-10

Day 3: Rotation

1. Reverse Lunge with a twist – 2-3×8

Hope that helps you guys. If you have any questions drop them in the comments below.

Holler,

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Update: I have a free Advanced Strength Series. Learn how to start increasing your speed

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overtimeathletes
overtimeathletes

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